Preparing for 4 month sleep regression

[Serenrose]

My DD currently sleeps well at night but her naps are a nightmare. She is fast approaching 4 months and I'd like to try and get prepared for a possible regression in her sleep.

Does anyone have any tips on preparing for this?

Eg Should I start dummy weaning now? To get her sleep at the moment we use a dummy and stroke her head whilst saying "shush" and that usually works well at night but for daytime it's variable. I often end up taking her out of her cot during the day and cuddling her to try and get her to sleep. Should I try and get her sleep in her cot during the daytime now and does anyone have any tips on how to do this? She usually only naps for 30 mins at a time unless we are out in the car or pram.

It does not matter what you have done before it makes no difference during a sleep regression as everything is reset. Sorry!

I would definitely keep the dummy.

There is no preparing you can do. Whatever you try will be thrown out the window. Keep the dummy and prepare to do a lot of cuddling and rocking. I did a lot of co sleeping.

Don't stress too much, you are not writing any bad habits in stone. The first year is a minefield of sleep regressions and changes and it's not as crucial to get it "right" as to just get through it.

Definitely keep the dummy. And use at every single sleep time to make it a sleep association. Reaffirm that association by not using it when baby is awake/happy, only when getting baby to go to sleep.

Dummies are ace!

My dd is 8 months and I spent soooo much time fretting about the 4 month sleep regression...she seemingly skipped it, or it was at least not very noticeable. She's never been a great sleeper, and at the time was still waking for at least 2 feeds anyway.

Don't stress too much about it is my advice.

Hi everyone, thanks a lot for your responses. For some reason they've only just shown up now!

Thanks for the tip about the dummy. My worry was that I'd have to reinsert it whenever it fell out, has anyone experienced this? Perhaps I'm worrying over nothing!

Does anyone have any other ideas on developing sleep associations? I don't really have any at the moment other than a darkened room and placing her in the snuzpod for her daytime naps whenever possible. But is there anything I could do to signal 'nap time' before we get to the dark bedroom?

And thanks for the advice about not stressing too much etc. Useful to know!

Neither of my 2 girls had any noticable sleep regressions.
I wouldn't plan too hard for something you don't even know will actually happen!!!!

With the dummy I wait until DD was have been capable of putting it back in herself and let her play with it during none sleep time so she learnt to put it back in herself.

Dear God do not get rid of the dummy!!

We didn't notice big changes in DS's sleep at four months btw. It's not a big deal for every baby. I'm not saying we haven't had other issues with sleep, but we didn't have that particular issue to deal with.