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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Dreaded. 4. Month. Wakeful
Okay. I had never heard of this until TB. I was even convinced it didn't exist... Until last night.
LO normally STTN, whether it be 6 or 9 hours. Whether he sleep 10-6 and have a feeding then sleep 6-8 or whether he sleep 12-8 then have a feeding and sleep 8-10, he always eventually SLEPT!
Last night he wanted nothing to do with sleep. Tried to attempt his bedtime routine and it failed. Tried getting him 'sleepy' and such around 1030 like usual.
He was up till 1245am, then swaddled and asleep peacefully in his crib for a mere 45 MINSS!!! Then, back to sleep like 10 minutes, and up again! Gave him a bottle, and finally at 2am, back to sleep. We slept till 615, and up again. Now sleeping again. He keeps either waking up crying, or is just wide awake one second and asleep the next.
Is this it girls? The dreadeddddd 4 month wakeful? Because this has never happened, and its horrible.
How long does it last/what do you do to make it better?
P.S. of course he decides to do all this on the night before my only day off in the past 2 weeks when we have to be up by alarm 2 hours earlier than usual for his 4 month drs apt
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Dreaded. 4. Month. Wakeful
I've had a weird experience with the 4 month wakeful. DS will go through a week or 2 of it, go back to sleeping great for 4-5 days, then start getting up again. It started for us a month ago, and it's been back and forth ever since.
The only thing you can do to make it better is lots and lots of caffeine.
So I have to say that so far, I seem to have the worst case of it that I've ever heard anyone talk about openly on this board. The "4 month wakeful" is a bump name. Reality is that it's a "sleep regression" and commonly happens when babies hit growth or developmental milestones. (And these milestones can often be cognitive - so it's not necessarily something obvious like rolling over.)
ANYWAY . . .
DS had a sleep regression from around 3 months to the week before he turned 4 months. (This one was definitely for rolling - and it ended when he was successfully rolling.) Then we got a week of reprieve (although not STTN), and he then hit another sleep regression - and hit it HARD. (This one may be due to teething, or finding his voice - both of which he seems to be doing now . . . but who knows.) And now, 2 days before his 5 month birthday it's still going strong.
Next weeks makes 9 weeks for us. It effing sucks. It effing sucks hardcore. This is harder for me than the newborn phase was - because the adrenaline of having a new baby is gone and it's been replaced with sheer and total exhaustion.
As for what you can do to make it better - unfortunately there is not a thing you can do to make your baby STTN again. If your child is waking up for developmental reasons, no amount of sleep training or feeding in the world will prevent the wake ups. You just put one exhausted foot in front of the other and hope tomorrow night will be better and then you cry when it's not, and move on to the next day.
Hang in there. As horribly exhausted as I am and as miserable as sleep regressions are, I'm still alive.
We've been going through this since 3.5 months. She wakes up at least every four hours. I usually just feed her and let her sleep with me. She was STTN beautifully until that point. Last night, she just flat refused to go to sleep. She was in a wonderful mood, talkative, smiley but just wide awake until 2am!
You will get through it. You will be tired all the time, but you will make it. Try and enjoy the extra time you have with your LO.