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4 month sleep regression

  • 12-01-2012 12:23am
    #1
    liliq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,242 ✭✭✭


    OK, so my little man is 4 months/ 17 weeks this weekend. :D

    He used to normally wake once a night from birth- 8 weeks, and then usually happily sleeping 8 hours a night from 8 weeks until around 14/15 weeks.

    His routine (what little routine he had) was quite disrupted over Christmas though, and since then he's been waking quite a lot during the night. Usually he goes up to his cot between 9:30 and 11pm, and can wake at 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am.
    I'm guessing this is the 4 months sleep regression? I'm not really sure what to do though- I'm breastfeeding, but my baby is showing a lot of other signs of being hungry (not including the waking at night), so I was thinking of starting him on solids this weekend. Might that mess him up a bit with regard to developing his sleeping skills or breastfeeding? He is very distractable when he feeds during the day so I can understand why he's hungry again at night...
    This is the first time I've seriously wished babies came with an instruction manual!! :rolleyes:

    Would be grateful for any advice or experiences!!


Comments

  • #2
    How Strange
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,339 ✭✭✭How Strange


    liliq it's definitely the 4 month sleep regression and there's nothing you can do to prevent it :(

    Introducing solids won't make him sleep any more because it's a natural phase they go through. My fella was a terrible sleeper between 4-6 months because of the sleep regression and developmental leaps. I'd feed him as often as possible during the night and nap with him during the day do you're getting gnome sleep.

    Despite what every Irish mammy, granny and phn says solids won't make a difference. There are far more calories in breast milk than anything else you can give. This is the case up to 1 year old and two breastfeeds a day for an 11-12 month old gives them all the calories, proteins, fats etc that they need. Food up to 1 is for exploring and for fun. Baby rice, which is all tou could give at 17 weeks, has no nutritional benefits so it just bulks up their tummies without giving calories or fats.

    Look up the wonder weeks website and they have an iPhone app too. It shows all the developmental leaps babies go through and it says that your baby's sleep will be disturbed through the leaps. I found 4-6 months the hardest as they're learning so much as well as physically growing and developing a lot.

    I think it helps us to know that these things are completely normal. I know I thought there was something seriously wrong with my lad who used to sleep great from 10-16 weeks until someone told me about the 4 month sleep regression and the wonder weeks.


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