4 month sleep regression + lockdown

[bluemarie87]

Ftm here to a 17 week old baby.
Think we're going through the 4 month sleep regression. Give me the positives. Feel like I'm losing my mind with this plus lockdown. We are on day 4 and I've read it can go on for up to 6 weeks. Usually I'd drive to my parents house and go HELP ME PLEASE! Obviously this is a no no so can people help me with some positives (if any) and how to survive. My other half is working full time and I'm going crazy here!

Positives are it will end eventually

Positive is that it does end!! We went through it for 2-3 weeks and it was tough but did get better. Some people might comment otherwise but unfortunately we didn’t find a miracle cure so just had to ride it out (with lots of coffee!)

Just take it one day at a time. It’s tough but you will get through it. Revert back to the things you had to do with a newborn - sleep when you can, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do other things around the house.
In all honesty it lasted a couple of months for us before we did some gentle sleep training which made a huge difference. I found reading up on the reasons for the sleep regression really helped me to understand and accept it a bit more.
Getting into a good bedtime routine and starting to figure out a nap routine in the day also helped us to come out the other side (and I think being in lockdown might give you the advantage of really focusing on getting a structure in place).

Is DH working from home? Even working full time you should be able to share the load somewhat so you can have a break.

Wondering how you got through this as we are in the same boat right now. On day 9 and she is awake for 4+ hours in the middle of the night every night and I am not coping. The thought of this lasting 6 weeks makes me want to walk out of the house and not come back.

It will pass...or at least improve! Mine was up every 45 minutes - 1 hour overnight for about 6 weeks. Things have slowly improved and while he still stirs often he will go down for a long chunk overnight. He regressed early (14 weeks) so we haven’t sleep trained at all as he’s still only 5 months old. Not sure it’s for us tbh anyway.

My partner works from home atm due to COVID and takes the baby when he wakes up (between 6am and 8am) until he starts work, so I can catch up on sleep. On the weekend he’ll take him for most of the morning. It means I do sleep (albeit not much at night) so I don’t stress too much about the night wakings. Could you do something similar? Knowing I’ll be able to sleep in the morning takes a lot of the pain of multiple night wakings away! I don’t know how I would cope otherwise. One of the small upsides of having a baby in a global pandemic!

It comes to an end. Running to your own parents every time parenting gets hard won’t set you in very good stead looking to the years ahead

@Bcottle poor baby

It will end eventually and it probably won't last for six weeks (or it'll improve in that time!). My only advice is to identify your coping strategies, and do whatever you need to do to get through it.

When I was in the same sleep-deprived hellscape, my preferred coping strategy would have been a one-way ticket to New Zealand and a new identity, so at the very least I can offer some sympathy and solidarity. It will get better!