Ha ha ha. What a surprise, another sleep post from ellewoods! So, I am pretty sure O baby is in the 4 month sleep regression. Before, I wasn't too worried about it because her sleep has always sucked, so what could she regress to? She has never slept longer than 4 hours (and that has only happened like 5 times) in her tiny lifespan and we are used to waking up every 2-3 hours anyways. Oh, but wait. Now she is waking up pretty much every 45 min-1 hour. Cannot be comforted by anything but the boob. We try to rock her and soothe her other ways, but ultimately after doing this for around 30 minutes and her crying almost the entire time OR getting comforted and then crying once we put her back into the crib, the boob is the easiest solution. She still wakes up every hour, but at least the boob only takes a couple minutes. I am sure we are creating all sorts of problems by nursing to sleep every time this happens, but did anyone else just nurse to get baby back to sleep during this horrible regression? Last night we tried the crib, our bed, the swing.....she just wouldn't sleep longer than 1 hour. And she ALWAYS gives me at least 1.5 hours of nap for the first nap, not today! Girlfriend woke up after 13 minutes! STOP. I was able to get her back for another 30. Whoa. Anyway, are we creating big time issues nursing back to sleep at night?
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I did the same thing. It might have created problems (I still nurse her back to sleep in the night at 1 yo). But it's still way easier to do that than anything else. Does it prevent her from STTN? Maybe, but again, I'm not worried about it. She sleeps 8-5 and then nurses and up for the day at 7. It's not like she did the nurse-every-hour thing for more than a couple weeks.
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Just here to commiserate. My son sounds like your LO. His sleep was ALWAYS terrible the entire first year. Honestly, I did whatever worked to get him to sleep, and usually the only thing that worked was nursing.
Do you have a daytime routine established? That worked fairly well for LO1 around the 5 month mark.
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We also had a really bad 4 mo sleep regression. DS would wake every 1-2 hrs all night, and we had to either nurse or bounce him to sleep. I nursed him to sleep for every nap too. I started to nurse him to sleep (side laying) in the middle of our bed (he didn't roll yet) and then get up once he drifted off. He would usually only sleep for about 30 mins that way. Sorry to say it never got better for us. We did CIO (Sleep Easy Solution) at 5 months. Now life is good
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@Grace: Well, at least it didn't create permanent problems for you guys. But a few weeks? omg....yawn.
@lamariniere: Yeah....nursing is sometimes just the easiest, but my husband doesn't want to keep doing that because he thinks we are ultimately creating a bigger problem. But, at 2 am and then 3 am and then 4 am....I am tired and don't have the patience to rock her back to sleep when I know she's going to be getting up shortly anyways. We have a semi-daytime routine established. I mean, we always wake her sometime between 7 am-730 am and then she has an awake time of around 1.5 hours and then goes for a nap. Her naps are not at a certain time, just depends on the length of her last nap. What kind of routine did you have in place?
@Seattlemom: Well, at least you understand my pain! I mean, are babies just overtired, hot messes for their entire 4th month? Even her naps are starting to go down the tubes.....She will not nurse to sleep for naps, which is weird since she does for bed! We are fully planning on sleep training ASAP. She is 4 months today and has her check up next week and will be discussing with the ped. We cannot take it anymore. -
The 4 month sleep regression was the worst (other than 18 months!). Just do what you have to do to get some rest be it nursing to sleep, using the swing, cosleeping, etc. This too shall pass, although it may not feel like it !!!
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@ellewoods84: why are you waking her in the morning? For LO1, I don't remember when he would wake up, but he would go down for the first nap within 1 hr of waking up. Sounds crazy, not having that much awake time, but it worked once we got into the routine. After that, I would aim for a nap after lunch and in the late afternoon. Sometimes he would nap for an hour, sometimes only 20 minutes. But what really helped was learning to just roll with it. I know it sounds wonky, but I stressed myself out SO much that first year trying to get him to sleep that when I finally accepted that he was a crap sleeper, I felt slightly better about the whole sleep issue. Just after 1 year he was sleeping 12 hours at night with 2 big naps during the day. It will get better!
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@ellewoods84: yes for sure feel your pain. That was one of the hardest times after LO was born. def talk to your ped about it and sleep train as soon as you feel comfortable! One positive note- he is 15 mo now and hasn't had another sleep regression yet!
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@lamariniere: well, we have been waking her because we were having this huge problem where she was sleeping until whatever time and then taking a major snooze (2-3 hours) and then when we put her to sleep at night, she would wake up 45 minutes after and then stay awake for 3-4 hours. Ever since we have been waking her at a more consistent time, that problem has kind of been eliminated. Now she's just waking frequently, but at least not staying awake for a million hours. Her awake time after waking in the morning is usually closer to 1 hour 10 min-1 hr. 20 min and she usually takes a pretty good nap. I am trying to roll with it....just sucks! I am glad there is a light at the end though!
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So we definitely have different babies when it comes to sleep but how old is your LO now?
We had a crazy bad stretch at week 17 and I couldn't tell you how many weeks he is today but week 17 is etched into my memory forever. Short naps even for my crap napper. NO sleeping ever unless he nursed to sleep and my guy doesn't nurse to sleep ever. Up every two hours at night, frequently for hours at a time. It was wild. I freaked about nursing to sleep bc I didn't want to introduce a new bad habit and what if it wasn't a phase and never got over it?
He did get over it (the nursing to sleep part, I mean). Probably within a week or so in our case although the night wakeups lasted. So I dunno. Take that for what it's worth.
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@ellewoods84: oh wow, that is complicated! I guess just keep going with it. I know how awful sleep deprivation is!
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@gilmoregirl: she is 17 weeks!!! I hope it's just a bad week like you had. At least all the nursing didn't create bad habits. How is your sleep now?
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@ellewoods84: Sleep regressions are a beast. But they end...eventually.
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@ellewoods84: hit or miss, but he's much easier to get to sleep. Naps are finally starting to be ok (ie, longer than 28 mins) but night sleep has become really unpredictable. Few nights have been anywhere near as bad as week 17. I really wouldn't say we are past it, but no new bad habits.....at least so far. Hope you guys can catch a bit of a break soon.
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The best advice I've gotten and taken is live in the moment. Do what you have to do now. Bad habits can be broken later (IF they form!) No sense worrying about what might happen in the future.
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