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4 months is when it finally started to get a little better. Before that she was up 2-3 times most nights and we were nursing or bouncing to sleep and it took forever. And a lot of the time she woke up when we put her down anyway. It was brutal. Then we did CIO and she learned how to fall asleep on her own, which meant that when she woke up or stirred, she could fall back asleep.

She's 5 months now and wakes up once or twice a night to eat, but it's quick-- like 20 minutes eating and right back to sleep. We put her down awake for naps and bedtime and she falls asleep on her own. It's so much better. I think she hit her '4 month sleep regression' at 3 months though.

We co bedded too. At 4 months she would sleep for a 5 hour stretch, then 2 hours, then every hour after that. At 4.5 months she started waking up every 90 minutes. This continued until 6 months when we sleep trained so shed put herself to sleep- then we started getting a longer stretch. We continued co bedding. At 8.5 months a good night is a 4 hour stretch.

We know we have to move her out of our bed and out of our room, but aren't ready to do it yet. So instead we are tired.

At 3 months, he started going to sleep at 7pm-7am and only waking up once at 3am. It was amazing.

Then 4 months hit and we've been waking up every hour from 7-am-7pm. It's been awful. I was about to break. I was nursing-to-sleep, then putting him to bed, slowly and careful as not to wake him.

Two days ago I changed up the routine. I nurse-him-to-almost-sleep, then I would pat and bounce him for about 20 seconds, give him and kiss and tell him goodnight, lay him down with his little stuffed bear. He would stretch and get comfy, then I rubbed him tummy and whisper-sang him a couple songs until he was out. The first time we tried this he slept from 6:30pm until 6:00am without one wakeup! Then went back to sleep for another hour. Both times I woke up on my own to find him looking at me, smiling. Usually he wakes me up, crying. The next night he woke up every 3.5 hours. Tonight he's been asleep for 3 hours, so I guess we'll see how it goes again.

At four months we were having two wakeups usually - bedtime at 8, average wakeup of 2am and 4:30am. I was OK with this. We didn't hit the four month regression, but hit major major sleep problems at 5.5 months - often waking every hour, not being able to put LO down etc. It's lasted for almost two months now.

I just didn't get to the point where I could handle CIO (not that we won't get there someday) so I've been working on rocking to sleep instead of nursing to sleep, and hopefully then transitioning to putting down more awake. I never thought it would work, but she only really protested the first few days and now one week in she's used to the new routine. The long stretch to start the night seems to be returning somewhat this last week, maybe due to the change?

I always struggled with knowing when she's hungry, so I probably fed at all wakeups much longer than necessary, but it is hard. I still often feed when she wakes.

My LO will cobed, but she wakes much more frequently to nurse when she's in our bed. Maybe try moving LO to his own room for the beginning of the night to see if you can get some longer stretches? It might be a rough few nights but possibly worth it in the long run?

@jetsa: at 4 months, my LO was in a massive sleep regression that started a week after 3 months and lasted until we sleep trained last week (she's almost 6 months).

Our LO was waking up probably 4-8 times a night at 4 months. It was brutal. I really wanted to try to "wait it out" to see if she would figure out her own sleep issues, but she never did. Our problem was not the intial falling asleep (she's always fallen asleep easily without much from us), but all the wake ups. My in laws came and stayed with us for a month when she was 4.5 months-5.5 months and we started switching off who would take her overnight (they begged to help and we were exhausted so we let them).

But starting January 1st, I decided New Year, New Habits. We moved her crib to her own room for a few nights. Then we sleep trained with the Ferber method.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP NIGHT FEEDINGS ENTIRELY TO SLEEP TRAIN.

Our LO at 6 months is still not ready to go 12 hours without eating (I EP, so I know exactly how many oz she eats a day), but she was waking up far more often than she was wanting to eat anyway, so it was those wakings I wanted to eliminate.

We sleep trained her to sleep 8-1 or 2 am, then feed, Then sleep till 6 and feed. Wake up for the day at 7:30-8 am. I posted about our experience here http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-connect-babys-sleep-cycles

around that age, for nighttime sleep, i was giving LO about 15 minutes before going in to feed him (we do not co-sleep, though). he would sometimes settle back down, and his first stretch of sleep lengthened to about 6 hours. i don't know how much of it was waiting the 15 minutes or just him doing it on his own. when your LO wakes, instead of nursing right away, maybe you could pat/comfort/soothe/pacifier to see if he falls back asleep?

for the falling asleep part, we sleep trained around 3 months because i was at my wit's end.

ETA: if he did not settle down after 15 minutes, i would go ahead with the nighttime feed.

@jetsa: that's something I can't figure out. She won't take more than three naps a day, even if they are short and the third ended hours beire bedtime- she just will not go back to sleep from five on. So right now I'm trying to push the last nap backa little bit so she wakin up after four at least, then in bed between 7-7:30 ish. It's very much a work in progress. I've posted that question before and people responded helpfully- go through my posts to find it.

@jetsa: my LO is 5 months next week, and she still has a little cat nap before bed. She usually falls asleep while nursing from 6-630 and then we put her to bed between 7-730. She just can't seem to go all evening without a nap. I just started putting her down awake at bedtime and it usually only takes a few minutes of fussing. She is usually only awake for 1.5 hours at a time during the day, so depending on how long her naps are, she'll have 2 or 3 naps ( not counting the little catnap before bed). She sleeps until 5am, eats, then sleeps til 730/8am. We went through the 4 month regression before Xmas and she was up 4 times a night but it only lasted a week thankfully!

@jetsa: Mine started waking every 2 hours after 16 weeks. I tried letting her cry a few min before going to her, and she'd fall back asleep, but wake 30 min later anyways, so I gave up on that. Now, 2 weeks later she's starting to stretch it to 3 hours. Still pretty awful, but a lot better. I'm blaming the 4 mo sleep regression. Oh, and she's just started fighting the fourth nap if it happens after 4:30 (unless she's in the car). I figure it just means an earlier bedtime (and maybe the other three naps will become longer??)

LO#1 was sleeping 12 hrs straight at 4 months, and LO#2 is 3.5 months right now and doing around 7.5 hrs stretch.

they were/are bf and supplemented with formula, so i don't know if that maybe contributed to a fuller stomach for sttn?

also, we do use a pacifier for naps and night sleep, just until they fall asleep and it falls out on it's own, or we pluck it out of their mouths.

for motn wake ups while training, if i didn't think they were hungry, i just popped his pacifier in when he started stirring a little more, and if he truly wasn't too hungry, he would go back to sleep for another few hours. if he was hungry, the paci wouldn't cut it and he would break out in a full cry and i would feed him. that's how i judged the 'is he hungry or not' problem!

hope it works out for you!! sleep=awesome.