4 month sleep regression- oh.my.god.

[hazel88]

So my DD has just hit the 4 month sleep regression hard. It sucks. It really sucks. for a short while she had been doing 6 hour chunks for the first part of the night followed by 1 or 2 wakings after. On the rare occasion she would just wake up once for a feed then that was it. BLISS. She's now waking up more times than I can count and I'm wondering if she'll ever sleep better again. I know about the 4 month sleep regression inside-out but would really appreciate experiences from others who have either gone through it or are going through it. I need some sanity restored...please?!

Hi ladies,

How has everyone's days been?

Penguin, sod the bastard trainee hv!!! Your doing a great job! Anyway I didn't know it was even possible to over feed a bf baby! Just ignore them. I have found all their advice useless to date.

Hope the cake turned out good hazel

Sycamore where do you get the muffins from?

Ds slept about 10 mins total today gp said nothing and prescribed coleif like that will do anything. Dm just came back and got ds to sleep straight away

Aside from my wobble following the baby clinic had a pretty good day. Good napping and DD went down well for bed....I think!

Whose birthday is it? Glad DD played ball and gave you time to make the cake!

Frustrating day Zombie. Does it drive you mad that your mum can get DS to sleep just like that or are you just glad that he will sleep? Re the doc, the older I get the more I realise how much of medicine seems to be educated guess - work! So they didn't have anything to say about whether they thought he was ill?

It sounds strange but I sometimes feel like he doesn't like me dm can settle him so quick.

H can't settle him but can make him
Smile just by looking at him.

I have to work to make him smile and can't settle him

Zombie I know exactly how you feel and how easy it is to get into that pattern of thinking, especially when they are being ahem 'challenging'. DD couldn't be more of a daddy's girl and I have said and thought similar things many times but of course your DS loves you! You are his mummy and his safe place and absolutely nothing could replace that.

Zombie - I read somewhere that babies are easy to settle for someone else because it's not mummy they are being parted from. They don't want to be parted from mummy as you are the one they love the most!
I get the muffins from sainsburys , aswell as milk free brownies , apple pies and other cakes . They have a great free from selection , a bit to good
Dd went to bed at 630pm but woke after half an hour. I has half an hour to give ds a story and cuddles and this made my day better! I love it when bedtime goes well and is not full of screams and meltdowns , shame she doesn't bloody stay asleep !
Does anyone use a sleepyhead ? Don't know whether to ditch it or not.

Penguin, it's my brother's. Luckily DD has had a bloody amazing nap day so that has enabled me to get lots done (none of which involved rest! )

Zombie I feed the exact same! I feel DD looks at me with a grumpy face alot of the time, but whenever anyone else, particularly Daddy, looks at her she's all smiles. I always feel that she doesn't like me, and she is such a Daddy's girl. Although it was only ever me who could settle her and would be the one she wanted to have lots of cuddles with, how the tables have turned! Her face lights up for Daddy and she's mad about him which I love but I swear she doesn't like me

Sycamore- could you try the cot? What have you got to lose?! We have 2 rolled up blankets in DD's, one either side of her. she sleeps better on her side and I tuck one around her back so it feels like she's being cuddled

Glad to know I'm not strange!

I shop at asda but their free from is crap! Or maybe I just don't know where to look! There's a sainsburys down the road though so I might have a look there

What about Holland and Barratt?

Lucky brother. Cough, it's my birthday too, cough ok it's not really but worth a shot

My DH drives me mad if I'm trying to feed DD and he's there because she's distractible enough anyway but if he's there forget it! She just cannot drag her eyes away from DADDY!!! And he loves it and encourages her!

Hahaha! The worst is when they get them wound up then bugger off- that's fine I'll deal with the aftermath

Ah no, your babies don't dislike you! You are super familiar, their lovely warm comfortable mummy. If you disappeared they would be bereft.

It's so easy to think this is because of something we have done, but it isn't! You know, I'll bet men would not be sitting around blaming themselves - we always feel so guilty and take things so much to heart....

Anyhow I am going to ruin everything but I think we might be turning a corner......??!

We have been doing formula at nights (DD previously EBF) and the NCSS technique of putting down sleepy but awake. Last night she only woke twice, and once I managed to settle her without feeding (boobs like Dolly Parton by morning!!). Tonight she went into her cot just about awake, I rubbed her tummy till she fell into a light sleep, and then scarpered without staying as I usually do to soothe her if she wakes. 45 min and not a peep so far!!

Zombie how are you? Sounds like it's been really tough on you recently.

Mari how is cc going?

That's great rp! Wish I can get the hang of this ncss! I'm okish, but have a few other things going on atm which is making everything so much harder to deal with!

Ds has woke up a few times, just making small noises I would usually run and settle him but I have left him and he has settled himself... That's a positive right?

Wow RP that is some amazing progress! Really hope it continues in the same vein and seriously !!

I don't understand it. For months now I have been putting DD down awake and barely intervening as she goes off to sleep by herself at nighttime and for naps. It seems to work like magic for everyone else but she still wakes loads. What am I doing wrong?

Tonight I am going to try offering water instead of milk. Pretty sure she will scream blue murder but at least I can say I've tried!

Zombie and RP well done!

Wishing everyone a good night

Well done Zombie that's brilliant. A fantastically positive first step.

Zombie that is great the point is you know he can and will settle,himself. He won't always of course but he CAN and that is massive.

DD been down since 8.20 ish and no sound so far. Going up to bed now....had a rare adult evening with DH with no call ups! Should really have got my arse to bed sooner to enjoy some sleep

Penguin I don't know. Maybe read thru NCSS and see if there is something else going on? Temp, not feeling cosy in bed, bad dreams, hunger? But I guess maybe NCSS and all methods don't work for all babies. We are going to persevere with NCSS till I go back to work and then buy Wedny Deane's book if we have not seen an improvement. Starting to cautiously hope that won't be necessary!

Garrrrrrrhhhhhhh!!

as I was typing that she woke up!!

at myself for jinxing!!

RP, Grrr I always jinx myself! I didn't believe it actually existed until we had DD and I said things like 'she's a good sleeper'!

Hope everyone had a good night?

Lots of wake ups here Although DD had an amazing nap day and ended up having about 4.5hours worth compared to her usual of no more than 3, I don't know if that made a difference but I can't bring myself to wake her from naps!! She didn't take much milk yesterday, she would have a few sips then push it away she ate fine though.

We're off to London today (with cake in the back of the car ) and I know all sleep will go out the window . Will be trying cc on our return as DD does so well with self-settling.

Argh still haven't packed, better bet a wriggle on!

Penguin it's so confusing isn't it how did the water go?

Rp, I think typing it curses it! Hope you had a good night in the end!

Hazel hope you have a nice time. How long of a drive is it? Maybe she will slew well in the car?

Well we had another good night. Ds only had about 3 wake ups and then one wake up for food. He slept until 4.30 for his food then slept until 6.30. I did the thing of patting his bum, which actually made him giggle

This morning he did a big dark green PPP though any ideas why?

Not sure I can help on the reason for the green poo Zombie but I think quite a range of colours is normal. DD's is often very orange on account of eating carrots!

What a brilliant night Zombie. So pleased for you. Looks like things are def going in the right direction for you. I hope the other things you are dealing with are not too serious.

Argh RP! I swear they listen out for when we say things are going well and secretly read what we type! Glad you had an evening uninterrupted with your DH before the first wake - sometimes you just need that time to yourselves. Hopefully the rest of the night followed the general positive trend.

Hazel how frustrating about the wakes. You have still made brilliant progress recently. Hope you have a fab time celebrating your brother's birthday and that the cake survives the journey unscathed!

We had a terrible night. 6 wakes but the worst part is that DH trying to help went in to settle DD and offer water on the second wake but then wouldn't hand her over to me when she got upset. I should have insisted immediately but she was screaming for over 20 minutes before I went in and insisted. He was holding and trying to comfort her all that time (although for some reason also felt that switching on the main light was a good idea ) but I feel absolutely awful for not being more assertive. She was so upset, as was I and it reinforced that cc is probably not for us. What really pisses me off is that I know he is trying to help but just the previous night I had gone through and agreed the gentle/gradual approach with him. One of the elements of that is that you try a change but if they get distressed you go back to a previous step and try again the next time.

Sorry you had a crap night penguin. I get very frustrated when h tries to step in as it just ends up 10 times worse! And as for switching the main light on .

Ds had. Nap of an hour and a half this morning but he's tired again now, maybe he's catching up on missed sleep from previous nights, but he started his screaming again so I have plonked him in his bean bag I front of the telly in the hope he drifts off bad parent but he has done before.