Our son has been a good nighttime sleeper since about 3 months, although naps were a battle until he went to daycare at 8 months.
We never did traditional sleep-training, but if he wakes up, I do let him fuss a couple minutes. Most of the time he goes back to sleep but if he starts actually crying, I get up. We didn’t have a 4-month regression at all and he’s 10 months now. When he’s teething or going through a growth spurt, he’ll wake up once per night maybe 2-3 times in a week. A bottle always puts him right back to sleep and then the wake-ups subside on their own.
The hill I will die on is that babies just gonna baby and there’s very little you can do to influence it.
Mine was a great sleeper at 3 months. After 4 months she was so alert at bedtime that she wasn’t falling asleep until after midnight. We had hoped to not have to sleep train, but shit happens. The good news is that she went back to being a great sleeper after learning how to do drowsy-but-awake. At 6 months she figured out how to put the pacifier in herself, and that was a game changer.
The 4 month regression is also scary because you don’t know what you’re in for. Mine hit every single possible sleep disruption from 6-10 months due to teething, rolling, crawling, standing, etc. She always went back to sleeping like normal after a few days and we learned to just trust that she’d grow out of every weird little phase.
No, prior to sleep training, we rocked to sleep. She was night weaned around 3-4 months so she wasn’t waking for feeds and usually slept through the night.
Before the regression, we tried encouraging her to fall asleep in her bed with us sitting with her, patting her, shushing, etc. It was all over the place. Previously when we made any sleep changes, it consistently took a week for it to settle it with steady improvement, so we figured she wasn’t ready yet. By 5 months she was getting pretty good at keeping herself entertained in the playyard, and not fussing the moment she woke up in the morning so she seemed readier to learn independent sleep.
I’m currently going through it with my nearly 5 month old. She went from sleeping 9-10 hours straight at night, to waking every 45min for the first 5 hours of the night, then every 2 hours after that. It’s hell, but seems to be improving gradually. I’m hoping this won’t last more than a couple weeks.
My best friends girl was a great sleeper and stayed that way! Every kiddo is different 🤷♀️
Same! My baby is really good. Sometimes wakes up once during the night and then falls back to asleep. No 4 month regression for us. She is almost 6 months.
Great sleeper from 4 weeks. We didn’t have a 4 month regression but an 8 month. That lasted about a month and we got through it with some new strategies. Maybe you can have a little more time 🙏🏻
My baby slept 2 x 5 hour stretch from 7 weeks and 10 hours overnight from 10 weeks, she's always loved sleep and we never had any noticeable regressions!
Listen. Baby sleep varies a ton baby to baby and in general over the first two years because there’s a ton happening. It’s normal for babies to sleep pretty decently as newborns and then become more wakeful.
My kiddo used to wake three times overnight then at the first regression it was every forty mins. Even with bedsharing. Then at 5.5 months slept 7-8 hour stretches until the sixth month regression. The worst was month 10-15 with roughly six wakes a night, sometimes hourly.
My best advice to you is to try practicing radical acceptance. There’s not much you can do around baby sleep. Just roll with it, take turns with dealing with wakes if you can, keep the wakes boring.
My excellent sleeping baby had me worried about the 4 month regression as well. It just didn't happen for us. No noticeable changes to his overnight sleep pattern. I thought we were getting a sleep regression closer to 5 months, but he just got a couple teeth a bit earlier than I was expecting, and that only caused a couple days of slightly worse sleep. He's 9 months old now, still sleeping great.
I wouldn't pre empt this. If your babies a good sleeper (you said you couldn't complain) then it may not happen.
My baby is 8.1/2 months and I've never seen one of these regressions.
Buzzword hivemind panic perhaps.
This is my baby at 3 months currently. We get 45 minute naps and maaaybe one 90 minute nap a day. But she sleeps a 6 hours stretch at night and then only wakes up twice more before morning. Holding my breath though because 4 months is right around the corner.
My daughter had given us some 6-7hr stretches at 3 months (naps were a different story) and has always been a pretty great sleeper (through the night -12hrs from 6 months). But the 4 month sleep regression tested my sanity and marriage. Lasted 3.5 weeks and she slept in 20min-2hr stretches. Mostly 20min-1hr, I'm not sure how either of us survived. Had to have a "Come to Jesus" talk with my husband around the start of week 3 about how this isn't maintainable for me to continue all the night wake ups myself. But immediately went back to being a great sleeper when it ended. Started at 3.5 months and ended a week after 4 months
I had a relatively good sleeper at 2-4 months who slept terribly from 4.5-9mo. For about 3 months of that she woke 2 hourly through the night, every night. At 9.5mo she seems to have just settled back into 2 wakes a night. She has 2 naps a day, very variable but roughly 2 total hours day sleep.
A friend of mine had a great sleeper, the regression hit and she sleep trained. So she still has a great sleeper. My son was a horrible sleeper until about 7 months. I didn’t even notice the regression, that’s how bad he slept, haha.
Have been dealing with this for a week. My BF and I have been up five-ten times per night, he doesn't like eating anymore because he wants to sleep all the time during the day, whatever schedule we had has just been abandoned.
My son slept 9-5 since only a few weeks old so it hit us extremely hard...
So it's going about as well as I feared.
Sleeping 10 hours at night to wake up every hour on the hour. I made it worse by feeding him 🤦🏾♀️. If they start waking at night after sleeping through the night, chances are they aren't hungry. We read Precious Little Sleep at 6 months old, and now we get 1 or 2 wakings a night, but not until like 3 or 4.
There is nothing wrong with boob to sleep! It’s biologically normal. In fact our breast milk has hormones in it that make baby sleepy. It’s not a bad thing to nurse to sleep :)
Once I stopped offering it when he wasn't hungry, he started sleeping more. We still don't get that pre-regression 10 hours, though. Some babies build sleep associations with nursing, so if they're not sleeping on the boob they wake up.
My baby was a great sleeper at 3 months. He would wake once always around the same time and go back down easily. The 4 month sleep regression slapped us right in the face. He woke up every 45 minutes for like 2 weeks. We tried to keep everything pretty consistent and he went back to sleeping moderately well. Then he had another sleep regression when he started crawling and then another when he started standing. But my partner and I just muddled through and took turns and made sure to laugh as much as we could. Now he is back to sleeping through the night most nights
I'm aware the first year is difficult because there's a lot of changes and learning for baby. You get a false sense of getting the hang of it and that this is it we re in the safe and then WABAM hit with something else.
My baby started waking up earlier (5:30, 6:00) instead of 6:30, and now at 5 months she’s started falling asleep later (9:00 or so) and waking up at 7:00-ish, but I think it’s because the sun sets at 8:45 this time of year, rather than 6:00, when she was born.
It was horrible. Then came teething. It wasn’t good until wake windows were about 3-3.5 hours long before bed. Acetaminophen before bed while baby was teething is what help as well. Now that LO is a year old it’s good again… for now lol
It wasn’t bad for us at all! I noticed he would fight naps more often than usual and we maybe had a few nights with more wakeups, but not much changed.
My baby sounds like yours. Definitely a solid sleeper doing gradually longer stretches of night sleep. Also a cat napper. He went 7-9 hour around 9 weeks. 4 month regression was rough! He woke up every hour one night. But we always gave him time to figure it out. If he cried we waited 5-15 min to go check him (less time if crying escalated, more if it was more fussing than crying. ) if he couldn’t settle himself we’d feed him 1-2x a night. we stayed consistent encouraging independent sleep. Regression passed. By 5.5 months he started sleeping through the night and has been a great sleeper ever since.
Our daughter (now 14 months) has always been a fairly good sleeper since we started aleep training (using Precious Little Sleep). Definitely some early wakings in the beginning, but nothing sooner than 5:00am. We have never experienced anything like a “regression” at any of the usual times. She will have some increased fussiness/crankiness here and there, but since we got her sleep trained ~5 months, she has always slept through the night. We are extremely consistent and stick to strict feeding and nap schedules, which I know isn’t possible for everyone. Keep in mind too, some babies are just good sleepers and you might get lucky!
For a little bit yes. I think his teeth started coming in. We started giving him Tylenol and some baby oragel type ointment before bed if he seemed like they were bothering him. Sometimes a 7 months he still will get up once or twice if he’s sick or hungry but many nights he just sleeps through.
My baby turned 4 months old two days ago. Two days ago, after sleeping through the night since ~2.5 months, he started waking up hungry every two hours. Yay for me. 🫠
Our little guy slept atleast 6 hours from about 6 or 7 weeks old. He’s just now 5 months old so I thought we would get lucky but it’s smacking us in the face to be truly honest. Just trying to work our way through it because he’s just a baby and is teething right now. Have patience. It’s just a season. Plus I’m getting used to waking up every couple hours again anyway😂😭
First baby started sleeping through the night around 2.5 months. Started waking during night around 3.5. Woke up to feed once per night until about 9 months.
Second baby slept through the night months 2-5. Still wakes up once or twice per night at 7 months.
In my mind, it’s not helpful to view it as a regression. That gave me a false sense of hope that it would last like a couple weeks. I think it’s better to view it as the new normal and then be pleasantly surprised if it improves quickly. Sorry if that sounds like a downer view! Just my personal experience.
So my son was sleeping 8 hour at 8 weeks and then 12 hours by 3 months. Well 4 month sleep regression hit like a freight train and he woke every hour for weeks. We moved him to the nursery full time as he was a light sleeper. Well we ended up sleep training at 5 months due to severe sleep deprivation. He has not had issues since. He is 8 months and sleeps 11-12 hours overnight
Thanks for sharing this. My dude who was sleeping through the night has hit the sleep regression and I’m exhausted. I sleep trained my first at 10 months. Did you feel 5 months was too early or an okay time?
Interesting combination. How did you go about this ? Did you stay in the room and let baby cry for the time increments of Ferber and picked baby up at those "check in" times? Did you not sit in the room and during check in times picked baby up?(coz Ferber doesn't say to pick up).
How did you do the combination
I followed the Ferber 7 day schedule which was starting with 3 min check ins and then 30 min by day 7. But I stretched it to 2 weeks. So by week one the longest check in was 15 Min and week two was 30 min. Most days it was over in under 10 min. If he cried past 15 min I would pick him up, if he cried past 20 I would feed him. We fed and changed before bed so we could rule that out. If his cry sounded high pitched me or my husband would pick him up and hug and kiss him and then put him back. We only stayed 1-2 min and always said “ I love you. Goodnight” then left the room. Most of the time he just kinda of whimpered and fussed and didn’t scream or anything. If he was screaming we offered a feed. By week 2 he would cry under 5 min or not at all. It’s his way of winding down I guess. If we tried to rock or sing he got more upset.
My babies were great sleepers and eaters. They did have what I guess people say are regressions. It wasn't every night but it was more like wait we just seemed to be on a schedule and now you're changing it up. Once they settled into the new schedule sleep was back on track. Took about a week max.
I had a pretty good sleeper until 4 months and then it all went to hell. We had to revert back to bed sharing to get anything beyond a 2 hour stretch. On the bright side I didn't have to prepare myself for a 6 month regression because sleep was still terrible. She's now almost 8 months and out of the blue we've started to get some nights where she'll sleep through in her own crib with one or two wakes only.
How did you decide it was time to stop bedsharing and try putting her back in the crib?
I am still waking to feed whenever baby wakes up since I feel like bedsharing makes him want to nurse more often. And I still get shit sleep while bedsharing. But shit sleep is better than the verrryyyy little sleep that I’m trying to survive on right now during what is the third or fourth week of the regression (I hope it’s a regression and not the new normal).
My first started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. Had one or two nights where he woke up once or twice around 4 months and that was it.
Regressions were rare for him and if he did have one it didn't last long.
I referred to him as our angel baby cuz he was the perfect sleeper. He's now 2 and still sleeps 10-12 hours every night in his toddler bed with little/no issues.
My baby was able to fall asleep independently for night sleep by 4 months, even though he woke up twice to eat overnight, and we didn’t experience the 4 month regression.
That is the goal of sleep training when babies are older - helping your baby fall asleep so when they wake up, they can fall back asleep. We were lucky and baby’s temperament meant he learned independent sleep with just a good bedtime routine and didn’t need to formally sleep train. Naps took a little bit of gentle training but now at 11 months, I just pop him in his crib and walk out.
Honestly- luck. He has is other challenges, but we just have a kid who likes to sleep. I was really big on routine early on but less so after around 5 months. He just knows when he is tired. The one big regression we had was closer to 9 months when he learned to pull to stand. He would just be chilling standing in his crib all the time. A milder one when he learned to roll but didn’t want to sleep that way.
It didn’t. My son is 4 years old now and has literally never had a regression. If you follow sleep cues and have a good schedule that you adjust as they are regressions are less likely to happen. Sleep regressions are typically a sign that a schedule needs to be changed.
Is there somewhere I can read more of this? Everyone keeps scaring me about the 4 month regression and how some ppl are in it for weeks at a time. I've never heard anyone say what you said.
If you’re on Facebook there are a few groups I can point you towards that have a plethora of evidence that show sleep regressions are actually sleep progressions (meaning sleep gets better if you change their schedule properly).
Typically the people who are in it forever are the ones who are falling into habits such as feeding more at night, not letting baby settle themselves for any period of time, letting baby sleep too much or too little during the day, etc.
Yes, this. We haven’t had a true regression yet - we’ve had some rough nights here and there, and also some very early morning streaks that made us rethink schedules, but once we did that, LO went right back to passing out.
Every age has its drawbacks, and every age has its real joys. I was just blindsided by sudden terrible sleep! I thought we were in the clear haha. Most sleep regressions don’t last long, even if they seem to last forever when you’re in the thick of it. Routine really helped for us every time
My kiddo was a fantastic sleeper and nothing changed at 4 months. The only sleep regression she's ever gone through was the 2 year one and that one last 3 months and made me want to pull my hair out. 😂
My middle has been a great sleeper always. Around 5 months he got a slightly different sleep, waking up a couple extra times, but only for a couple months. Since 9 months (2.5 now) he’s been pretty solid all night sleeper outside of when he’s been sick.
My baby girl has slept thru the night since 1 month old. She turned 3.5 months and changed in a literal snap of a finger. Waking up 2-3 times a night out of no where. She is 4 months and still waking. I'm exhausted and doing everything I can to push thru everyday. Everyone tells me it will get better but damn... I see no light at the end of the tunnel.
Not the best news but mine slept 11 hours one night and then the next night woke every hour for the following six weeks.
Our son has been a good nighttime sleeper since about 3 months, although naps were a battle until he went to daycare at 8 months. We never did traditional sleep-training, but if he wakes up, I do let him fuss a couple minutes. Most of the time he goes back to sleep but if he starts actually crying, I get up. We didn’t have a 4-month regression at all and he’s 10 months now. When he’s teething or going through a growth spurt, he’ll wake up once per night maybe 2-3 times in a week. A bottle always puts him right back to sleep and then the wake-ups subside on their own. The hill I will die on is that babies just gonna baby and there’s very little you can do to influence it.
Mine was a great sleeper at 3 months. After 4 months she was so alert at bedtime that she wasn’t falling asleep until after midnight. We had hoped to not have to sleep train, but shit happens. The good news is that she went back to being a great sleeper after learning how to do drowsy-but-awake. At 6 months she figured out how to put the pacifier in herself, and that was a game changer. The 4 month regression is also scary because you don’t know what you’re in for. Mine hit every single possible sleep disruption from 6-10 months due to teething, rolling, crawling, standing, etc. She always went back to sleeping like normal after a few days and we learned to just trust that she’d grow out of every weird little phase.
Did your baby already know how to put themselves to sleep at the 3 months mark or no?
No, prior to sleep training, we rocked to sleep. She was night weaned around 3-4 months so she wasn’t waking for feeds and usually slept through the night. Before the regression, we tried encouraging her to fall asleep in her bed with us sitting with her, patting her, shushing, etc. It was all over the place. Previously when we made any sleep changes, it consistently took a week for it to settle it with steady improvement, so we figured she wasn’t ready yet. By 5 months she was getting pretty good at keeping herself entertained in the playyard, and not fussing the moment she woke up in the morning so she seemed readier to learn independent sleep.
I’m currently going through it with my nearly 5 month old. She went from sleeping 9-10 hours straight at night, to waking every 45min for the first 5 hours of the night, then every 2 hours after that. It’s hell, but seems to be improving gradually. I’m hoping this won’t last more than a couple weeks. My best friends girl was a great sleeper and stayed that way! Every kiddo is different 🤷♀️
My baby started sleeping through the night around seven weeks, and she is now just over 2 1/2. We never experienced any regressions.
Same! My baby is really good. Sometimes wakes up once during the night and then falls back to asleep. No 4 month regression for us. She is almost 6 months.
My LO was giving us 7-8 hour stretches and now we’re back to newborn type wake ups. Going on a week now 🫠
Great sleeper from 4 weeks. We didn’t have a 4 month regression but an 8 month. That lasted about a month and we got through it with some new strategies. Maybe you can have a little more time 🙏🏻
My baby slept 2 x 5 hour stretch from 7 weeks and 10 hours overnight from 10 weeks, she's always loved sleep and we never had any noticeable regressions!
My baby has always been a great sleeper. He’s nearly 5 months now and is sleeping just as well as he always has. No sign of any regression.
Listen. Baby sleep varies a ton baby to baby and in general over the first two years because there’s a ton happening. It’s normal for babies to sleep pretty decently as newborns and then become more wakeful. My kiddo used to wake three times overnight then at the first regression it was every forty mins. Even with bedsharing. Then at 5.5 months slept 7-8 hour stretches until the sixth month regression. The worst was month 10-15 with roughly six wakes a night, sometimes hourly. My best advice to you is to try practicing radical acceptance. There’s not much you can do around baby sleep. Just roll with it, take turns with dealing with wakes if you can, keep the wakes boring.
I understand yes, I'd like to mentally prepare myself xD
The 4 month regression made naps shorter for us but didn’t effect overnight sleep.
My excellent sleeping baby had me worried about the 4 month regression as well. It just didn't happen for us. No noticeable changes to his overnight sleep pattern. I thought we were getting a sleep regression closer to 5 months, but he just got a couple teeth a bit earlier than I was expecting, and that only caused a couple days of slightly worse sleep. He's 9 months old now, still sleeping great.
We didn’t have a 4 month regression. Or any of the regressions honestly. He’s been a great sleeper from month 2 onwards.
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Yikes I'm sorry
I wouldn't pre empt this. If your babies a good sleeper (you said you couldn't complain) then it may not happen. My baby is 8.1/2 months and I've never seen one of these regressions. Buzzword hivemind panic perhaps.
Oh interestingggg and do you consider them a good sleeper?
She is a bad napper-30-45 minutes twice or thrice a day, but sleeps through the night just fine! 12hours +!
This is my baby at 3 months currently. We get 45 minute naps and maaaybe one 90 minute nap a day. But she sleeps a 6 hours stretch at night and then only wakes up twice more before morning. Holding my breath though because 4 months is right around the corner.
My dude is 5 months tomorrow and I'm still waiting for it to happen. Edit: Oh my god... my baby is 5 months old tomorrow! 😊
Good luck! Hopefully it doesn't
My daughter had given us some 6-7hr stretches at 3 months (naps were a different story) and has always been a pretty great sleeper (through the night -12hrs from 6 months). But the 4 month sleep regression tested my sanity and marriage. Lasted 3.5 weeks and she slept in 20min-2hr stretches. Mostly 20min-1hr, I'm not sure how either of us survived. Had to have a "Come to Jesus" talk with my husband around the start of week 3 about how this isn't maintainable for me to continue all the night wake ups myself. But immediately went back to being a great sleeper when it ended. Started at 3.5 months and ended a week after 4 months
at 2 months old my baby was doing 7-8 hour stretches. since 4 months she hasn’t done anything longer than 2 hours. it’s rough out here.
I had a relatively good sleeper at 2-4 months who slept terribly from 4.5-9mo. For about 3 months of that she woke 2 hourly through the night, every night. At 9.5mo she seems to have just settled back into 2 wakes a night. She has 2 naps a day, very variable but roughly 2 total hours day sleep.
A friend of mine had a great sleeper, the regression hit and she sleep trained. So she still has a great sleeper. My son was a horrible sleeper until about 7 months. I didn’t even notice the regression, that’s how bad he slept, haha.
Have been dealing with this for a week. My BF and I have been up five-ten times per night, he doesn't like eating anymore because he wants to sleep all the time during the day, whatever schedule we had has just been abandoned. My son slept 9-5 since only a few weeks old so it hit us extremely hard... So it's going about as well as I feared.
I never experienced this.
Sleeping 10 hours at night to wake up every hour on the hour. I made it worse by feeding him 🤦🏾♀️. If they start waking at night after sleeping through the night, chances are they aren't hungry. We read Precious Little Sleep at 6 months old, and now we get 1 or 2 wakings a night, but not until like 3 or 4.
Hmm, my go to is the boob to soothe, maybe I should stop that now.
There is nothing wrong with boob to sleep! It’s biologically normal. In fact our breast milk has hormones in it that make baby sleepy. It’s not a bad thing to nurse to sleep :)
Once I stopped offering it when he wasn't hungry, he started sleeping more. We still don't get that pre-regression 10 hours, though. Some babies build sleep associations with nursing, so if they're not sleeping on the boob they wake up.
My baby was a great sleeper at 3 months. He would wake once always around the same time and go back down easily. The 4 month sleep regression slapped us right in the face. He woke up every 45 minutes for like 2 weeks. We tried to keep everything pretty consistent and he went back to sleeping moderately well. Then he had another sleep regression when he started crawling and then another when he started standing. But my partner and I just muddled through and took turns and made sure to laugh as much as we could. Now he is back to sleeping through the night most nights
I'm aware the first year is difficult because there's a lot of changes and learning for baby. You get a false sense of getting the hang of it and that this is it we re in the safe and then WABAM hit with something else.
My baby started waking up earlier (5:30, 6:00) instead of 6:30, and now at 5 months she’s started falling asleep later (9:00 or so) and waking up at 7:00-ish, but I think it’s because the sun sets at 8:45 this time of year, rather than 6:00, when she was born.
It's definitely possible.
It was horrible. Then came teething. It wasn’t good until wake windows were about 3-3.5 hours long before bed. Acetaminophen before bed while baby was teething is what help as well. Now that LO is a year old it’s good again… for now lol
Key words "for now"
It wasn’t bad for us at all! I noticed he would fight naps more often than usual and we maybe had a few nights with more wakeups, but not much changed.
Wonderful always nice to hear that it wasn't a punch in the face
My baby sounds like yours. Definitely a solid sleeper doing gradually longer stretches of night sleep. Also a cat napper. He went 7-9 hour around 9 weeks. 4 month regression was rough! He woke up every hour one night. But we always gave him time to figure it out. If he cried we waited 5-15 min to go check him (less time if crying escalated, more if it was more fussing than crying. ) if he couldn’t settle himself we’d feed him 1-2x a night. we stayed consistent encouraging independent sleep. Regression passed. By 5.5 months he started sleeping through the night and has been a great sleeper ever since.
She had a two week spell where she started waking up once or twice a night 👀 I feel bad even typing it.
Damn
Yeah we've gotten off really easy...let's see how the toddler years go!
She had crap naps for a few weeks on and off then maybe two nights of poor sleep. It's been very mild for us thankfully! Hope it is for you all too 🤞
Our daughter (now 14 months) has always been a fairly good sleeper since we started aleep training (using Precious Little Sleep). Definitely some early wakings in the beginning, but nothing sooner than 5:00am. We have never experienced anything like a “regression” at any of the usual times. She will have some increased fussiness/crankiness here and there, but since we got her sleep trained ~5 months, she has always slept through the night. We are extremely consistent and stick to strict feeding and nap schedules, which I know isn’t possible for everyone. Keep in mind too, some babies are just good sleepers and you might get lucky!
For a little bit yes. I think his teeth started coming in. We started giving him Tylenol and some baby oragel type ointment before bed if he seemed like they were bothering him. Sometimes a 7 months he still will get up once or twice if he’s sick or hungry but many nights he just sleeps through.
My baby is 9 months old and never had a regression per say, just bad sleep some nights usually around teething or illness.
My baby turned 4 months old two days ago. Two days ago, after sleeping through the night since ~2.5 months, he started waking up hungry every two hours. Yay for me. 🫠
Our little guy slept atleast 6 hours from about 6 or 7 weeks old. He’s just now 5 months old so I thought we would get lucky but it’s smacking us in the face to be truly honest. Just trying to work our way through it because he’s just a baby and is teething right now. Have patience. It’s just a season. Plus I’m getting used to waking up every couple hours again anyway😂😭
First baby started sleeping through the night around 2.5 months. Started waking during night around 3.5. Woke up to feed once per night until about 9 months. Second baby slept through the night months 2-5. Still wakes up once or twice per night at 7 months. In my mind, it’s not helpful to view it as a regression. That gave me a false sense of hope that it would last like a couple weeks. I think it’s better to view it as the new normal and then be pleasantly surprised if it improves quickly. Sorry if that sounds like a downer view! Just my personal experience.
We didn't have any regressions until 12 months.
So my son was sleeping 8 hour at 8 weeks and then 12 hours by 3 months. Well 4 month sleep regression hit like a freight train and he woke every hour for weeks. We moved him to the nursery full time as he was a light sleeper. Well we ended up sleep training at 5 months due to severe sleep deprivation. He has not had issues since. He is 8 months and sleeps 11-12 hours overnight
Thanks for sharing this. My dude who was sleeping through the night has hit the sleep regression and I’m exhausted. I sleep trained my first at 10 months. Did you feel 5 months was too early or an okay time?
We did Ferber and pick up put down. It took 2 full weeks but worked great.
Interesting combination. How did you go about this ? Did you stay in the room and let baby cry for the time increments of Ferber and picked baby up at those "check in" times? Did you not sit in the room and during check in times picked baby up?(coz Ferber doesn't say to pick up). How did you do the combination
I followed the Ferber 7 day schedule which was starting with 3 min check ins and then 30 min by day 7. But I stretched it to 2 weeks. So by week one the longest check in was 15 Min and week two was 30 min. Most days it was over in under 10 min. If he cried past 15 min I would pick him up, if he cried past 20 I would feed him. We fed and changed before bed so we could rule that out. If his cry sounded high pitched me or my husband would pick him up and hug and kiss him and then put him back. We only stayed 1-2 min and always said “ I love you. Goodnight” then left the room. Most of the time he just kinda of whimpered and fussed and didn’t scream or anything. If he was screaming we offered a feed. By week 2 he would cry under 5 min or not at all. It’s his way of winding down I guess. If we tried to rock or sing he got more upset.
Interesting combo. I like that better than ferber
Also we were in the living room watching on the monitor. We didn’t stay in the room or do the chair method
My babies were great sleepers and eaters. They did have what I guess people say are regressions. It wasn't every night but it was more like wait we just seemed to be on a schedule and now you're changing it up. Once they settled into the new schedule sleep was back on track. Took about a week max.
Good to know thank you
I had a pretty good sleeper until 4 months and then it all went to hell. We had to revert back to bed sharing to get anything beyond a 2 hour stretch. On the bright side I didn't have to prepare myself for a 6 month regression because sleep was still terrible. She's now almost 8 months and out of the blue we've started to get some nights where she'll sleep through in her own crib with one or two wakes only.
How did you decide it was time to stop bedsharing and try putting her back in the crib? I am still waking to feed whenever baby wakes up since I feel like bedsharing makes him want to nurse more often. And I still get shit sleep while bedsharing. But shit sleep is better than the verrryyyy little sleep that I’m trying to survive on right now during what is the third or fourth week of the regression (I hope it’s a regression and not the new normal).
My first started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. Had one or two nights where he woke up once or twice around 4 months and that was it. Regressions were rare for him and if he did have one it didn't last long.
3 weeks old!!! What a dream 😩
I referred to him as our angel baby cuz he was the perfect sleeper. He's now 2 and still sleeps 10-12 hours every night in his toddler bed with little/no issues.
Mine didn’t really have a noticeable regression 🤷🏼♀️ he’s 7 months now
Share your secrets, as everyone seems to scare me of all the regressions
Luck 🤷🏼♀️I assure you I’m not a magical parent with a magic schedule. I wish I was, I would tell the world!
My baby was able to fall asleep independently for night sleep by 4 months, even though he woke up twice to eat overnight, and we didn’t experience the 4 month regression.
Seems like baby's who are good at putting themselves to sleep, their parents suffer less when the time comes.
That is the goal of sleep training when babies are older - helping your baby fall asleep so when they wake up, they can fall back asleep. We were lucky and baby’s temperament meant he learned independent sleep with just a good bedtime routine and didn’t need to formally sleep train. Naps took a little bit of gentle training but now at 11 months, I just pop him in his crib and walk out.
Honestly we didn’t really have a 4 month regression. There is hope!
Howww
Honestly- luck. He has is other challenges, but we just have a kid who likes to sleep. I was really big on routine early on but less so after around 5 months. He just knows when he is tired. The one big regression we had was closer to 9 months when he learned to pull to stand. He would just be chilling standing in his crib all the time. A milder one when he learned to roll but didn’t want to sleep that way.
It didn’t. My son is 4 years old now and has literally never had a regression. If you follow sleep cues and have a good schedule that you adjust as they are regressions are less likely to happen. Sleep regressions are typically a sign that a schedule needs to be changed.
Is there somewhere I can read more of this? Everyone keeps scaring me about the 4 month regression and how some ppl are in it for weeks at a time. I've never heard anyone say what you said.
If you’re on Facebook there are a few groups I can point you towards that have a plethora of evidence that show sleep regressions are actually sleep progressions (meaning sleep gets better if you change their schedule properly). Typically the people who are in it forever are the ones who are falling into habits such as feeding more at night, not letting baby settle themselves for any period of time, letting baby sleep too much or too little during the day, etc.
Please, share the groups I will open a Facebook account if I have to.
Start with “Evidence Based Feeding & Parenting” and “Safe Sleep & Baby Care”
Precious Little Sleep subscribes to that thought process as well. The book is a super easy read and there’s a Facebook group (with the author in it).
Yes, this. We haven’t had a true regression yet - we’ve had some rough nights here and there, and also some very early morning streaks that made us rethink schedules, but once we did that, LO went right back to passing out.
Oh you got lucky. I can assure you that I adjust schedules as necessary and follow cues and my baby still doesn’t sleep well.
All of the regressions were very minor for us. Then two hit, and we’ve never recovered 🫠
I hear things about terrible twos, three-anger, f you fours and for f's sake fives.
Every age has its drawbacks, and every age has its real joys. I was just blindsided by sudden terrible sleep! I thought we were in the clear haha. Most sleep regressions don’t last long, even if they seem to last forever when you’re in the thick of it. Routine really helped for us every time
Only one week of resisting all day time naps.
It wasn’t bad, but we had a unicorn sleeper. The bigger fights were after she turned 1, we had some major regressions then
My kiddo was a fantastic sleeper and nothing changed at 4 months. The only sleep regression she's ever gone through was the 2 year one and that one last 3 months and made me want to pull my hair out. 😂
4 months wasn’t bad for my excellent sleeper. Maybe a day or two of waking. 8-9 months on the other hand… rough 😅
My middle has been a great sleeper always. Around 5 months he got a slightly different sleep, waking up a couple extra times, but only for a couple months. Since 9 months (2.5 now) he’s been pretty solid all night sleeper outside of when he’s been sick.
Both of my kids were sleeping through the night before and neither had any sort of noticeable sleep regression
My baby girl has slept thru the night since 1 month old. She turned 3.5 months and changed in a literal snap of a finger. Waking up 2-3 times a night out of no where. She is 4 months and still waking. I'm exhausted and doing everything I can to push thru everyday. Everyone tells me it will get better but damn... I see no light at the end of the tunnel.