Anyone else getting very little sleep at the moment?!

[crystal7]

Thought I'd bump up this post as baby is now 4months and seems to have entered his worst phase of sleep yet! It did get better, asleep by 7.30 with 1-3 wakes before 8 am but this week has been horrible. Up every hour or 2 from 11 and taking ages to resettle urgh. I'm sure it will pass and maybe it's one of those wonder weeks or a growth spurt. Probably not helped by me feeding back to sleep, rubbish naps being distracted during daytime feeds gah! Anyone else experiencing this? How long will it last?? Feel free to have a moan!

[Fuschia]

4 months is a wonder week/sleep regression for sure

The Brain and its sleep patterns changes profoundly

[Hollysmum]

Hi crystal7 - feeling for you, I have been ther and it's a bit better now but very much looking forward to 2nd baby sleeping through. Now 6mths old but still v small for her age (was a bit premature) so I'm not doing crying out - although it got to the stage where I decided if she woke before a certain time, I wouldn't feed her, I'd just leave her. Used Eaplugs! Felt a bit mean but i wanted to give her a chance to learn to settle herself. She always went off after a bit. This has so far cured her of waking up at 1-2ish as well as later in the night, feeding twice between 12 and morning was taking its toll. Still dreamfeed her which she wakes up for (this evening 11ish).

Like your lo, mine v distracted during day feeds and naps with looking after the toddler, seemed she was eating more at night than through the day. At 4 months she was waking earlier and more often so I struggled for a couple of weeks at 4.5 months with trying to introduce a bottle of formula at dream feed - on the health visitors advice as she wasn't gaining enough weight, but she hatea lot, so in the end started her on baby rice at tea time at 5.5 months. Instant impact! Later evening wake up, and one feed during the night. First child was breastfeed 100% until 6 months and slept through so I was worried about experimenting but might be worth trying something new. Am sure there's a growth spurt at 4-4.5 months that the books etc don't mention! Hope u get lots of rest very very soon. Kx

[nylonmeals]

@crystal7, in the same boat as you. 4 month old up every 2 hours at night. Just brutal. Thank god for the ED Forum support network (I actually mean that, love being able to log on and know that there are so many other mums going through exactly the same as you and that it does get better!)

[Belle]

Am really hating the 10pm feed at the moment - esp if it's taken till well after 8 to go down - feels like way too short an evening! used to be more like 11, 12, 1 or even 2 before xmas...

have decided after this horrendous bout of family illness we are going to tackle sleep once baby is well - he's 5 mths tomorrow and eats SO much in the day(not weaned yet though) that am convinced with a feed at 10pm shouldn't really need another till 5/6. And all the other wakes need to be sorted, so going to try with various methods ourselves and then get some professional advice if not getting anywhere. 5 months of no sleep, enough is enough.

[nylonmeals]

Why don't you just drop the 10pm feed? That way at least you could get a little evening sleep

[Belle]

i didn't instigate it - he started waking earlier and earlier and is v definitely hungry at that point - drains the bottle, despite full bottle at bedtime.

[snowboarder]

I remember youngest sb starting a really horrid sleep regime at about 3/4m - It's that time when everyone says oh it's a growth spurt...but neither of mine seemed to recover from it....

The one thing I did do at about this age was start to try to have the first morning nap in bed at home and to get him to go to sleep by himself. He had just started sucking his thumb so I put him in his crib about 2 hrs after he woke up and stroked his tummy and after a while he went to sleep (not without fussing). And I did this every single day so that he had at least one nap at home and self settled. The other naps were usually out and about in buggy for varying lengths. Now this didn't help with the nights but although he woke a lot we co-slept and he went back to sleep fairly easily (or at least would lie quietly feeding). The good thing about getting the morning nap to work like this meant that he seemed to start having a longer nap, and that he then started to do the same for other naps if at home....and when at 7m we finally relocated him to his own room and I decided to stop feeding to sleep he did know how to get to sleep on his own and things got SO much better from that point onwards...

I know the thought of this not getting better for 3m sounds horrendous...but maybe if you work on a few gentle non feed to sleep ideas for naps it might help the nights in the longer term?

[Fuschia]

I think sb's advice is spot on

[crystal7]

That does sound like fab advice Snowboarder. Morning nap is tricky at the moment because baby wakes up at different times every day and I have to fit in with toddler nursery run so it often happens in buggy. I will try that method with one of his naps per day though. Self settling= the holy grail of parenting! Feeding baby back to sleep is great when it's one or two times per night but when it's every other hour or more it's torture. Thumb sucking has all but stopped after a promising start at 12 weeks...Sometimes I despair that I'm making all the same mistakes I did with my 3 year old!

On a more positive note he is very smiley and happy and rolled over for the first time today!

Belle I think you've done amazingly well to get this far without any help, hope you find someone soon.

Thanks for all the responses...good to know it's not just me!

[sunbob]

Hello fellow night owls. My little one seems almost ready to unlatch after constant feeding since about 11pm! Good grief!