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?

@OhHappyDayyy hooray for the big poo! (...I think?)

@MintGreenLife how are you feeling? Sorry it was a shit night. Ours was here too. Unfortunately it's probably been 8wks now that we've been struggling, with a brief few days where it looked like we were over it. DS went 5 nights sleeping in his own bed, only to go back to waking hourly or more. That was soul destroying.

TBH I'm not sure I believe the concept of sleep regression. I am more inclined to think you get out of the newborn phase and that's when you're discover if you have a good sleeper or not.

Nap two of the day in his own bed! Yes! Fingers crossed it's a longer nap this time.

I've got a big crocheted blanket my grandma made. I think placing it over LO before I put his head down in the cot is helping him settle. Perhaps the weight is making him feel secure? It's safe, it's a very holey kind of crochet pattern but also very warm. God bless my grandma, she made it for me when I was born.

What kind of bedding does everyone use? We have been using sleeping bags. But I am wondering if tucked in blankets might help him feel safe.

@MintGreenLife Hate to say it but we’re on just over two months… this started at the end of October for us 😬 Fingers crossed you’ll have a more typical ‘few weeks then done’ kind of experience.

@MintGreenLife every 1.5/2 hours for the last 4 months (he's almost 7 months now). The worst of it was definitely 3 weeks ago where he was up every 45 mins and needed at least 20 minutes of rocking/patting to get back to sleep, as well as being up for 1 or 2 hours in the middle of the night. Now his two teeth have erupted it went back to every 1.5/2 hours but definitely needs more help than before as he likes to roll and sleep on his side, but wakes himself up when he falls onto his back 😐.

The one good thing Ive gotten out of this is that my husband does half the work during nights now as his confidence grows, so now we are both low in energy during the day as opposed to me being completely wiped. He goes back to work next week so it should be interesting to see how he copes 😁

Felt truly shit today ladies. Met up with an old friend whose baby is a week younger than DD and sleeps 10 hours straight over night. Its her second and apparently her first was the same. I actually find it baffling how babies sleep can vary so much?! On the first wakeup of the night (just as I was nicely dropping off) and keep thinking about this haha.

Lo still doing well which I'm grateful for as I currently have covid and got my pcr today back as positive. Now worried I'll pass it to my kids. Will it make them really sick?

@mintGreenLife ours starting at 16 weeks and 6 weeks later its only getting worse not better.

@Mytigerhasstripyfeet I use blankets and tuck them under but now ds can raise and slam his feet down he kicks them off. Not sure on sleeping bags as he rolls? We did wonder if he is waking up cold as he slept through the night randomly Christmas day but we was at my dms and it was pure tropical heat as she had the heating blaring worried about ds I mean it was so hot we couldn't sleep but he did the entire night!

Does weaning make it better or worse as ds is 5 months and we're thinking of starting in a few weeks but I'm petrified it's going to give belly aches etc and make it worse!

He missed his longest nap yest and I've had a dreadful night 11.45 to 1.30 awake and then 3.30 to 4.30 awake and up at 5.15. My DP has to get up for work around 4 and ds is disturbing him so we're putting him in his own room and in his cot at the weekend. I can't see it solving anything and can see me being up and down more.

How long do you all try rocking etc before feeding with night waking? Ds is bottle fed but his having more feeds per night now than he had as a newborn! I'm worried I'm making a rod for my back with giving in to a bottle. He doesn't drink a full bottle but will have a few ounces each time.

@Vie8126 haha pure tropical 🙂yeah I've wondered about DS being cold too. Even though he's in 2 layers and a sleeping bag sometimes his little hands and arms feel so chilly when I pick him up. Can't afford the heating on all night though!

Don't really know if weaning makes it better. I am hoping eventually he'll get more calories in the day and won't need me milk as much at night? He's almost 6m so we've started wearing this week. So far he just looks confused! Most of his food is coming out again. They eat such small amounts at first I don't think it would give a bellyache.

Sorry you had a crappy night. Ours wasn't brilliant either! I basically don't bother with rocking any more. Just go straight to feeding. He's bf though so easy enough in the middle of the night. Also having more night feeds than when he was a newborn. They are quicker feeds though thank goodness!

@pinkgin1 argh sorry to hear that! It must be worrying but even if your kids do get it I believe they get far less sick than adults so hopefully you’ll all be fine!

@MintGreenLife Sorry to echo what others have said but ours started at 14 weeks and she’s now 22 weeks and waking every 1-2 hours each night. We’ll be sleep training imminently.

@pinkgin1 Hope you’re ok. Fingers crossed your LO will be ok. I’ve heard that it’s much less severe for small ones.

How was everyone else’s night? DD woke up at 10pm, 1am (I fell asleep feeding), I woke at 3am with her in my arms so put her back in bed and she woke again at 5am so brought her into my bed but she really struggles to settle and get comfy so she spent most of the time rolling around, smacking me in the face and kicking my back. My DS was great at co-sleeping and would settle so fast but not this one.

@Mytigerhasstripyfeet I didn’t feel too bad yesterday, but last night was awful again and at the 3am and 4am wakeups he wouldn’t go back in his crib. Took me four tries each time with rocking and singing in between. Feel pretty rubbish today. It’s just getting me down.

Sorry to hear the night before last was rubbish also. How was last night? We use a sleep bag, but crochet blanket could be worth a try?! Let me know how you get on. We have one that my husband had as a baby.

I think you might be right about the sleep regression thing 😭

@Sneezymcsneezy gosh that sounds tough! How are you managing? At the moment my DS will only settle on the boob, so DH can’t help 😭

@Vie8126 this seems to be a common theme on this thread 😭

@LCF2021 let me know how the sleep training goes. We’re due to move DS into his own room next week, so I think we will just get on with it and see what happens!

You’re all doing amazingly well to have been going through this for a long time. I’m 2 weeks in and really struggling now 😭

We had a pretty good night actually, wake up after 2.5 hour blocks of sleep!! I went to bed at 9 and woke up at 10 today hahaha although it was ten because the baby monitor ran out of battery, I didn't hear him cry, walked in and saw him moaning about being left on his belly! So in total I went in 4 times.

@Vie8126 for what it's worth, I put my baby in a short sleeve babgrow, zip sleep suit, a jumper and then a 2.5 sleepbag.. and scratch mittens! The room is 17-18 degrees at night and he was cold when I changed his nappy previously, he sleeps much better now!

We went for it last night - own room and sleep training. It went so much better than I was expecting!! She still woke every 2 hours but we had a plan and she actually settled herself a few times with far less crying than I was anticipating. We were awake loads but I felt so much lighter that we were doing something, and that we could work as a team rather than me just having to feed her every hour and a half to two hours.
Will see how tonight goes but I really hope this is going to improve things for us!!

Great news @BadgerBum. What approach did you take?

@BadgerBum oh that's good! Interesting she didn't cry too much ... I get put off sleep training as DS wakes so frequently I think he'd be crying half the night. Good about the teamworking too.

We probably won't try anything new for a while now because it looks like his teeth might come through? Don't want to change anything at a time he might genuinely need more comforting.

Does it look like his teeth might come soon, to anyone whose LO has teeth? 😬

@sneezymcsneezy hmm I might try him in a cardigan as well then...

@mintgreenlife that sounds rough. Not sure if I said before but I find the mornings difficult but that I feel better by the afternoon? Hopefully you feel better this afternoon too.

@mytigerhasstripyfeet I'd say they are coming soon!!

@sneezymcsneezy ah okay I don't think I'm putting him in enough for nighttime then! Will use his sleeping bag tonight. Do you also put covers over him? His little hands and nose and ears were cold when he woke up.

@BadgerBum fab news! Would also be interested in what you did as looking to move ds to his cot come Friday night.

@MintGreenLife it's hard isn't it I feel so frustrated in the night as I then struggle to go to sleep once ds is asleep. Mornings are hard and feel quite unproductive but feel better by the afternoon. My ds goes down quite well so I try to go to bed at about 8.30 to get my sleep in could you try something similar for the short term to feel more human?

@Mytigerhasstripyfeet I actually feel the opposite! But that might be because DH takes him for a couple of hours in the morning (as I do the nights by myself) so I can get a bit of sleep. My early evening I feel exhausted though.

@Vie8126 oh I’m completely the same. He actually did a 2hr stretch first thing last night, which is the longest he’s done since this all kicked off two weeks ago, and I couldn’t get to sleep as I was just waiting for him to wake up. He’s still in his next to me and I sleep with my head in line with his, so every little squirm or mummer I hear and am on high alert ready to try and settle him before he wakes fully for a feed (never works 🤦🏻‍♀️). Maybe, just maybe things will be slightly better when he goes into his own room?!

@Vie8126 I do go up to bed at 9pm, while DH let’s DS sleep on him, but that generally that gets me an hour-ish. At least it’s a little bit of sleep to top me up before the nightly struggle 😂 x

@mintGreenLife I've been getting ds in next to me, he lays on my arm and my arm goes dead and I'm quite a fidget so have to lay dead still so it doesn't quite work for sleep for me either but at least he gets some!! When are you moving your ds to his own room?

@Vie8126 @Mytigerhasstripyfeet I've always got my arms under my duvet so I imagine it would be cold for him too so that's why I also put him in a jumper, and I used to put a blanket on top but it's always in the way when I need to hoist him in and out the cot 😐

@Vie8126 oh no, that sounds so tricky!! Luckily I can put him down in his next 2 me, although on two occasions last night it took four attempts and 50 mins in total 🤦🏻‍♀️ Until he was 3 months old though he slept day and night on one of us, so at least it’s kind of an improvement on the early days. We had a couple of good months in between, and now this! He will be 6 months next Wednesday. I wasn’t in a rush to move him into his own room before, but I think it could be worth a try. When are you planning on moving yours?

@Vie8126 @LCF2021 @Mytigerhasstripyfeet We went with Ferber/controlled crying/interval checks - whatever you want to call it. We switched routine from bath, book, boob, bed, to bath (because we don’t always bath), boob, book, bed. We put her down awake and then when she cried we checked in at 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and then repeated 10 minutes. I was concerned she’d cry for hours or get hysterical but actually she did a tired whingy cry for a while and fell asleep just before the fourth 10 minute check. Tonight she’s fallen asleep before the third and the crying was even more low-key.

She still woke up a lot and we had to work out when to feed because I’m not trying to completely night wean her yet. It was really hard and when we started I was so anxious that my tummy hurt! But actually it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I’d feared.

We put plans in place for if she got too worked up etc, but as I say she actually was never crying really hard. It was more a protest and then a whiny tired cry.

I’m not assuming it’ll all be smooth sailing and I know things might go backwards a bit in the next few days, but I’m relieved that we’ve given something a go and it’s not been a total disaster!

That sounds good @BadgerBum and I think 10 min stints of upset is manageable. How much comforting did you give her? Just pop in and give her a little stroke?

@LCF2021 Yes exactly. Some people say just talk to them but for now we were popping in, giving her a stroke and some comforting words, and then leaving again. She doesn’t have to stop crying in that time, just be reassured that you’re there. TBH she’s often cried for far longer when I’ve been trying to bounce/rock or pat her to sleep, I think me being there but not doing what she wants just enrages her.

I might look into this Ferber training.
My DS has been very clingy this last couple weeks. Few nights in a row as soon as his head touches his cot his eyes fling open and that's it! I have to put him in with me if I want any sleep and because I've started back at work then I've just resorted to that every time but I know if I carry on I'll be having him in with me til he's about 4!! Tbh I don't mind having him in with me but DH is in spare room and it just doesn't feel right 😕
He's currently in my bed bouncing about and laughing whilst I sort through my wardrobes and get rid of my size 8 and 10's that I've been hanging onto in the hope I'll get back in them one day hahahaha 😂 sick of kidding myself there!

Wishing you all a nice nights sleep ladies x

Rocking LO back to sleep here. He's got his cardigan on. Nice warm arms at least 🙂

Night everyone! Hope you all get a few hours at least x