Hi,
Our LO has gone from sleeping through the night (6-6.5 hours) and being generally content to waking up every 1-2 hours (some nights there is one longer 3-4 hour stretch but only now and then). This started almost a month ago and seemed to coincide with the start of teething (massaging gums, excessive drooling, crying often), as well as what I assume is Leap 4 (clingy, cranky and crying, and new skills have emerged) and 4 month sleep regression.
I honestly don’t even care anymore what is causing the awful lack of sleep, I just need it to end! Does it just switch back to normal one day??
For teething, we give teething powders a couple of times during the day when particularly upset and before bed (not convinced they do anything beyond reducing cheek redness). At night, it’s Anbesol before bed and once or twice more at 3+ hour intervals. Also started giving Ibuprofen, not that it resulted in longer sleep. How do you know if teething is the culprit of frequent wake ups? I really don’t want to medicate for no reason.
LO wakes up seemingly hungry, although I often think the feeds are for comfort.
I’ve tried:
-white noise for all naps and through the night at various volume levels
-darkened and quiet room
-long-sleeved babygros vs. short-sleeved vests under the swaddle bag;
-offering both breasts per feed or just one;
-trying formula before bed vs. just a breastfeed;
-moving bedtime to an earlier hour;
-making sure no overstimulation before bed;
-adjusting room temperature to around 18.5-19 deg;
-opening window/ closing window.
The frustrating thing is, our LO started sleeping through the night without any sleep training, must have just been ready, but now we are back to being a newborn!