Four month old fighting naps

[IssyFleur]

Hiya,

FTM to a four month old baby girl. I think she's hitting the four month sleep regression as her sleep has become quite inconsistent from day to day. The one consistency is that she'll fight her final nap of the day every day. I use the Huckleberry app and follow her wake windows, she has between 4 and 5 naps per day. However, recently it has been impossible to get her to sleep for her early evening nap. This means she is often awake for up to five hours in the evening. She generally settles after a bath and goes to sleep feeding but I imagine she must be so full of cortisol by then that it makes it harder to get off or stay off - we've started having multiple false starts most nights. Is this a normal part of development from others' experiences? I was wondering if this was her way of dropping a nap. I've tried getting her to bed earlier but that doesn't seem to work either. Her earlier naps are all ok and she generally naps for about 4-5 hours per day.

I haven't started any sort of routine other than wake windows as had read it was better to wait until six months before starting anything too solidly.

TIA!

Hey! Yes this all sounds completely normal!! Frustrating but normal! All you can do is follow your little one and support her as best you can. False starts (although frustrating) can be very normal and it’s just about supporting them back to sleep when you can and they are ready!
Just be wary of apps. They can be helpful to track things but I’ve always found just reacting to my DDs signs for sleep much more helpful than the apps.
Could definitely be a her way of dropping a nap too. How much sleep does she get in a 24hr period?
4 months is such a tough age and hopefully you’ll get through it soon and find that your baby’s need have probably changed again!! Keep responding as best you can and she will be absolutely fine. Good luck x

Thank you! Reassuring to know all pretty normal. I think my baby gets on the lower end of sleep, about 13 hours in a 24 hour period. But she's cheerful and alert the majority of the time when awake so doesn't seem overtired. I managed to get her to do a short early evening nap in her pram last night but it made no difference to the two hours of false starts she had and 5am wake up! Really hoping this is indeed a phase she soon gets over!

I think as long as they are generally happy and alert then they are fine. Some babies just need less sleep. 4 months can be tricky though and she will probably change again after. May go back to more sleep, may not!
I follow Lynsey Hookway on Instagram. She’s great… loads of scientific backed information on baby sleep and normalising all these things that society has pathologized.
Good luck with it all - baby sleep changes all the time and so quickly. You think you’re getting the hang of something then they change!

Thank you! I'll check her out on Instgram too. I'm currently in shock as baby gal slept for nine hours last night without waking... but she'd essentially only had two naps during the day and had been a real grump in the evening and refusing to nap. Not the ideal balance based on that but makes me wonder if she is perhaps getting a bit too much during the day generally. Could just be one of those days but if she'd like to start doing that every night that would be ideal! The fourth month is certainly interesting, I love seeing her little personality come through but it is hard to know what she needs some of the time. I think she wants to be up and crawling and doing at this point.

Hi. I’m just after some advice
im a second time mum and even though my eldest is only 3 and a half I feel like I’ve forgot everything I did with him regarding sleep training
I have an almost 4 month old who has hit his regression 😢. He was sleeping 7:30-6:30/7 and now I’m getting a wake up call between 4/4:30am
im using a dummy to help try and soothe him back off to sleep but it’s just a battle of him spitting it out and a repeat of dummy in dummy out until 7am
I’ve noticed he’s started to learn to blow raspberries and I know they say the regression hits when they learn something new. But I’m just wondering how long this is going to go on for
my eldest went through it but for the life of me I can’t remember how I helped him through it and when it ended 😂
4m old sleeps well during the day 4 naps 2 long ones which can be beteeen 1-2hrs and 2 short ones which can be 30mins-45mins
can self settle we use white noise and it works a dream so I don’t know where I am going wrong - advice is much appreciated ☺️

My baby is the same age and does the same thing! Also not sure what to do about it!