4-5 month olds sleep club, - come and join..........

[SnowlightMcKenzie]

Hiya,

There have been so many threads lately about babies who were beginning to sleep better, but suddenly hitting this regression to newborn hell.

So I thought I would start a support thread for us all to compete whinge about how little sleep we are all getting, and tips on how to cope.

Baby Starlight was up just twice last night, but the previous night it was 6 times, and because of that I kept putting off going to bed at all last night, so even though it wasn't too bad, I still had hardly any sleep

ps you probably haven't had time to read much of it yet but is the Wonder Weeks good? I was wondering whether to buy it. Dunno about you but somehow it helps enormously when they are in a grump to know WHY...

I would recommend it Kiwi, the number of times DH has come home from work lately and I've said "she's been really whingey and clingy. I don't know whats wrong with her".

The books lists signs that "My Baby Is Growing Again" (left a few out):

• cries more often, bad tempered, cranky or fretful
• wants you to keep him busy
• Wants more physical contact during nursing
• sleeps poorly
• Shy with strangers

My dd developed these almost overnight. Would only feed holding my hand against her cheek, turns away from people she doesn't know and you know about the sleep!

It mentions things she might start doing as part of this leap such as grabbing things, responds to own name, recognises opening bars of a song (Old McDonald is very popular!). It then suggests games to play to help with this leap.

I'll have a look at week 26 for you....

hmmm more or less the same signs but also Babykiwi won't want to be changed either.

But Babykiwi may also start sitting up from lying down, standing (pulling herself up), crawling after mummy (forget your feet up with a cuppa!), oh this is a nice one: dances to music (sways her tummy).

DD has her last set of jabs for a while today so I imagine she'll sleep all afternoon. I am dreading it (jabs not the sleep!).

Another 4 hour stretch followed by 2-hourly wakings last night. We then had 15 minutes of chatter at 5am when I put her in bed with us and she fell asleep until 6.15am (dh got up, I slept until 8.30am).

I fed her in bed last night but my left nipple was agony I woke up with a jump and had to take her off. Luckily she was asleep and finished so I put her in her Amby. I think I have a blocked duct though so I am off to search breast & bottle feeding for advice....

Hope you all had a good night. Nice to see you back traceface

Bullabalulu Thanks for the info - interesting. She's definitely started to get really annoyed when I change her/ get her dressed recently. Particularly hates me putting her arms in sleeves...! As for sitting.. hmm no chance. She hates it! Hates even being held in a sitting position (which I'm worrying about because I want to start her on BLW in 10 days!) Absolutely loves standing though and will pull herself up to standing if you hold her hands. And she's definitely TRYING to crawl, and getting really frustrated that she doesn't get anywhere. PErhaps I'd better put some dance music on and see if she gets her groove on...

Last night was, well, amazing really. After an incredibly grumpy day and awful night the night before she fed at 7, slept (without waking ONCE!) until 1.30 then slept again until 5.50!! Fed, then slept until 7.45!!

I feel positively normal today. Mind you she'll be back to her old tricks again tonight. She has absolutely no pattern whatsoever and only does these good nights occasionally to tease me...

Hello everyone,
Lucky you kiwi! Hope the little one keeps it up!
Here, things are getting steadily worse... The night wakings are continuing, naps are a total disaster and he's gone from being happy little ray of sunshine to the most whiny, clingy, grumpy so and so ever. It's like baby superd has gone on holiday and left a dodgy replacement.
He's not even 23 weeks yet and I'm agonising over whether to start him on solids. He's crying for milk every 1-2 hours now and I'm so exhausted, I can barely keep up (insert knackered emoticon here). Everyone around me is advising me to wean, but with the current guideline of 26 weeks... I'm completely confused. As if I needed another reason to lose sleep...
So here's something that made me laugh (read: CRY) yesterday... I took a peek at the CLBB yesterday, and at his age, DS should be napping for just under 3 hours in the day and sleeping 7-7 with a feed at 2230...

Superd Avoid all books/sites/people that tell you what they should be doing!! I have learnt that lesson....! I'm sure BabyKiwi will be up every 2 hours tonight anyway...

I know there's a lot of pressure for early weaning but if you are sticking out for the 6 months then hold out. The truth is that a bit of puree (if you go that route) or chewing on a bit of carrot (if you do BLW) is hardly going to provide so many extra calories that the need for milk is cut - it's still their primary food for months yet. Sounds like maybe a growth spurt? There is definitely "supposed" to be one around this time - people say 6 months but usually it's multiples of 3 - 3,6,12 and therefore 24 weeks, give or take...

ps naps are a disaster with us too unless they happen to coincide with need for a feed, in which case I can sometimes feed her to sleep. Otherwise, it's drama, crying and trauma all round

Thanks for the support kiwi... Yes... "naptime" has become a glamourous term what what is essentially a 20 minute kip, accompanied on both ends by epic tantrums . Just enough time to go to the loo, make a cup of tea (but not drink it) and reflect on the comedy that is my childrearing experience...
Am thinking of trying ... ... a bottle tonight.

hello everyone - hullabaloo invited me over! it's reassuring to see i'm not alone!

i've gone from a DD sleeping 2-3hrs at lunchtime and 8-10hrsv at night straight, to daytime naps of 40mins, all evening waking after 45mins and if I get a 3hr stretch at night i'm lucky!

she's def teething and with teething relief and calpol due to her jabs we had a good night last night - but i'm terrified of it all going pearshaped tonight. it's really effectung DH and me! I'm so snappy with him when i haven't had much sleep.

morning!
Well as dd2 turns 6 months tomorrow I guess this is my last day on this thread! We had another night of waking every 1.5 to 2 hours - but she's still under the weather so that might explain it!
Kiwi - dd2 is also objecting to being dressed at the moment - she used to love it and now she screams when the vest approaches!

kiwi I forgot to say - eczema wise we have found success with Epaderm (on prescription). We had rubbish results from E45, and diprobase and an allergic reaction to doublebase, but Epaderm really suits her skin and makes her much betetr

I found this message board when frantically searching the tinternet with "why won't my 4 month old nap?"............I spent yesterday reading everyone's posts and now feel better that it is not my questionable mothering skills that are causing the problem

My DS is 17 weeks old and naps for 40 mins at a time. Sometimes he wakes up happy and smiley and sometimes he wakes up like someone is trying to pull his leg off. Sometimes he goes down with no fuss and sometimes we get 20 mins of hysterics beforehand.

Also I live in the US so it was doubly nice to read proper english english.....

Danielbumpsmummy - that's how I found this thread too! It's horrible to feel like you are going backwards, and reassuring to know that it's normal :D

Hello Bumpity and Danielbumpsmummy! Welcome to sleep deprivation corner ;) You are most certainly not alone. Actually, I was talking with my NCT friends today and bizarrely ended up feeling quite lucky - lots of their babies sleep well from, for example, 7 to 3am but then wake up to start the day at 5am and will NOT sleep any more.

Danielbumpsmummy Naptimes are like that every day for us. Unless I walk her in pushchair when she'll sleep fine (though not always for that long) I usually end up feeding her to sleep after she has a strop. Sigh... still, at least she's getting better at night - for now [does-not-want-to-count-chickens emoticon]

Traceface - see you on the 6 month thread in about 10 days!!

Bye Traceface, we'll be on the 6 month thread in about 3 weeks...

New people! Hello Bumpity and dbm! Kiwi... DS regularly wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am. As far as sleep problems go, I think we have the complete set chez nous . Anyway... How was babykiwi last night?

Another good night actually superd! won't last though... She went to bed at 7 as usual, fed at 11, again at 3 and then slept through till 7.30!!! But despite her only waking me twice DH managed to wake me up THREE times... 34 and he still can't self-settle.. ;)

All this good sleeping is, I think, cos I've given up the battle to get her to sleep on her back. She just flips right over again and is clearly far happier like that ...

kiwi, be positive!

... I was right, didn't last. Sigh. Yawn.

Bye traceface, see you around MN.

Hello bumpity and DanielBumpsMummy, I'm relieved that I'll have company on here when the others graduate to the 6 month thread.

Oh we regressed to complete newborn hell last night. dd had her jabs on Tuesday which left her really grumpy that night and yesterday. Then I had a hospital appointment so my mum took us and looked after dd while I had my tests. I could hear dd screaming in the waiting area! She only sees my mum every few weeks and it takes a few days for her to get used to her. We came back to my mums, dd cried at my sister, bil, brothers, step-dad. It was just too much for her I think so I was expecting a bad night but not this bad...are you ready? This is the wakings:

9.30pm, 10.30pm, 11.30pm, 1am, 3.30am, 4.30am (into bed with me) up for the day at 6.15am. I text dh the times this morning and he replied "Isn't that the timetable for the 508?".

The results of my test mean I probably have to have an operation and my first thought was "ooh, full nights sleep in hospital" .

So fingers crossed that she has a two hour nap because I need to sleep today!

Hope you all had a better night that me (I challenge anyone to have worse )

hulla, that sounds completely crap. What an awful night... Hope babyhulla has a better one tonight.

naughty babyhullahablulu!

I do hope that tonight gets better for you. Sorry to hear about the operation - fingers crossed all goes well. Enjoy that nights slepe when it comes.

I feel a bit bad - we had another good night last night. I've obviously not realised she was in pain before - oops. The teeth have really been hurting her, but now I'm on top of it we are really seeing her improve. Let's hope that it continues. A slightly later bed time happened last night (9pm) as her daytime naps knocked her out of sync a bit. I'm wondering if that helped? Oh and all hail the pink wonder liquid!!!!

(although why I feel worse after a half decent nights sleep I have no idea!)

Oh dear HulabaLulu that sounds like a tough night - you must be a wreck today!

We are having another no nap day - poor Daniel Bump only know hows to nap for 40 mins at a time. He just went down after a little crying fit - woke up after 15 mins crying! So I put him in his swing...

Anyone elses baby only nap in a swing etc?

Hey DBM, my dd will only nap on my lap (if rocked or nursed to sleep), lying next to me (if nursed to sleep) or in the sling. Naps have turned into a nightmare though. Screaming fits before everyone. Nighttimes are still shocking but I get lots of sleep if once I put her in with me. The problem is my knees are killing me from being bent for half of the night and my hip and back are so sore. I'd have her in bed with me all night if it wasn't so painful. Does anyone else get this? Does it ease?

I think dd is teething actually. She been in a terrible mood today and yesterday and seems better once she has calpol. I tried to put some dentinox gel on her gums this morning but she just sucked it off my finger!

It's lovely here today so we're going to go out and enjoy the sunshine.

I hope it's quiet on here because you've all been getting plenty of sleep!

HulabaLuLu I found the same thing when DS came in the bed with us. I tried putting pillows behind me so I could try and lie on a bit of a slope - that helped. I also had a big long pillow from when I was pregnant and putting that behind me helped.

can I join you even tho DD is 4 now

for some reason or the other she has decided she doesn't want to go to sleep until about midnight - 2am, and promptly waking up at 7:30am full of energy (where she gets it from I really don't know), she gets in and out of bed, constantly calling mummy as she misses me , and is wide awake.

DP has been good by putting her back to bed etc knowing i'm not well at the moment, but I just don't know where all this has come from and tbh DP & I are bloody knackered. she has always slept through from about 1-2months old.