Leap Behaviour

[emvy]

DS is 4 months and is currently in the forth leap. Night wakings are frequent but always have been, it’s more the daytime naps and other behaviours that I’m interested in. Mainly, that I suddenly can’t put him down to sleep anymore. He got to a point where he was able to stay asleep after nursing to sleep, once being transferred to his crib, but we now seem to have gone backwards. It seems however deeply asleep he appears, or how long I wait before putting him down, he will wake he second his bottom hits the mattress.

Also, he seems to sleep much more deeply in the daytime but at night, we seem to have to creep about like ninjas in order to avoid waking him up.

I’m aware that nothing is ever set in stone with babies (and children!) and that just as you find your feet, you get the rug pulled from under you, but does this sound like leap behaviour to you? Will these issues sort themselves out once the leap is over?

Thanks

Yup! Welcome to leap 4 🙈🙈 we have it the other way with deep sleep at night but naps are a friggin nightmare.
Every nap is a battle and he will only go down if I rock or rock him in the pram, I choose the latter.
Husband has been off today so naps went out the window which meant bedtime was basically hell. Dreading the 1.30am and 4am wakings but can't seem to sleep if I go to bed early.
Don't want to wish the time away but I am soooooooo tired!

I made it through leap 4 now I'm in the 4 month sleep regression! DS sleeps okay at night but getting him down for more than 20-30minutes at a time during the day? Mission impossible!

We never really recovered from leap four till about 18mths old. I still have to nurse to sleep now at nearly 4yrs and we still have 2/3 night wakings. We co-sleep though which helps for the tiredness

It does sound like leap behaviour but so much happens developmentally that I'm not sure it'll just ping back without a little help once leap 4 and 5 (both huge leaps in terms of development).
What is the sleep environment like? The room should be blackout dark if you can manage it, I use blinds that Velcro to the window frame so no light leaks in.
Do you use white noise? It's a godsend for drowning out noises while you get on with things after baby bedtime. We set it so it's as loud as heavy rain on a roof then turn it down when we go to bed.
Is baby in a sleeping bag? What is the temperature of the room? Does baby self settle or do you feed/rock to sleep? How much day time sleep does he have?

Try to have a set routine for each sleep - ie check nappy, put in sleeping bag, close blinds, sing a song then put down to create positive sleep associations so he knows it's bed time.

Thanks all.

Papillion86, I’d be satisfied with 2 wake ups a night! We are, and always have been, on 4 a night. So. Frickin’. Exhausted. Also can’t sleep if I go to bed too early and DS’s first wake up is between 10 and 11 anyway so what would even be the point?! Ha.

WooYa, the regression came AFTER the leap?! Oh Jesus! we had a week of waking every 45 minutes to an hour and thought maybe we’d got away with it and that would be the regression done... maybe not then!

chocolateaddicted, 4 years?! Oh gosh you poor thing! I can see where the username has come from! We’re also cosleeping but was hoping to move him to his own room at 6 months (if I can actually get him down in his own bed that is)!

stuckficks, thanks. I’m up for doing whatever needs to be done if he needs some help getting back to old good habits. Except for CIO! Our sleep environment is as you describe - dark (although not completely as he will nap out and about sometimes and our blackouts let light in around the edge), loud white noise, baby is nursed to sleep. Room temp doesn’t drop below about 24 degrees at the moment which I know isn’t ideal but it’s impossible to get it cooler with this warmer weather we’ve had! He has a sleeping bag at night but I worry about him overheating in the day so if it’s cooler I usually just cover him with a blanket. Do you think it’s worth giving him his sleeping bag for daytime naps too? We have a routine of sing a song, story, feed, sleep if we’re at home. He has about 2-3 hours daytime sleep and 12 hours (ish) overnight.

Leap 4 and 5 are merging for me. I’ve tried blackouts/noise/no noise/blanket/crib/pram/feed or rock to sleep. It honestly varies day to day what works. Some days and nights are worse than others. I survive by cosleeping and eating a lot of biscuits. Do what you can to get through and fingers crossed it gets better.

@emvy totally agree! Last night was a classic 'I'll try and go to bed early' but my idiot husband decided to come up just after I'd dropped off to ask if he should dream feed DS 😡 we then had 7!!! Wake ups😴 to say I'm a zombie today is an under statement!

Papillion86, that sounds horrific! SEVEN wake ups?! Oh god . Sending you all the strength (and ) today! We had 5 last night.

I’m currently lying on the bed trying to feed DS off to sleep for a nap. He was absolutely flat out in my arms, put him down, he startled 10 seconds later and then was awake . Why do they suddenly start startling themselves awake again?!