Sleep regression. Anyone else want to join!? Sleepless mums!

[pinkgin1]

Currently going through what I believe could be a four month sleep regression? For ages my son slept really well didn't wake up in the night and if he did it was for one bottle then slept. Most nights slept 9:30pm till about 8am next day.
Has alllllllllll gone out the window the past week 🤣 I always knew the good sleep wouldn't last long and I appreciated it when it did but it's kinda making me feel extremely tired now including my partner🥱
How long does it last?? Will it go on for months?? Will I ever have a 8-8 again? 😥😥🤣
The strange thing is if he wakes up. As soon as I place him onto my bed and pillow he sleeps. So if it was a sleep regression surely he would wake also in my bed?

Same here with the feed to sleep association! Definitely seems to be a theme! We've made a little progress recently by trying to stick to a rule of only feed every 3 hours or more at night, and rock for other wake ups. She seems to be getting used to the rocking a bit more although still pretty hit and miss when dh tries. Day naps are a bloody nightmare too, pram or car only and has never slept in the cot during the day! Also booking a sleep consultant for January as it's getting unsustainable. I know what you mean about Christmas, it's hardly even registered with me. We also have a long car journey to see family which I'm dreading! Any else's lo hate the car? Hoping she might sleep for a bit but when she wakes she is not a fan!

Yep the dog literally loves life at the minute with all the walks he gets 😂

@Sleepymama285 mine mostly dislikes the car especially if it's dark she screams bloody murder!! But v occasionally she will have a short nap (usually when the journey was only 10 mins so I have to keep driving around aimlessly so she doesn't wake). Mostly not though and never longer than 30 mins.

I'm so miffed at the thought of having to trudge around the streets with the carrier on christmas day now

@Sleepymama285 I tried not feeding her before 3 hours after her last feed last night but she screamed the house down until I did. I've tried literally all the tips to soothe her and they just seem to make her more angry. The kiddo has some absolutely cast iron will, I'll give her that..

I had the best night I've ever had with DS.
And DH was away in a hotel on a works do....
What does that say? 🤔😂😂

He still had his late nap so didn't go down til 10:15pm but the first time I was woken up by his moans through the monitor I couldn't believe it I had to rub my eyes and check again... it was 4:55am!!!! Wow that has never happened before so probably a massive fluke ha!
But I feel human today so I'll take it. DH on the other hand..... 😷🥴🤢🍺🍺🍺 so I'm looking after 2 baby's today 🙄 one less demanding than the other

@JammyRedRooo Exactly the same. Tried giving it 3 hours and I try for about 40 mins to get her back to sleep and eventually just give in. Our situation is unsustainable at the moment.

@StickyStickyStickStickSong dare I ask which one is the less demanding one? 😂

@JammyRedRooo yup, mine is stubborn and impatient.. like his dad 😂 he did not appreciate the comparison lol

I find boob no longer settles, he needs a rock, a hug... But only from me 🥺

@Sneezy the less demanding one can't talk so doesn't keep asking for water or paracetamol or dry toast or a McDonald's on my way back from Asda 🙄

@StickyStickyStickStickSong that's amazing!! Fingers crossed he keeps it up

DH and I have just devised a very gentle sleep plan for the next few weeks/months. We have basically decided to abandon all efforts at getting her to fall asleep independently for every nap and wakeup and just keep up the feed to sleep/carrier nap slog EXCEPT for bed time. For bed time we are going to keep persisting with trying to get her to fall asleep in her crib for one hour max per night (between 7 and 8pm) after a consistent bed time routine. If she still isnt asleep by 8pm or she gets really upset we will abandon it and try again the next day. For every other subsequent wakeup we will stick with what works for now. We know she can do it at bed time as she has before after a bottle so even if she only sleeps for a few mins we are going to count it as a win and be consistent in trying again the next night until HOPEFULLY we get some longer spells. Then we can start thinking about doing the same for the wake ups/naps. In time. We have given ourselves until she is 5 months to crack this first bit and shes just turned 4.

Even though I know it's going to be tough keeping up the carrier naps and feeding to sleep for longer, I'm hopeful that knowing we have a slow burning plan will stop me feeling like a failure at 3am when I'm feeding her back to sleep again...

Or itll be a massive car crash as with everything else we have tried

@JammyRedRooo good luck! I'm away over Xmas (without DH) We're already bed-sharing at home so continuing that, contact naps and feeding to sleep because DD has also seemingly developed a bit of separation anxiety when I so much as nip to the loo so doing everything I can to minimise her distress at other times. To be fair although she's waking around 5 times a night I'm not finding it too bad at the minute as she's settling straight away with a boob in her mouth!

Can I join? I could have written this post! LO is five and a half months and hit the 4 month regression a week before she was 4 months and has been getting steadily worse ever since. Feed to sleep association has got really strong, but last night it didn’t work to put her to sleep at bedtime so bu the time she went to sleep she’d been awake five hours which is waaay longer than she can manage, then the longest stretch of sleep overnight was an hour and 20.

We’re sleep training after Christmas as this is totally unsustainable but I’m not sure how to get through the next few days!

This was meant to be in reply to the posts about feed to sleep associations 🤦‍♀️

That sounds positive @JammyRedRooo. I think sometimes it’s just helpful to have something clear in your mind and a plan of action. DH and I even said tonight “what’s the plan?” And I really don’t know. I fed her to sleep tonight and gave her a little “pep talk” (😂) about sleeping a bit more tonight.
We’re currently aiming to get through the next 2-3 weeks as we are and then move her into her room.

Hi all
Any tips on handling false starts? The split nights are a little better (thank God) but we have quite a few wake ups before she does a 'longer' stretch i.e. 3 hrs lol

@JimHalpertsPA Since I posted 20 mins ago she’s been up twice. I literally have no idea how else to get her back to sleep. If feeding, rocking, patting, cuddling doesn’t work surely the only thing left is to try some form of controlled crying? I’m out of ideas completely.

@BadgerBum which method do you think you'll try?

@LCF2021 is she wide awake? Just boobing mine now, going to try and sleep as soon as he is down

So DS didn't nap at 7pm hooray he fell asleep just after his tea at 5:15 and woke at 6 so he's gone down at 9:30 tonight instead of 10:30! Yay
Although I think because he's been out and about with me in the car today he has had better naps so that's helped get rid of that 7pm one tonight!

However. I now have to tackle the pile of ironing that's currently giving Mount Everest a run for it's money in spare room as I have DM staying in there tomorrow so I'll be spending the next hour or 2 getting down that. Fingers crossed he stays down so I can do it all 🤞💪🏻

Wishing you all have sleep tonight ladies x

Lo been asleep since 9pm, hoping for a good night 😴

Have just finished tidying , washing bottles and putting away clothes.
I wonder if as soon as I shut my eyes he will awake 🤣

We’ve mainly co-slept tonight. She’s just dropped back off after her third feed. @Sneezymcsneezy She wants to go back to sleep when she wakes up but doesn’t know how so just cries and cries. Even when I stroke her and soothe her she doesn’t stop. She’ll sometimes even carry on if I cuddle her. If she does stop and goes back to sleep she wake up the second she’s put in bed.

Our plan didnt get off to the best start as predicted - ended up feeding to sleep at 8pm. But when I put her down at 8:15 she opened her eyes a bit to glare at me BUT still allowed it and didn't wake until 2am. stayed awake for two hours but never mind. So I'm taking that as proof that she can get herself to sleep and we are gonna keep giving her opportunities to practice.

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

@LCF2021 your LO sounds similar to mine, she’ll not be soothed by anything if she’s decided she wants boob. She’s obviously frustrated and wants to go back to sleep but she’ll cry in my arms whatever I do.

@Sneezymcsneezy were going to try controlled crying (along with putting her in her own room). I know that’s very anti mumsnet and someone will probably be along to tell me how cruel I am, but I don’t think anything else will work. I used to be able to get her to sleep by patting and shushing/singing, or bouncing sometimes, but now she’ll easily ride it out for an hour or more crying while I cycle through patting, shushing, singing, picking up, putting down, rocking etc. It’s like if I’m there but not doing what she wants she just gets progressively more furious.

@BadgerBum They sound VERY similar. Like you we’ll likely do controlled crying. Absolutely no judgment here although I know MN can have a lot of judgy mums who are anti any kind of crying 🙄

Hello everyone!

Happy Christmas 🌲 hope everyone gets some sleep from Santa this year.

We were doing well for 5 nights and I really thought we'd cracked it ... Then LO started with the wake ups again. So we've been co-sleeping. Not ideal but it's just to get us through Christmas.

I think he might be teething? Can see 2 little teeth outlined under the gum. He was having a shout in m&s earlier and the nice shop assistant pointed them out. I must be suicidal going to an m&s foodhall on Xmas Eve with a tired baby!

Any tips on teething? 🙂 Last night he woke up crying repeatedly between 7-10 and was making little sad noises when he was asleep. Might give Calpol if he's the same tonight?

Sorry to read the messages from those of you struggling still. That sounds sort of positive @JammyRedRooo?

@Mytigerhasstripyfeet two steps forwards and one step back is still progress! Even with sleep training there are situations where you know something is off, and even with sleep training you sometimes have to retrain!

@BadgerBum no judgement here at all, when you're on your knees you do what you need to do. We will do CC if we need to, we might need to adjust the thread title to 'sleep train with me'

Hope tonight goes ok ladies. Have a very merry Christmas tomorrow! I’m trying my hardest not to stress about her naps and just accept it’ll probably be a long and tiring day for her (and me if I’m up every 1.5 hours like usual!)