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Four Month Sleep Regression
Published June 17, 2009 | 
Holy moly, let’s talk about this, shall we?
My poor little child has become a restless monster at night. The girl who was going to bed quietly at 7:30 am and getting up at 7am with only one or two feedings is no more.
Last night:
7:30-8:30: fussy.
8:30-9: ear-piercingly fussy
9-11: Asleep. Is it even worth pointing out that 11 is when we went to bed? Nursed her back to sleep.
1am: Awake. Brief nurse to sleep.
3am: Awake. Brief nurse to sleep.
4am: Awake. Brief nurse to sleep.
5am: Wakes up crying. Pull her into bed, side-nurse while I try desperately to fall back to sleep. This takes awhile for us both as she keeps crying quietly and nuzzling against me.
6am: Wakes up grunting and trying to roll over against me. Very briefly nurse her to sleep, then lay her in the pack & play beside the bed where she usually sleeps, so she has more space.
7am: Awake and ready to get out of bed.
Fortunately, she reliably takes a nap about an hour after she gets up. That nap lasts between 30 minutes and two hours. However long it is, I am hopping in bed with her for it! I’m completely exhausted.
Unfortunately this is normal. It could be a growth spurt, which they have a lot of in the first year. -_- My daughter just went through another one. What I used to do with her is, I went in, rubbed her belly or patted her on the back until she calmed down, walked out and repeat until it had been 4+ hours so when I nursed her she actually ate and wasn’t just using me as a soother. Once they start using you as their human pacifier it’s all over. LOL!! WHEW! That was a hard habit to break!
Good luck and hang in there. She’ll be 1 before you know it, then 2 then rolling her eyes at you when she’s 13. -_- Even then you lose sleep. Sorry. LOL!!!
hi love… keep in mind that i HATE giving advice because magoo is a total weirdo and not “normal” in any way, shape, or form. so i feel like my advice is UNapplicable to everyone. with that being said…..
my first guess is teeth… in my experience, babies who “eat briefly” or nurse briefly in your case, are teething. they hurt or ache and so they eat long enough to satisfy a little bit of hunger and then stop because they’re uncomfortable.
do you see signs of teething? lots of drooling… maybe a rash under her lip or on her chin… ear pulling or biting on everything…. when jackson was teething he would not only bite on his toys, but while biting, he would grip another toy and squeeze the ever livin shit out of it because he was so frustrated with the pain of the teeth.
ok… if it’s not teeth, i concur with nina and the growth spurt. the cool thing about growth spurts is that the “worst of it” only lasts 2-3 days max….. if it’s the teeth, you’ve got one helluva ride ahead of you.
sorry, i know all this sucks… and it’s a vicious cycle. she is tired. you’re tired. she’s not eating/nursing enough to keep her satisfied to sleep for a long period of time. she wants to be comforted and you just want her to shut up!
i’m sorry. you’re in my thoughts. give her sweet cheeks some lovin!
@Nina: I do try rubbing/patting her back to get her back to sleep… so far no luck. May just try picking her up and walking her to sleep instead of nursing though.
@Nic: Really don’t believe it’s teething as she’s totally normal during the days. I do think it’s just a growth spurt / development type thing. Still, oh my gosh, i could use some sleep!
I’m so sorry. We just got over this and it sucked. 4 month sleep regression, growth/development spurt what ever it is it sucks. The good news for me at least was at the end of Lily’s regression she finally had a normal reliable sleep routine.
Oh no! We started this right before he turned 3 mos old and it didn’t stop until sleep training last week. It got that he was waking up anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours. It is so painful, in fact I am still so so tired. I hope like Lily she gets better on her won, girls are supposedly better sleepers. And some babies don’t do this at all. Cross your fingers that this just a fluke.
Also wanted to tell you that your letter t o Maia was so beautiful, she is going to love reading these when she is older.
Awww! Sorry to hear that. Little One went through a brief period of that. Now she sleeps from 9PM to 9AM. Oh, it’s nice getting a good night’s sleep, but the trade off is that she is up ALL DAY! There’s no reason a baby should be awake all day. She needs to nap!!! Gah.
Anyway, I’m sure everyone has told you that this is normal and you’ll hopefully be able to soon enjoy longer nighttime sleeps
Hopefully!
P.S. I hopped over here via Jinxy’s blog.
We’ve had drastic sleep regressions at every possible stage. It sucks. Big time. I completely feel your pain. Heck, we’re still fighting it and she’s 20 months old. Yeah.
My son has a 4 month sleep regression every so often too. He’s two.
I’d say mine were having this 4-month thing, but when I think about it, they’ve always been like this. It’s starting to get slightly better though. We’re at 5 months next week, but 4 months past the due date (and these things apply). I’ve been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Weissbluth and it got me to start putting the boys down earlier – like 6:30 now (instead of 8 or 9 or 10) because they were so A W F U L from 5pm on. Now they go down easier, but are still getting up and eating a few times a night. Our pediatrician thinks that’s not necessary, but when my kids polish off a bottle in 15 minutes, I know they’re hungry and not just in a waking habit. Anyway, as you can see I’m a little obsessed with the whole sleep question myself anymore…
I’m gonna say that she is well aware that you guys have her schedule down and now she’s keeping you on your toes!
Hope she sleeps better soon! My favorite thing to do is sleep when the babe is sleeping. Good for you!
Passing on the Honest Award to you! Come pick it up at my blog after your nap!
http://www.militarywifemayhem.com/2009/06/i-love-awards.html
Vanessa
Oh, I feel for you. I took the clock out of my bedroom for this very reason. I couldn’t stand all of the nighttime calculating. Now I can only estimate how little sleep I get, how many times she wakes up, how many times I nurse her! I hope this all improves. Maybe teething is creeping in? Good luck!
I’m living it. Completely understand. I just think it’s a growth/development thing. So much going on in their little minds!
I do find it kinda cute how excited she is about being able to touch her toes but miss my babe who slept thru the night!
let’s hope it passes soon
This only lasted 2-3 nights, and then a few more nights of waking up every 2 hours (which hey, is an improvement from every 1 hour!) … last night she slept 6 hrs in a row but then woke up from 4am-5am to, I dunno, watch the sun rise or something
I agree that it seems like they have a CRAZY amount of stuff going on in their brains. I think we had 7 hours in a row once, in week 16, but of course I went to bed after she’d been down for 2 hours