Baby hit 20 weeks and stopped sleeping through the night! help?!

[Samila]

Hi all

My baby just turned 20 weeks and as of the 8 week mark was sleeping roughly 10 hour stretches at night - although he would need rocking or feeding to sleep (not the best habits I know!). he would eventually fall asleep roughly at the same time every eve and we knew we were in for a good 10 hour stretch.

However, since he hit the 20 week mark his sleep patterns have reverted back to that of a newborn - he won't sleep at night for longer than 30 mins at a time and wakes up crying. Before that when he woke from 10 hour stretches he woke up fairly happy and content and wouldn't cry straight away and quite happily play in his cot.

He does seem to be teething too (we can see the small two front teeth appear) but when he wakes he doesn't seem to be in pain as such - just wanting a cuddle like he is scared of being in his cot or perhaps its separation anxiety.

We are at our wits end with no sleep and it's hard as he has gone from being a good sleeper to barely sleeping at all. He looks shattered through the day as are we.

If this is the 4 month regression what do we need to be doing in terms of sleep training?

Any helpful tips or advice much appreciated!! I hope that this too will pass! X

I have one of them. I've got no advice only sympathy because at 18 months she's still a terrible sleeper.
Even though she started sleeping through at 6 weeks and then stopped.

I don’t think there’s a one size fits all approach to it. We entered the regression early and have just come out of it in the last week or so (about 6 weeks in total). I just fed back to sleep, and did a lot of co-sleeping. We’re back to where we were before, though our ‘before’ was two wake ups in the night and nowhere near as good as yours.

There is no rhyme nor reason to baby sleep, sorry!

Look up the 4 months sleep regression (ours also hit around the 5 month/20 week mark) - totally normal although very tough. Baby sleep goes up and down for the first year it doesn’t just gradually improve x

Try a dummy instead of feeding to sleep.

Try bouncing baby to sleep in a bouncy chair in the daytime.

Limit daytime awake time to about an hour, never longer than 90mins awake in one go

DD started waking again at around this point, we decided she was hungry and started to wean her, job done, Yes it was earlier than the 6 month advice they were giving at the time but it worked for her. Back she went to sleeping through the night

@choccyjules I'm thinking this too

They used to Advise weaning at 4 months any way...i did with my first and that's when she started sleeping through

My eldest is 13 and advice then was wean at 6 months. The companies that make baby food have forever said the first purees are from 4 months. That's just because the longer you use their products for, the more profit they make.

It is easier to increase calories by giving baby more milk. Early weaning foods tend to be lower calorie food and harder to digest. Baby is likely to be less hungry simply by having more milk in had daytime.

But my baby won't drink more than her 6oz so I can't increase her milk
I'm not getting into a whole weaning debate though.

Ugh the regression. It sucked. Was over the winter months like yours and it felt never ending. It did end around month 8 (!!!) and was significantly improved by not feeding to sleep/putting down awake for naps/in his own room - none of which I did before 6/7 months. I used to dread the night times frankly.

Those would be your first three focuses though, as in, if you can get to those points I would say they definitely help to improve self settling at an earlier age. Four months is a little early, but if you can get a content baby to fall asleep without you holding them around 5/6 months, it makes the world of difference.

Weaning actually set us back - the digestive habits of a baby changes and they start to digest things differently cue wind and unsettled stomachs (no matter how late you leave it, a weaned baby is always going to have to adapt from a life of pure milk/formula). We found we had a decent period around 6 months and once weaning started it all went to shit again and he started night feeding. He stopped again around 8/9 months and was down to two feeds a day (morning/night) and 3 full meals. That's such a way off though but small steps count as you feel you're actively proactively doing something about it.

Short of that, it's riding it out. I didn't like the newborn/pre-6 month phase much as so much of the lions share was on me. Encouraging good sleeping habits and routine really did work wonders for us but my son is quite a routine led baby (like his Mum?). Not all babies will adapt instantly.

Best wishes, I was where you are at about a year ago so I sympathise!