How long can a sleep regression last?

[lynseylew]

Long story short my DD was a stellar sleeper from around 3 months to 5 months. We hit a sleep regression around mid October and since then she's waking up between 2-3 times a night. We've tried everything everything from a physical stand point such as any teething pain, reflux treatment, whether she's hot/cold. We've even tried things from a sensory point of view such as altering her cot or even trying different sleeping bags and gros to see if it's a comfort issue. She will go to sleep quickly but can wake up crying on and off right up to about 10:30pm but then the proper night wakings are routinely 1am, 4am, etc.
I'm a first time parent and I really feel like I'm missing something. Her poor sleep is affecting both me and my partner and my patience is at an all time low when I'm grouchy and have to deal with a baby that is causing me so much stress. Any suggestions?

It depends… if they are reliant on sleep props like rocking, feed to sleep etc. and the wake ups are because they’re realising something has changed then it might not right itself unless they learn to fall asleep independently.

Hmmm. Haven't entirely decided where I stand on this, but I do suspect 'regressions' are a myth. Some babies are just bad sleepers. I'm saying this as the mother to one 18m DS, so I don't have a massive amount of experience here 🙂 although I can understand your pain as DS woke every 45m - 1.5hr between 4-8m and exhaustion was in my bones.
Have you tried co-sleeping? We had to, or else we wouldn't even get 45m. We didn't try sleep training. Realistically, I think those are the only two effective options.

I think they can last 6 weeks. However there's so many other things that disturb baby sleep in the second half of the first year I think it can be hard to tell then the 4 month one has finished. Teeth, weaning, nap transitions, moving to own room, starting nursery, gross motor skill development, babbling, illness etc...

It calmed down for us around 11 months. But with periods of bad sleep still being a fixture at 2 years old. Thank you back molars and glue ear. 😫

Regressions aren’t really a thing. They never go backwards with sleep, they’re just developing rapidly throughout the first 1-2 years and their sleep changes a lot as result. Waking 2-3 time or more a night in the first year is totally normal, I think the issue here is your expectations of baby sleep, there’s nothing wrong with what you’re child is doing and it doesn’t sound like particularly bad sleep for a baby of this age. That doesn’t mean it’s not tiring! And it’s not your fault, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, but learning about normal baby sleep might help

sarahockwell-smith.com/2017/07/24/the-rollercoaster-of-real-baby-sleep/