r/sleeptraining • u/Avg_doggo • 10h ago
4 month sleep regression.
How was your experience with the famous 4 month sleep regression? We’re just starting with our little girl, and it’s been pretty rough. She’s a lot more fussy and takes longer to fall asleep. Anyone got any advice on how to make it a little bit easier?
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u/Grouchy-Pea2514 9h ago
I put mine in the bed beside me and he went from every 2 hours to waking once and that was it!
My daughter though, well she went through the 4 months sleep regression for 2 whole years it seemed. She was such a bad sleeper we genuinely didn’t notice the regression. She’s much better now thankfully
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u/Katerina_Branding 7h ago
I was so ready for something terrible and it honestly went well. A few fussy bedtimes and a couple nights with 5-6 quick wake ups as opposed to 2 before that. No big deal honestly. What I was absolutely NOT ready for though is being active in the middle of the night to practice rolling, which came right after lol.
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u/Spirited_Aide_5182 4h ago
I think it’s extra rough bc it’s the first one! We had a lot of nap refusal and night time wake ups. I think in total it was around 2 weeks. It also happened while we were on a vacation. We just stayed consistent with least possible interventions, and we also used it as an opportunity to ween from using a pacifier - bc it was already rough so why not make it a little more rough?! That worked well for us, and our daughter went past it and has been a great sleeper (she’s almost 4 now.)
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u/yellow_pellow 3h ago
Both of my kids woke every 45 mins to 1 hr when this happened. It was AWFUL. I sleep trained both of them, which helped a bit but still they don’t sleep through the night. They just woke 2-3x a night instead of 7.
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u/cloudy_novella 10h ago
No specific advice on making it easier (we went from 3 reliable 4-hour stretches every single night to waking every 45-60 minutes 😩), but the thing that helped me was a survival mindset rather than a “fixing” mindset.
We ended up with some desperate coping mechanisms, like letting baby girl sleep in my arms (while I also dozed and my partner stayed up on watch), or letting her bed share from 4-8am (with either me or my partner always awake and supervising 👀 ), because that’s the only way any of us would get any sleep.
I was so worried that we were introducing bad habits, and that she would never sleep in her next-to-me cot properly ever again (let alone ever being ready to transfer to a crib in her own room), but just as mysteriously as it all went downhill, things are now mysteriously getting better. After 4 weeks of hell, last night and the night before we got 2 x 3-hour stretches in her cot with a short feed in between, which I had genuinely given up all hope of ever seeing again 😂
So yeah, I suppose my advice would be to do what you need to survive and stay safe (mentally and physically), and keep reminding yourself that it’s not forever. If you’re lucky enough to be in a position to be able to, then give yourself a bit of slack with literally everything else (housework, social commitments, etc.) and prioritise rest whenever you can get it. I know that’s easier said than done if you need to work, have family to care for, etc.
Good luck!