Regression

*disclaimer, if none of this makes sense, it’s because I’m sleep deprived!

I’m not bragging when I say we’ve had it easy with Libby. She’s a dream baby. She eats well (although she throws most of it up), she’s pleasant when she’s awake and she sleeps well…..up until now.

These this thing you see, known as the 4 month sleep regression. Everyone mentions it, I smuggle thought we would avoid it but no, it’s here, and it’s early (yeah cheers Libby). So last night it was waking every hour….not for feeding or anything…..just because she is getting used to her new sleep pattern.

At 4 months babies transition from that typical “set a bomb off and they don’t wake” sleep to adult sleep. They go through lighter sleep and can’t settle themselves after waking. They need to learn that technique. So far we’d used a dummy (pacifier for my stateside followers) to help with the bedtime routine, but this was now adding to our woes. She’d wake without it in and cry until we put it in….every hour this happens. She sucks her thumb in the day but absolutely refuses to find it in the evening.

I’ve been online looking for tips. We do a lot of them now.

Betime routine  ✅ (daddy and Libby favourite time….lots of chaos in the bathroom)

White noise ✅ (thank the lord for Ollie the Owl)

Dream feeding ✅ (boobie feed at 10.30 when we go to bed to top her up so she doesn’t wake hungry)

lots of people make the age old suggestion of sleep when baby sleeps. That’s fine for me but poor Scott is like the walking dead and refuses to move into the spare room for a few nights to catch up on sleep (I might have to suggest earplugs for him or drug him).

Tonight I’m starting trials of a few different techniques suggested. I’m going to try and remove the dummy and persuade her that her thumb is the best. I’m going to cluster feed before bed to tank her up. I’m also not going to allow napping after 5. This will be the hardest….she usually has a brief nap at 5 to see her through to bedtime. It’s not affected anything before but we need to move this forwards now. Urgh. I’d best get the episodes of In The Night Garden ready (someone was high when they wrote this…it’s bloody mental but she loves it) and lots of playing.

But saying all this, you forget just how tired you are when you are woken with lots of shouting coming from the crib and a smile that melts your heart! And we remember just how lucky we are to have our little sleep stealer!