4 month sleep regression, about to lose my sht

jonesie2010 · July 2013

4 month sleep regression, about to lose my sht

I don't know if I'm looking for advice or empathy or just a place to vent, but I am about to lose it over here. It seems like when I see other moms talking about this sleep regression, their LOs are just waking an extra time or going to sleep a little later and it just lasts a few days. But what we are experiencing is WAY worse and I don't know if we're doing something wrong or what. DD is waking every one to two hours ALL NIGHT LONG and has been for 3 weeks. It's like she physically cannot make it from one sleep cycle to the next. That would be bad enough but she also fights sleep like we're torturing her. I have to bounce and shush her for what seems like forever and she's flailing and kicking the whole time. We have had some limited success with putting her down drowsy but awake, but that's only if she's not overtired, which she usually is because she fights naps too.

We don't have anyone who can help out at night, so DH and I are taking shifts. But the brunt is falling on me because I can usually calm her easier than he can. Today I took DD to daycare and then called in to work so I could sleep. But I can't keep missing work over this and I am at my wits end.

We have her 4 month checkup this week so I plan to ask for advice but I'm afraid we may have to do some sort of sleep training because I can't physically do what it takes to get her to sleep anymore, and we just have to do it all over a couple of hours later anyway.

Is anyone going through it as bad as we are? Any words of encouragement? Please someone tell me it ends! I am at a breaking point.

luckydust · July 2013

My issue was not as severe, but as soon as I noticed regression, I went to the 3,5, 10 rule. Never picked her up, and by the 10th minute she was asleep. Check and soothe with pats "shh" 1st time only. After that it was repositioning or paci, patting. 3rd time just paci fix. So many methods, do some research to see what feels right. sleep training is helping lo in the long run.

monalua · July 2013

I think it's pretty normal, especially until you sleep train, if you plan to do that. My son woke every 1 to 2 hours at this age and my daughter who is 4 months old does now too. Maybe it's genetic lol. It is pretty horrible but I stay at home, I can't imagine working and not being able to nap during the day, I feel for you big time. We didn't sleep train because I am a huge wimp and can't take the crying. We cosleep and we all sleep well that way so it works for us. You could also try having DH handle all wakeups between say from 9 pm to 1 am and then you do 1 am to 6 am or something like that. That way you could each at least get 1 solid block of sleep. I'd definitely see what the pedi suggests. You could try all the tricks like white noise, double swaddle, paci, rock n play, sleeping in the swing etc. Hang in there! You are not alone!

jonesie2010 · July 2013

Pinkie78:
I'm sorry that sounds terrible! nbsp;Our son did the 1,3,5,7 wake ups for a week and I about lost it.how old is your daughter 4, 4.5 months?. Our son seemed to come out of it at 4.5 months. nbsp;I swear he heard us talking about how we were going to sleep train him.nbsp;How is she sleeping at daycare?

She is 17 weeks. Her sleeping at daycare is kind of a mixed bag. Sometimes she only catnaps all day. Sometimes she does 3 one hour naps. Sometimes she does 2 2.5 hour naps.

Thanks for the replies, all.

dawnj08 · July 2013

Our peanut went down normally at 8 but during his wakeful he would consistently start waking up at 12:30 every 1 to 3 hours. We started sleep training the day after his 4 month check. We followed the 3, 5, 7 minute rule and did not pick up. It was very hard for me to hear him cry but I thought it was important for him to not become reliant on needing me to fall back asleep and after two nights he dropped the middle of the night wake ups and went back to his normal 4 am wake up (which is much more manageable). He's 4.5 months now and sometimes wakes around 2 but is right back to sleep widen given his paci. Hang in there mama!! Think of down the road when she'll be sleeping TOO much

stephrodgers07 · July 2013

Mine sleeps in 20 minute increments.

I try for two to three hours before I give up and just have him be on the boob all night long. Not a co sleeper at all.

He's been doing this for 6 weeks.

PippaLee33 · July 2013

We went through this with DD#1 and I'm preparing myself to go through it again with DD#2. I actually just found the notebook I kept next to my bed where I wrote down all the times she woke up and how long she was awake each time. I don't know why I used to write it down, maybe it just gave me something to do since I was losing my mind. It lasted from 4.5 months to 6 months and no matter what we tried she was up all night long. We ended up sleep training at 6 months and she starting STTN again after a few weeks.

Hang in there, it will get better but it might take awhile..

ShadyKull · July 2013

My little guy went through this for several weeks also, including the acting like nap time was torture. As soon as we walked into his room with him he would start screaming. Swaddle, screaming. Rocking, screaming. Try to nurse, screaming. I started wearing ear plugs at every nap time. I too, was planning on serious sleep training soon. Knocking on wood, but over the past week, it has gotten so much better. For a few days I just held and nursed him as long as he wanted for every nap. So maybe he doesn't hate naps so much now. We have just started putting him in his cribs for naps and he seems to like it. He will even wake up briefly when put down, but go right back to sleep. That is HUGE for him!

Hopefully it gets better soon for you!

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