Argh, finally regressed to "4 week old" sleep patterns!

[Dakiara]

As far as I can tell, he's not teething, sore anywhere, ill or anything, though he does have a little more wind than usual over the last couple of days. He's driving me up the walls and sending me down each house in the road to make sure I have all the walls covered!!! O_o

I am presuming it is a phase, probably to do with development (he has gone from starting to crawl forwards three and a half weeks ago to standing up and climbing onto the sofa already) and possibly separation anxiety (he only lets me settle him, and sometimes even that takes five attempts at put downs - he goes down asleep but jerks awake again within 5 mins).

I don't think I can do anything else for him apart from turning down the monitor and letting him cry it out/ some sort of controlled crying, but I don't want to do this.

How do I cope and will things get better without intervention?

Hope someone can help! Many thanks!

hello poor you! It probably is a bit of a phase as around the age when babies become more mobile they suddely begin to twig that you can to all intents and purposes vanish, before then babies don't see the mother as seperate just an extension of themselves. So my advice is have a fairly strict bedtime routine which you start at the same time every evening and perform the same sorts of rituals ie bath, massage, p.js, bottle or boob, some soothing music (mozart for babies always worked a treat for my dd!) and then lights off and bed. If he starts to get upset I would leave him for 5 - 10 min intervels and then come back into the room, talk gently to him for a few moments but don't pick him up, it's really just to let him know you haven't left him for good, i never had to do this more than 3 or 4 times with my dd and actually not more than for a couple of nights although when they are poorly they do regress again. It might be teething as well in which case teething powder is brilliant! Hope that helps!!! xXx

Thanks, will be trying music at the weekend when I get chance to sort out a player - at the moment he won't let me out of his sight at all!

Also stocked up on ibuprofen as the paracetamol isn't cutting it any more for the teething as it is now his molars!

oh bless, how old is he? Was talking to a friend today who is having exactly the same problem with her dd, she has aslo regressed to sleeping pattern of a 4 week old! Good luck XxX

He's just turned one, so fairly old now. It's always been tough with his sleep patterns (he's slept for five hour stretches during the night only 6 times since birth - usually wakes every couple of hours), but hadn't expected him to go from four or five wakes per night to way worse and this refusal to settle too. ~shudders~ He's been adding small comfort feeds now during the day, so hoping that the phase will be short lived!

Hope your friend gets it sorted out soon!