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

Fret not hulla... we're all here somewhere...
Not much to report here, at least no progress anyway, and to add to the misery, his naps are well and truly in disarray, which then contributes to his night sleep. On a bright note, I'm at my parents at the moment and we have relatives over, so I'm not alone and manage to get some time to myself in the day which is excellent.
I've done some serious thinking about DS sleeping and am beginning to feel that its gone way past the point where I can do anything to improve the situation. If anything, I think I aggravate things more than anything else and have nowhere near the energy or the bottle required to do any sleep training myself. Soooo, I actually spoke to a sleep trainer this week and am seriously considering having some professional help. Yes... I know... I'm a pathetic wimp . I just don't know what else to do.
On another note, DS is exactly 6 months old today which means that my days on this thread are over and its time to haul my sleep deprived backside off to the 6 month thread. Can't say that its exactly where I wanted to be at this stage, but oh well... perhaps (although hopefully not ), I'll catch a few of you on there soon. In the meantime, good luck with your little ones and thanks for everything!

I'm still here - here for me is in New Jersey, USA. I'm originally from sunny Manchester so its properly nice to read english english instead of american english!!

Anyhoo I am not saying anything about DanielBump's night time sleeping incase he reads this and goes back to the old routine ifkwim.

However, day time sleep still coming in 40 minute naps - sometiumes I catch him at the right time and he goes peacefully and sometimes there is a full on tantrum . Usually he takes 4-5 naps a day - up down up dpwn!! Last 2 days have been a bit weird - he's been dribbling like a fountain so I think the teeth are the culprit. he is currently refusing to nap despite being v tired

superd did you ever go ahead and talk to that sleep trainer? Did she fix everything?

Daniel Bump's naps getting worse....I don't think I can even bring myslef to talk about it . Poor thing is so tired all day........but then refuses to nap.

DanielBumpsMummy my DH is from Manchester (the best city in the world apparently!).

I have kind of left this thread. We are full time co-sleeping and DH now only wakes maybe twice a night? I'm not sure because I tend to let her latch on while I am half asleep so I am never quite sure.

What I am trying to say is that while she isn't sleeping through sleep isn't a problem anymore since I stopped fighting it and brought her into bed .

I'm glad DanielBumps nighttimes have improved. Naps have gone out the window here a bit until recently. I'm going with the flow!

Hello ladies. Can I join this thread? Founds Mumsnet after desperately googling "4 month baby sleep patterns change" after my wee boy (nearly 20 weeks) went from sleeping 8hrs and only waking twice in the night to waking every 2 hours in the dot. He's bf but isn't hungry most of the times he wakes up, just wants the magic boob of sleep but wakes up whenever I try to put him in his cot again. Co sleeping doesn't work for us - DS just gets really excited we're all there and wants to play. Also he's an incredibly grunty wriggly baby and it was a disaster for us all. Putting him in his cot in his wee room next to ours with all doors open had seemed the perfect solution until this crazy regression thing started. Ah well. bean 612 on another thread (about considering cc as a last desperate resort - whole other story...) suggested this thread to me. Feel as if I'm going a bit mad with sleep deprivation. Thought this Bad Time had all ended a month ago. Not so.

Anyway. How are things with youse? Read the whole thread at various points last night and managed my first chuckle in weeks. Thank you all

Hello all - posted on this thread ages ago. Hope everyone's sleeping is getting better. My Daniel (DS2) is now 5 and abit months - and while his sleep did get better for a while, it has got worse again - for the past couple of weeks at nights he has been waking every 1.5 to 2 hours through the night. Even when I try to co-sleep with him. I know that he CAN put himself to sleep - as he does at the start of the night and for his day time naps - but for some reason he just doesnt want to at nighttimes when he wakes up from sleep. Am v bleary eyed - particularly as am home alone with Danny and DS1 this week as DH is away on a climbing break. To be honest, I cant wait till Danny is 6 months so I can start moving away from night time feeds (the only thing that seems to be able to put him back to sleep at nights) as I know he'll be over his growth spurts by then...

dinky have a look here growth spurts go on a while longer than 6 months. Its obviously up to you but my view wrt dd is that if it gets her back to sleep/keeps her asleep then I'm all for carrying on . I don't know how else I'd settle her (one trick pony me).

I read the other thread but didn't add anything. As I have posted here, we co-sleep. I read a few books about infant development and co-sleeping and found them really eye-opening. I adjusted my expectations about dd and decided to co-sleep full time. It has made a world of difference for us. It took a while to get used to it but I now love it. I used to check dd was breathing about 5 times a night [neurotic emoticon] - that was part of the reason I was so bloody tired.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I was very anti-co-sleeping (rod for your back etc etc) but in the end it was what my dd needed. She now sleeps-through in that she doesn't really wake to feed, she does it in her sleep. Yes, it disturbs my sleep but nothing like getting her out of her moses basket/cot and sitting up feeding her and then putting her back.

It didn't work for me when I was doing it part time and I had to give it a week or so before I could fully relax and sleep well. I am only sharing this as another option. I would read about co-sleeping and think "but I can't do it and what if she's in bed with us forever?" but actually I can and she won't! I hate to hear of mums feeling sleep-deprived and crap (read back through this, I was HullabaLulu, I joined this thread exhausted). Now I feel like me again and dh and I get to spend our evenings together rather than me dashing off to bed as soon as dd fell asleep (6pm!).

I moan post on MN about other things now

Thanks Hulla - last night was a better night in that Danny only woke three times so feeling bit happier about life today. Thanks for letting me know that about growth spurts - I just remember DS1's 6 month growth spurt being the killer and then after that didnt have any real problems with night feeds with him as he got his sleeping sorted shortly after that spurt. DS1 was a high need baby so I feel your pain there - though now he's a funny independent sociable 3 year old, so there is light at the end of the tunnel! Danny is generally a chilled baby - which is why his night time antics are such a shock to me.

Oh thats reassuring dinky I think dd is going through her 6 month growth spurt at the moment. She was feeding 2 hourly last night and lots yesterday and today as well as being really mardy.

Thank god for light at the end of the tunnel - though I hope she settles before she is 3!

Glad you had a better night with your ds - perhaps you won't need the 6 month thread either!

Have just spent the past ten minutes reading chunks of this thread going 'that's just like dd', 'yes, me too', etc etc. This is a very useful (i.e. supportive) thread.

We go through a two-hour night waking cycle these days. DD can even manage waking almost to the minute (10.20/12.20/2.20 etc). I've been feeding her to sleep each time as it works very quickly and I can do it half-asleep. But it does mean picking her up loads of times from 7pm to 7am. It got so much that I fell asleep this afternoon for an hour (thankfully DH was on hand to take over baby duties). I never nap!

Has anyone worked out which of the following is a better approach - 1. feed more during the day so they wont need fed at night (DD does seem hungry when she wakes), or 2. feed less frequently during day and baby will require feeding less frequently at night ???