If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

DS is 16 weeks and had been a really good sleeper. This week he's been all over the place, which I'm figuring has to do with sleep regression. So, if you went through it with your DC, how long did it last? Did your DC return to his/her regular sleeping patterns after? If not, what changed? And did you just let them sleep whenever they wanted or did you try to structure them while it was happening (ie, DS has started taking a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, should I let him? And he's treating his 8pm bedtime like a nap, then waking after about 40 minutes and wanting to stay awake for 2-3 hours. Do we let him or do we keep trying to get him back into bed? I know it's nearly impossible to keep a sleepy baby awake or get an awake baby to sleep, so I'm thinking we just go with it, but it'd be good to have some thoughts...

Thanks!

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

2 months and it's still going strong. up 5 times last night.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

It lasted one month because we did CIO at almost exactly 5 months.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

It lasted 3 weeks with my oldest. The twins did not experience the regression.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

It happened w/ DS right after his 4 month shots...I thought that was it, but it lasted about 2-3 weeks. I did nothing different & didn't feed him when he woke up; I just rocked him or held him for a few minutes & put him back down. By 5 months he was back to STTN

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

my DS is 4 months too. has yet to really sleep through the night and eats at least once a night for sure. he does take a reg. morning nap and then sometimes an afternoon one. i have noticed but am not 100% sure that if he takes a too long afternoon nap that he is up more or at least earlier after going down at night.
so you might want to instill an AM nap and a shorter PM nap. also, maybe move his bedtime earlier if that PM nap is shortened? it might help!
i think his PM nap is too long.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

We went thru the same thing.

At 3 months she started STTN then @ about 4 months she started waking up at 330am I I thought it was from her 4 months shots. First few times we did bottle but then I just went in and soothed her and she went back. It lasted about 2 weeks thats it.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

Oh... I did not know it had a name!

We're going through the same thing as 2 PP's and I was hoping that it was just a growth spurt or something and DS will get back into it. I think it has also thrown me off and I've swayed from the routine (leaving out book before bed sometimes and nursing him to sleep) because I've been getting tired myself. But after tonight (Thanksgiving, out late and all) I'm going to get back into the swing of things and see if we cannot get back to our 9-10 hour STTN.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

For me it lasted from about 3.5 months to about 9 mths, in different degrees. I tried different things, but I think she really just needed time and no matter what we did, for awhile it was going to be bad. It does pass...

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

Happened with DS but it also coincided with him getting sick. He's still congested but has gone back to his normal sleep patterns. I would say it lasted 3 weeks before he was consistently back to normal.

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

Re: If your DC had a 4 month sleep regression, please come in...

Yael has been regressing since about 3/3.5 months. She went from 10-12 hours a night to one long stretch of 6-8 hours, and then she's either asleep for another 4, or up every 2.

I talked to our Ped about it and she said it's very common, the reason being that, before 3/4 months babies don't have sleep cycles - they all have a very deep state of sleep. But at 3/4 months they start to develop sleep cycles with alternating light/deep cycles, and that many babies start waking at the light cycles and can't fall back asleep.

She said to expect 6 hour stretches at 4 months, and then 8-10 hour stretches at 6 months.

So, I get her when she wakes up after sleeping 6 hours - but if she wakes before then, I usually let her fuss to sleep. I've been very careful about staying with a structured routine througout the regression - I follow EASY - when she wakes from a nap, I feed her, we play for about an hour, and then naptime. During the day I never let her nap more than 2-3 hours, because I've noticed that she doesn't sleep as well at night if I do.

I also started becoming more intent on letting her fall asleep for naps and bedtime awake, but drowsy. The first day or so she put up a little bit of a fight, but within 2 days she falls asleep without a peep for naps and bedtime. It seems to have helped her sleep longer stretches again at night, and I'm hoping she'll fall naturally into the 8-10 hour stretches again within a month or two. If she hasn't, that's when I'll let her CIO.