LO just turned 3 months a few days ago and her sleep is totally wrecked. She napped and slept great for three months and suddenly we can't get her to go down. Why??? I spent the afternoon bouncing her in my arms, not even the RnP would cut it.
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@PawPrints: I don't know if there's a 3 month regression but we went through something very similar to this. I'm no expert, but I think it's because as newborns, during that 4th trimester, most babies can sleep pretty much anywhere/through anything. Then they become more aware and require more rocking/bouncing/etc.... So if your LO is used to that, then it becomes even harder to not do that.
For us, LO refused to nap anywhere but our arms from about week 8 (before then, he napped anywhere). Nights were still ok until about week 12, when that went down the drain too.... We started a bedtime routine very early on and tried not to establish any "bad" habits, and a nap routine was set a bit later. I think that helped, even though at the time it did not seem like it was doing anything at all. We ultimately sleep trained for bedtime only, and that helped immensely with naps as well.
Do you have a routine for naps and bedtime? Have you tried a swing? If all else fails, I'd try putting LO in a carrier for naps. That worked for me for a little while... -
I think so. The worst week of DS' life was between weeks 10 and 11. He went TEN. ENTIRE. DAYS. without sleeping for more than 20 minutes. And he wouldn't fall back asleep unless he we were doing deep knee bends. Like, he wouldn't even let us sit down. And so we got in this "I'm overtired so all I can do is scream" death spiral and I had a nervous breakdown. (Don't freak out, DS also had colic and reflux so he was really screamy in general). Its why DH forced me to sleep train early. My son's witching hour was like 9pm to 2am every night, and then he screamed most of the day anyway, so he figured if he's going to cry, he might as well learn to sleep.
Same thing as @BabyTsMom. We set up a bedtime routine and consistent sleep environment and stuck to it for every nap and every bedtime. White noise machine, swaddle/sleepsack, dark room, sing the same 2 songs while swaying and patting, I love yous, down in crib. The only difference for bedtime was a bath beforehand.
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I never officially heard of a three month regression but for us, and several of our friends, 3-3.5 months was way worse than 4 months when the big regression supposedly takes place. Honestly, between 2.5-3.5 months was the hardest month of my LOs life (she is almost 2 now).
We ended up sleep training at 3.5 months when nothing else worked and I was about to ready to absolutely lose it and drop her off at the fire station. After that point she really turned around and things got much better.
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We hit the 4 month sleep regression early - at about 14 weeks. LO was a week late and the WW apps and all the emails and stuff you get go by due date, not birth date, as well... so maybe you are in the 4 month regression?
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My LO started the 4 month regression early, like 13 weeks. So yes your LO could be doing the same.
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Oh my god, @gingerbebe that is an absolute and utter nightmare. Thanks, that absolutely puts my problems into perspective. We aren't facing anything nearly like that (..... yet....)
@BabyTsMom: I thought we had been doing really well with the whole sleep hygiene thing, putting her down in the crib drowsy-but-awake and letting her put herself to sleep, white noise, that whole deal. Then out of nowhere, this past week or so she just stopped doing it. So we did the swing, the rock and play, and those worked well for like a week, and then these last couple of days NOT EVEN THOSE are working for her to go down for daytime naps. Only the carrier got her to go to sleep for more than 25 minutes today. Thank GOD she will still reliably fall asleep immediately in the carrier. I wore her around the neighborhood for 2.5 hours this afternoon and she slept like a rock. But of course, I couldn't stop moving that whole time.
She is still doing great at night, knock on wood. It now takes us at least 30 minutes to get her to sleep but she will stay asleep from 8pm-2am (technically STTN but that's not worth much to me obviously) and then wake up for feeds at 2am, sometimes 4-5am, and 6-7am.
I hear all this great advice about establishing good sleep habits but I just don't know how to do it. I don't see how we can do the whole routine with putting her down, coming back in to soothe her, putting her down again, repeat ad nauseum until she falls asleep - when in reality she starts screaming while we are still holding her. Forget about even trying to put her down. You know this morning she actually skipped both the morning and midday naps almost entirely? Again though, at least she's sleeping at night, so so much to be thankful for there.
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Just do what you have to. The point is you keep trying the routine to reinforce that this is sleep time but also get her the rest she needs however you can do it if she is fighting naps. If it's a wonder week or something, it will pass and they will go back to the routine.
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@PawPrints: I feel ya. I agree with @gingerbebe to just do what you have to do. Sounds like you're trying to do the "right" things but sometimes babies don't get the memo! What I would do when my LO was fighting naps was go through our routine (even though it didn't help at all), just to get him used to it. Then I would do what I needed to do to get him to nap. Which for us was me holding him in his room for hours at a time, all day every day. I was miserable. I did that for a couple of months until even holding him stopped working. (Then it was sleep/nap training for us).
Since you said even while holding her she's screaming, maybe see what happens if you put her down? She's screaming either way.....
Hang in there! -
Yup, we hit the "4 month" regression at about 3.5 months, it was a disaster. After 4 weeks of sleeping hell we did CIO using the Sleep Easy Solution book.
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I don't think every baby follows the same timeline for regressions..they can happen anytime.
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