Hoping someone may be able to offer some advice. My DD had been sleeping really well since 9 weeks of age - bed between 7 and 8pm, dreamfeed at 11pm, wakes for a feed at 5.30am then back to sleep for another hour or two. However the last week has been a nightmare. She still goes down between 7 and 8pm and has her dreamfeed at 11pm however every night she is waking at 3.30am for a feed and refuses to go back to sleep. She falls asleep in my arms no problem but will wake after 10 or 20 minutes for the rest of the night until I finally get her up in the morning. It doesn't matter if I feed her to sleep, rock/bounce to sleep or even bring her into bed with me - she just can't seem to let herself fall asleep. She's so exhausted that even her day naps are out. She was never a good day napper - usually only having 40 mins, occassionally longer but I didn't mind so much as she was sleeping so well at night.
Anyway my questions are - has anyone else experience this 4 month sleep regression, and if so, how long did it last and did you actively do anything to help your bub through it or did it just work itself out with time. I'm thinking I should probably start to get DD to self settle as she has always been helped to sleep but it was never a problem until now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as these sleepless nights are driving me insane!
i think u will find 90% of us went through the same sorta thing at 4 months. Mia's lasted for a couple weeks but seems to be starting again *sigh* theres nothing u can really do that ur not already doing, just go with the flow, hopefully it will be over sooner rather than later.
we had the same thing here at about 4 months...and again at 6 and 7 months!! Every time she would be about to learn something new her sleep would go out the window...waking in the night for two-three hours! or up every two hours!! lasted a few weeks or untill she had mastered the new skill...be it waving, sitting, crawling, clapping etc .
I have no advice on how to make her sleep more or change it, we just went with it and hoped it would end soon....which it did, she slept from 6pm till 6.30am with one quick wake and feed at 1pm!
I feed or rock DD to sleep for every sleep (day and night) at times when she was waking lots and i was tired i convinced my self that she was having all these problems because i was feeding her to sleep and that she needed to self settle, but now...with more sleep under my belt im dont mind haveing to help her to sleep, i can see that its not because she doesnt self settle that she was waking lots.
Big hugs for the sleeplessness....i just keep telling my self ''it will all change again soon'' but then that is true also when you are sleeping well, i always remind myself to enjoy the good long sleeps im getting at the mo because ''it will all change again soon''!! lol
Thanks Hollye and Beckoes it's nice to know that it only lasted a few weeks for both of you. Last night was particularly bad - waking every half hour from 10.30pm. I'm praying tonight is a little bit better. I can't even manage to grab a nap in the day as she's not sleeping well there either. Oh well, hopefully only another week or so...
If you google "4 month sleep regression" you will see its a very common phenomenon. Sad, but true! We just rode it out. We thought he was a bit young to really do much "sleep training", so we just had to tough it out. The worst of Peter's bad sleeps lasted for maybe 3 weeks or so. But it would be like, a few bad nights and then just when you thought you might go crazy, a good night thrown in.
Hoping for a good night for you!!
BTW, be warned. It happens again at between 8-10 months. We've had a very bad day....
Aw, Claire, I'm very sorry. We had a regression at 4 months too, but it wasn't as bad as what you're experiencing. I really hope she gets through this patch soon and gives you some decent rest before too long.
Have you got any family or friends who can help you out by looking after her for a couple of hours during the day so you can have a nap?
4 month sleep regression
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