4 month sleep regression - is it always awful?!

[Eggcellent29]

Hello you lovely Mums!

So. I’ve been lurking around on these forums and I am terrified of this dreaded four month sleep regression!! My LO is 3 months, so it’s looming!

My LO has always been a good sleeper so the idea of all that going out the window is very scary 😱

Is there anyone out there who found that their LO didn’t go through this, or went through it and it was fine/not that bad?!

Help a worried mummy out! 🙈🤪

[quote E899]@weepingwillow22 did sleep training through the regression work? My LO will not settle at night at all and then he will wake up thinking it’s playtime in the middle of the night! Not sure if this is the regression but islets certainly horrible!![/quote]
It is hard to know if it was the sleep training slone that worked as we did other things at the same time.

Prior to 5.5 months LO was co sleeping with me and I would breastfeed him to sleep at night and feed him everytime he woke which was every 1 to 2 hours.

At 5.5 months we moved him into his own bedroom and cot. My husband then started putting him down at night using shh pat technique. I would feed him earlier in the evening. Also at this point I started weaning and he was a very enthusiastic eater eating a lot of solids from the start.

He is now 7 months and we have continued the same routine and he tends to wake once in the night for a feed at around 2am and sleeps 7.30pm to 5.30am ish.

I think he is sleeping better becuase of a combination of a) learning to resettle himself when he stirs in the night and not being disturbed by me b) less hungry due to weaning c) age

@EveryoneLoves09876

Yes, nap time has gone to complete hell over the last couple of days!!

Our lovely little routine of feed, hour or so play, sleep until feed has died a death. He wakes up after about 45 mins and awake time has stretched to two hours. He doesn’t seem unhappy but he is deffo overtired, I’m walking a fine line between grumpy and hysterical! 🙈

@weepingwillow22 thanks for your reply. Yeah I guess it could be a mixture of things.

We tried the shush pat technique for his naps today and for his bedtime. It was a struggle at his bedtime as he wouldn’t calm down so I had to pick him up and keep putting down. 40 mins went and he woke and was really screaming ... taken me 40 mins to calm him! Is this normal with this technique when first starting? How long did it take your LO to get used to this and settle himself?

I cheated because I get my husband to do it! My LO still takes around 20 minutes shh patting to fall asleep each evening but once asleep now he stays asleep bar one awakening for a feed. The first couple of nights my husband was shh patting for 1 hour but it gradually reduced and the multiple night wakenings stopped after a few nights.

I have not admit though I have not tried it for naps as LO generally does these in a sling.

I always thought Sleep regressions were bullshit. But then our first three years with one of mine was basically one massive sleep regression! Don’t get too freaked out - they have sleep regressions over anything and everything - when they got ill, change in routine, change in weather etc etc.

Hi all
@Eggcellent29 just wondering how it went for you and whether the sleep regression came? I’m where you were, baby 3 months and dreading the 4 month mark 🙈🙈🙈

I think we've avoided it here. My first had 10 days or so of more frequent waking, this time we had one night but then back to one/no wake ups. He's now 5.5 months. So it's not a given that it'll happen!

@MoorGirl thats good to hear!! I’ve been worrying myself stupid about it today i’ve been so anxious about it. Fingers crossed it doesn’t hit too hard here if at all!

Remember everything is a phase! You'll be grand