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?!

Ok so now I'm after teething tips...anyone?! first teeth making their grand entrance I suspect. I can't put DD down. She's obviously in pain and is glued to me. she's just sobbing almost continuously and mouth is running like a tap

Hazel I think just give the cuddles no point upsetting further, and painkillers. I try to give calpol (which the madam spits out) she doesn't really need them during day though. Anyone else get the really bad nappies

ohh hazel poor DD
a friend told me that an ice cube in a damp flannel works really well.

Thanks for the tips! I've been enjoying lots of cuddles and we both took a nap together earlier I've given her a peeled raw carrot to chew on

To be honest I nodded off too

So last night was ok . Didn't get her down before 830pm without a few wake ups. For some reason she won't settle before . Any ideas why ? Her naps have been awful today and she has been very unsettled with fingers in mouth , teething I suspect ! She woke at 1am and 330am and then at 620am ( took her into bed until ds woke at 7ish). So I can see some improvement . I think tonight will be awful as she is so overtired . Had visitors all day ( which is why I have been quiet ) so this hasn't helped . Hope everyone has better night tonight !
DD currently asleep on my chest , I am to scared to put her down !

sycamore have you been consistent with bedtime? When I bought it forward too quickly DD struggled to settle- should have done it gradually when I look back! As you say, could it be that she's overtired? Or maybe too wired from your busy day? Mine has a bit of a meltdown if her day has been filled with too many people!

Having said this, lately my DD hasn't been keen on going down for the evening either, never had a problem up until now.

Oh and I read that during the regression you should bring bedtime forward a little, but as I said...I'd recommend a gradual shift such as 15 minutes every other day or something. DD used to go down about 9ish but now it's like 6.45. If it's a smooth process that gives me enough time to have dinner and watch the soaps with a cuppa..bliss!!

Hazel ,I think you have a good point , I have tried to bring it forward to quickly . And I do think she gets overtired . I really wish I could get her to nap better , it would really help with her brother too as he is much better behaved when he has some one to one time .
Enjoy the soaps. ! And good luck tonight x

Thank you, you too! If you've already moved it forward I wouldn't go moving it again- once I realised I did it too quick, to save DD more confusion, I just stuck with it and now she knows it's bed time at 6.45. It might just take her some getting used to the earlier time, my DD still thought it was nap time and would only go 30 mins before waking! Her naps are also crap, it seems typical of this age despite what you read about them only taking 3 or 4 long naps! DD has about 5x 30 min naps roughly every 1.5 hours!

Good luck tonight ladies and babies!

Hello ladies,

sorry ive not checked in, had a very busy couple days! Urghh! But have managed to persuade work to delaying my return until September yayy! Now I don't feel so pressured to sort out night times.

It definitely sounds like teething hazel, poor things, I think the only thing to do during these times is lots of cuddles.

sycamore, sorry to hear its still pretty rough, though the less night time wakings seems positive.

Things seem a little on the up here too - night time has been a little better. Less wakings, easier to settle and shes been in bed nearly 2 hrs and not woken like she usually does.

hazel, I think it was you who asked me how old DD is - 5 months now. Shes a hungry little monkey lately so I am weaning her now.

Hi mariloulou, that's great news about returning to work in Sept, you must be so relieved!

Ahh, my DD is 4 months tomorrow and is also a hungry munchkin...one day the other week she took 49oz in a day! Think it was due to a growth spurt but she's still a big eater, we're also starting weaning soon. Exciting! Hope you have a good night, will check in tomorrow!

So tonight we have beaten last nights bedtime, 10.30 last night, 9pm tonight can hear her coughing though, fingers crossed for me

I tried her on cows milk and she loves it, so no more sterilising for me.

Sorry to hear your DD is unsettled today sycamore did you get her down ok? I def brought bedtime forward too fast too, from 9.30 to 6.00-7.00 in one night!!! DD just went with it that 1st night so I carried on, but in hindsight it did bugger things up
Difficult isn't it, when you know they're overtired you just want them to get to sleep asap

That's good news mariloulou it has bought you some time to get sorted which must be a massive relief. Let us know how you get on with weaning... while I've been blubbing on the phone to my mum she keeps saying try it before 6 months, it might help with the sleeping...

Weirdly my DD eats less when she's going though these phases, her weight's still going up nicely but she's definitely not fussed about eating.

Only put her down 4x tonight!

Good luck!

Mariloulou , good news about your return to work being delayed, that is great.
Hazel, thx, good point re dd thinking it's nap time , she did call out half an hour later after going to bed at 630pm.
So , dd finally asleep and settled at 830pm and ds wakes up crying and saying he doesn't want to sleep on his own. Took me an hour to talk him into going to sleep and bribing him with a cup cake tomorrow ( I know I know but mummy exhausted ) . I think he has worked out I sleep in the nursery with Grace even though I have been keeping it a secret from him ( he never gets out of bed unless until we go in ).
Parenting ! So hard sometimes .
Fingers crossed we all get some recent sleep xx

Decent ! Bloody phone

Aww sycamore sounds like your DS deserves a cupcake

Well last night was....awful first wake up at 10:30 as DD was due a feed. She took about 3oz then fell asleep and wouldn't take anymore.

From there it must have been every hour or so and I didn't know when she was hungry as she didn't take much at each feed. All day yesterday she just snacked on about 3oz each time. Usually she takes ok average 7oz every 4 hours. I kept offering a bottle every couple of hours as I was worried she wasn't getting enough. But I lost count of how many times she was up last night, and it wasn't due to teething as she was fairly content. At 3.30am I woke to hear her chatting and it had been 3 hours since she last took a couple of oz so I offered the bottle in the hope she was hungry and would drift back off but not a chance. It took an hour of rocking to get her back off again...for an hour She wasn't happy to co-sleep and wasn't happy being still or me sat down. At the 4.30 mark I thought 'I can't do this anymore!'. She also did a wonderful poo during the night as well which really woke her up when I attempted to clean her up.

In other news, the cat threw up on the carpet this morning followed by a furball in the lounge and finally had a mad moment and was caught running like he was possessed with a turd still attached to his bum!! He whipped around the door so quick it caught the door frame leaving a lovely pooey mark and I then got to play Hunt the Poo which was sat in all its glory on the stair.

If this is a sample of how today is going to go then I'm going back to bed!!!

Hope everyone had a good night and by some miracle this regression ends soon for us all!!

sycamore and a cupcake for you too I hope!

missymoomoo that's great about the cow's milk! no more sterilising - yippee!

hazel! What's going on with these babies?! Things were ridiculous here last night and this morning, so sorry to hear it's crap for you too.
Pretty sure they're conspiring with the cats! Sorry, your story did make me snort a bit Our cat is usually so placid, but in the 1st few weeks of night wakings with DD she was doing all kinds of dirty protests from both ends and I really thought they were ganging up, there's only so much poo you can handle at 3am.

The snacking is so frustrating isn't it, no advice there as my DD does it 99% of the time. Just hope it's a one-off for you, or perhaps related to teething? Makes you feel like you're out of options when they won't even take the bottle.

I think I was up every hour / 1.5 hours before waking DH with my 4am mantra "I can't cope!"
Attempted the usual co-sleep at about 6.30 to squeeze another couple of hours out, usually goes down a treat, but today DD screamed and thrashed about for ages before falling asleep through sheer exhaustion, so that was nice and relaxing.

1st nap of the day has been a massive struggle, feel like I spend all my time rocking her in a dark room, can't wait to get out for a walk!

Hope everyone else is doing ok!

Oh sorry to hear about all the rough nights and the cat stress Hazel !
Well last night wasn't great . Woke at 1am for a feed and free at 3am and a few more times date that . It's all a bit of a blur last night , not sure wave happened after 3am but don't think I slept much as I am feeling pretty run over . My ds has been whining all day as he is shattered and has woken up dd twice when I have just got her off for a nap ( which took bloody ages )

A nice friends of mine text me to say my milk is obviously not enough for her and I need to switch to formula but you guys are having trouble also ? And she is gaining weight ok. She had a cows milk intollerence so formula is not going to taste very nice to her . What do you think ? She does feed little and often but doctors said i need to do that due to her silent reflux. I am feeling so tired and fed up and grumpy with my little boy ! So hard. Thankfully he is at nursery tomorrow so I will be co sleeping for naps ....

This bloody phone and predictive texts ! Sorry about all the typos ...

Sorry to hear voth of you had a crappy night

whereismy- yep, I'm sure the cat and DD have it in for me and are plotting their next move hahaha! How have the other naps been today? I get to the 4 am mark too and feel like I can't do it anymore, it's that time where you've been up all night and the next long day is nearly here

sycamore that sounds tough that can't be easy when you have a child who won't sleep as well as another LO. DD has reflux too but has always been a big eater, not a snacker. How has DD's other naps been today?

I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself after putting DD down for her first nap 1 hour 40 mins from wake up time for her to nap for 1 hour 15! Then again about 1 hour 40 later from wake up put her down again and she went another 1 hour 15! this is the baby who doesn't nap longer than 30 minutes! not sure if it's progress or just because she was knackered from last night. But every time it got to 25 mins I crept upstairs and put my hand on her belly as she began to stir and put the dummy back in (I hate the reintroduction of the dummy but needs must right now!). Then I had to pop out and was super quick so I could be back in time for her nap at home, I tried desperately to keep her awake but 1.5 hours from the last wake up and she was zonked in the car and had a crappy quick nap. Was hoping this is the start of nap consolidation but we'll see, she's due another nap in a minute so I'll try my tactic again!

Hmm sycamore I dunno about it being your milk tbh, I went from BF to FF at 4 weeks and sleep actually went downhill from that point! We tried soy formula recently in case the usual formula was causing a problem but no change (only the nappies, they were grim!)
I'm pretty clueless really but I'd say if her weight and nappies are fine then your milk must be enough? And with the reflux she's basically taking all she can, it's not like you can up the amount to knock her out - I think if I were you I'd stay with BF.
Hope you have a better night with DS too, must be so tiring, and I'm complaining with only 1!

Sounds like a pretty amazing nap day hazel, a shame to break the pattern but I wouldn't worry about the quick one too much, sounds like she's built up a good amount of sleep today - how'd the last one go? The hand on the tummy thing sounds like a go-er, I might try that from tomorrow. I reckon if the dummy's working just do it! Sleep is too precious!
I'm pretty sure I wailed 'my arms won't work' at DH at 4am

Took DD out in the pram today and she went 2.5 h without a nap as apparently the inside of the pram hood is pretty interesting. Then as we were seconds from home she crashed out so I had to loiter outside as the sound of the front door is guaranteed to wake her up! Still she only did 30 mins. She's down again now but we're still 1 nap down today so I might get away with an early bedtime...yikes just realised she's been asleep for 50 mins!

Christ the things you have to do to get a baby to nap huh?! the last nap was only 30 minutes as I decided to have a lye down too!

were any of you part of the witching hour club?! DD was but that stopped when her colic did. however it now seems to be back and nothing makes her happy of an evening at the moment. in order to calm her down and keep me sane I'm currently walking with her in the pram!! thought I'd do it for a laugh as I'm obviously not tired enough in the evenings

I'd definitely recommend the hand on tummy or chest or shoulder...or all if you're desperate! you have to be so careful lifting it off though it's ridiculous haha.

nothing is sorted for tea, I haven't showered so far today and the place looks like it hasn't been tidied in weeks. takeaway tonight I reckon!

Baby born 14th October. Sleep went to shit 17th February.

Sleep improved 2nd June. Still not through the night but only one waking. I weaned her onto formula, she got out of the comfort sucking habit, less need to cosleep, she's crawling like mad and cruising around furniture, I give her porridge before bedtime.

Alternately it was nothing I did, instead she just grew up a bit. I coped with it by actually napping whenever she did, using the carseat to get her to nap, wearing her a lot, cosleeping, feeding to sleep, drinking gin coffee.

Morning all,

Wow, that sucks...so your LO was around 8 months old? I don't know if I can do another 4 months of no sleep at all!

So it's 5:45 and DD has been up for 15 minutes. 7 wake ups last night. Starting to feel so shit about it now, I just don't sleep at night. I'm convinced it's something I'm doing wrong

I really feel that this is never going to end.

Hope everyone else had a better night.