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?

All that effort and he was asleep 15 mins 😭 when this first kicked off three weeks ago I didn’t think it could get worse, but it’s ten times worse now 😖

The dreaded 8 month sleep regression has hit our second child. Sleep hasn't been great for a few days but tonight wins the worst night ever award. She's literally been up every hour, taken 30-50 minutes to settle each time and then woken up again 30 minutes later. I've got a 3 hour drive with her tomorrow and I've had zilcho sleep for days, I'm actually a bit worried. She's also decided she doesn't want to nap during the day beyond a quick 20 minute nap in the car so I'm not getting any break in the day either. I know it will get better and won't be like this forever but right now I'm feeling broken. And sleep deprived. But mostly broken.

@mummabubs this sounds very much like us at the moment! It takes over an hour to get DS down in his cot, he falls asleep quickly, but the problem is when we put him down he wakes up instantly. It takes a good 5+ goes at it, and then he only sleeps 30-60 minutes 🤦🏻‍♀️ Hardly seems worth it! Sorry to hear you’re worried about the drive. Can you see how you feel in the morning? And have a coffee before and take one for the journey? If your BF I know that’ll be fairly useless advice - I limit myself to three teas a day, just in case caffeine is effecting DS in my milk, but my god I need more than three cups of tea 😭

Omg I cannot take anymore. I thought this regression started beginning of December. Always had an alright sleeper. But not anymore. I just don't know what to do with him?! He's waking all the time! All the time through the night. He cries when he's in the cot so I get him out and put him in with me and then he's still waking up crying! I thought it was teething so gave him calpol and gel but it still happened. Do I just keep riding this out?!

Hey guys,

@MintGreenLife and @Blabbyoak we've been doing a new bedtime routine alongside a method called gradual reduction where you basically reduce the input you have every couple of days (so start with no feeding to sleep, but can still comfort in the cot and pick up/rock if they're really worked up), then move to no rocking, then reduce hands on comfort in the cot etc. I have mixed feelings tbh...it seems very effective so far but I'm not gonna lie, she hates being put down awake!! That said, she is getting used to it and I know she's fed/warm/clean, and I still offer 1 feed overnight if she wants it. For us, something had to change as she'd been up all night every 30 mins for the last two months and I was getting really depressed (and lo was clearly knackered!) Hope that helps but in my opinion I don't think there's any magic solution that doesn't involve a fair bit of upset as they get used to new patterns etc

My almost 10 month DS is going through a new phase where he thinks it's play time between 3-4:30am it's happened last 2 nights now. And to top it off the new neighbours that have moved in over the road were causing big disruptions last night around that same time. In the street!!! I very almost shouted out the window (still wish I did) but I may have escalated the issue. And they seem the sort who wouldn't just apologise, understand and take the arguments in the house 😩 fooooking great!
On the plus side, the other neighbour with the barking dog they leave outside all night has stopped so they must be taking him in now!
FML
And my working day begins.... 😴😵

Just a little update from me - 6 days of sleep training and last night LO fell asleep at 7:30 (after half an hour of crying and fussing, with us checking in) and slept until…. 4:40am!!! I thought she wasn’t going to go back to sleep at that time as she didn’t after a feed, but she actually managed another short couple of stretches before my partner got up with her just before 7.

Cannot believe how much this has changed my life. It’s by no means perfect and we’ve had a few hit and miss evenings, but it’s so much better than the 1-2 hourly wakings that we’ve had since the end of October. I was at breaking point and I feel immeasurably better.

Really really hope things improve for everyone else soon!

@BadgerBum That sounds so good!

We did night one of sleep training last night working with a sleep consultant. It was really hard and I’m totally knackered today but hoping to see some improvements quickly. She took 40 mins to go to sleep at bedtime with 4 check ins from me. It was suggested I try a dream feed for the first few days at 11pm to help with discomfort in my boobs so I did that. She then woke at 1.45am so I did some more controlled crying check ins and she went back off at 2.10am. She then slept until 5.55am, I tried to get her back down but I could see on the monitor that she was disturbing my eldest and as he always sleeps until 7.30am I didn’t want him to be woken up as he’d be upset so I got her up 😵‍💫 She’s just gone down for a nap in less than two mins as she was totally shattered!

Had an awful possibly the worst night last night...he was awake every 1 and half to 2 hours and would not settle at all when I put him back in his Moses basket!! He usually is fed winded and nappy changed if needed and goes straight back to sleep but last night he was not playing 🤯.
Does anyone else's babies suffer with colic? Have you found anything that really helps feel like I've tried everything

Following this thread with interest. My 4mo in in week six of waking every 45 mins. @pinkgin1 how are things for you? Is your LO recovered?

@LCF2021 That sounds similar to how our first night went. Hopefully you see improvements really quickly!

@Jess9898 sorry you had a bad night! How old is your LO? Mine had colic when she was younger - she’d cry ever evening from about 6-10pm from 2 weeks to the day before she turned 9 weeks, it was absolute hell.

@Jess9898 Sorry to hear that. How old is your LO?
My eldest was incredibly colicky and it was so so difficult. He would cry all day sometimes and the evenings were dreadful. I’d say I noticed the colic symptoms begin to ease from around 13 weeks and I’d say by 15 weeks it wasn’t an issue any more. For us nothing really worked. We did have some cranial osteopathy on him which some people swear by but I can’t say it made a huge difference to mine. Unfortunately I think time is the only thing that helps.

Good morning all.

So.glad to see that some.of you have had better nights and sending strength to @iloveayankeecandle and any others having a rough time still.
I'm solo parenting again for two nights this week, last night being the first and we have gone back to having false starts
Think it's down to him being overtired but I literally cannot prevent it as he will not nap longer than 20 to 30 mins. After 2x 15 min naps yesterday he took a 1 hr nap but ended at 3.30pm so too close to bedtime at 7 for another nap, and too long to be awake. Woke twice in the night and took 5ozs both times.
I have begun weaning him as he turns 6 months this week but he's smashing the milk at night at the moment and not taking as much in the day. He's too distracted.
Feeling a bit broken but hopeful that we can get back on proper sleep training soon. @Sleepymama285 thanks for sharing your method. I had considered doing something similar but I wanted quicker results to we went with ferber but it's not having the desired improvements after two rounds of illness getting in the way after 3 or 4 days.
Add to the mix that 7yo dd had a dream that she dropped ds off a cliff by accident and she's totally freaked out by it, and I'm having having wonderful day

@BadgerBum he's 12 weeks, yeah he has phases where he just cries non stop because of the colic even if just change the position I'm holding him slightly it just sets him off it's such a nightmare

@BadgerBum It’s hard isn’t it? I just keep reminding myself that we’re not just doing this because we want more sleep but because she needs more sleep to grow and develop and be a happier baby. I’m hoping in the coming days we see some slightly later wake ups in the morning!

@LCF2021 ahh he's 12 weeks tomorrow so there's hope there's a possibility it will start to ease then!! Yeah he's exactly the same some days I literally have to wind him non stop and can't put him down it's awful! Yeah I seemed to have tried everything you can buy, someone told me about these drops you can get so that's my last option.

[quote Jess9898]@LCF2021 ahh he's 12 weeks tomorrow so there's hope there's a possibility it will start to ease then!! Yeah he's exactly the same some days I literally have to wind him non stop and can't put him down it's awful! Yeah I seemed to have tried everything you can buy, someone told me about these drops you can get so that's my last option. [/quote]
Try colief, they're expensive compared to others but I hear good things about it. Also there's a lady on Instagram I've seen recommended for tips called rockabyerefluxm don't know anything about her personally but might be helpful

Hi all,
I saw the title of this thread and could not pass by without a bit of sympathy. My boy is now 17mo but my god this time last year I was going through the absolute sleep hell you're describing. I dont know how I survived on like 3-4hrs broken sleep a night. He was waking every hour or two for boob as you describe and only wanted to sleep on me from about 4.30am. We also had 30min naps.
Anyway it got better over time, I wiuld say self settling made the biggest difference. I dont know what the reason was, I kind of think back and I think there were definite tummy issues, potentially silent reflux. Just didn't know much as a first time mum.
Anyway, I would say by 7/8 months old he started to 'only' wake 3 times in the night. Then by 9 months it was two wake ups, then once and at about 12mo he started sleeping through the night!!!!

I tried lots of things so not sure what cracked it or whether it was just him maturing but for what it's worth.

• began working on self settling, firstly by gradually shifting from feeding to sleep to bum patting in the cot. Started patting and shushing whilst feeding to sleep then would pull him off earlier and earlier and finished him off patting. Then did it in the cot.
• got him attached to a comforter at the same time which really helped the self settling.
• I then put him in the cot awake but sleepy with the comforter, started off almost asleep then more and more awake over time. He did cry a bit and I went in and out of the room but only had to do about 2 resettles before he fell asleep. I fed to calm him then put him back.
• try resettle during the night without feeding
• Once he was self settling to sleep my husband started to put him to bed and I think this mad a big difference.
• I went dairy free and switched to oat milk, he is still on oat milk as I think he was having tummy issues in the night.
• we saw a cranial osteopath
• I think him being more active helped, seemed to sleep better when crawling kicked in so wear them out!

Hang in there, it will end!!!

@Blabbyoak ahh thank you!! Yes I think they are the drops someone has mentioned to me honestly I'll try anything at this point haha & oh thank you I'll have a look on Instagram

@EL1984 thank you this is so helpful, as I’ve been told a big part of the issue is that we put DS down asleep and always have done, and have been told to start getting him to self soothe but I had no idea how! We tried putting him down ‘drowsy but awake’ last night and tonight, with hair stroking and singing, but it just makes him angry. He tolerates it for 10 mins, but he tosses his head from side to side and repeatedly bashes the side of his crib, and eventually starts crying. This whole thing makes him super cross and then it takes several hours to resettle him and get him down again. Which results in a 3ish hour bedtime routine 🤦🏻‍♀️

Does anyone else find their LO takes forever to get to sleep in the evenings?! Not sure where we are going wrong, but it’s becoming a daily battle. He will also only nap for about an hour a day across two naps, which I’m aware is nowhere near enough, but of course can’t force him to sleep! Does anyone have any tips? I take him out for a walk in the carrier daily, look out for sleepy cues and rock etc, but it always takes a good half an hour of rocking to even get him to think about having a nap. Does anyone have any bedtime tips or nap tips?! I’m sure if I could get him to nap a bit more in the day it might help the nights…maybe.

How's everyone's night going so far?

@pinkgin1 awful. Baby has refused cot the last two days during my nighttime shift and I've had to resort to co-sleeping.. yesterday I was an open bar 😭 how about you? How are you doing?

@LCF2021 how is the sleeptraining going?

@Sneezymcsneezy we’re seeing progress after a few days. Last night she settled for bed within 5 minutes. Our sleep consultant suggested offering 2 dreamfeeds a night for the first week then dropping one for my own comfort and ideally drop that one feed in a few weeks when she’ll be 6 months. I did a dream feed at around 11pm, she woke up upset at about 2.45am, I left her for 2 mins, went in to say shh, left another 5 mins and did the same and she settled back down. I gave her another dream feed around 3ish and didn’t hear a peep from her until 7.15am! We still need to work on longer naps though.

Sorry to hear your nights aren’t going well, it must be even harder with work to contend with too

@pinkgin1 not the best last night he had a screaming melt down at half 10/11 took me until half 11 to settle him down he slept until 2:00 then had whole 8oz which caused him ridiculous wind of course took me until 2:45 to settle him back🤯 then he woke at 5 for 2 extra oz's like the 8 wasn't enough haha

How was yours?x

DS has a consistent routine now. 4 hour wake windows through the day meaning 2 lots of 45min naps. After bedtime bottle he's either asleep straight away or awake a bit depending on when his last nap was then he's in cot for a 2 hour stretch before he starts the hourly unsettled wakes. I tend to be able to settle the first 2 then he ends up co sleeping with me from around 1/2am then he sleeps through til 7-8am
This is what I've resorted to now in back at work and need sleep!