Does the 4 month sleep regression ever end?

[kitten2014]

Bless ya progress is progress, keeping trying with a naptime routine and putting her in her usual bed, eventually it will teach her that is where she sleeps but perhaps to ensure she does sleep always take her in sling midday/early afternoon to get her at least one decent nap until she figures it out....try and avoid relying on sling for naps otherwise she will get same idea and it will be hard to encourage her to sleep in bed for naps later on...Ive just started weaning our LO off tight arm swaddling and have bought her a zippy (like a sleeping bag but the arms are enclosed too), and albeit her naps and nighttime sleep have suffered she is doing well with it...still catching up on sleep now lol...

 

[lizziimayy]

I've found a system for naps that works! I feed in her bed lying down so that I don't have to move her and so far it seems to be working

 

[kitten2014]

when you say feed her in bed - do you mean leaning over her cot while she is lying down? surely you lift her for burping? If it works great but be careful about feeding to sleep associations, when the 4month sleep regression kicks in (and in fact all the sleep regressions) she will need feeding to sleep EVERY time she wakes ...or so they say so try hard to not put down straight after a feed...even if its only 5-10mins lying down quiet play before bed, it separates the two activities....

 

[lizziimayy]

She's always fed to sleep, it's the only thing that works other than motion and even then she wakes up as soon as you stop! Quite a light sleeper. She's managing to sleep in my bed during the day and sleeps in the crib at night. She definitely has no room to be in our bed at night! But I'm happy that I've found something that works for now. I get upset if she doesn't sleep much in the day as I feel really bad. Not sure how I'll get her out of feeding to sleep but I'll have to wean her off it at some point.

 

[kitten2014]

If it works why change it lol, focus on her getting enough sleep for now and worry about it later. Our lil miss just went through the night again with no feed but was late to bed last night so only had 10hrs but seems happy to start the day lol...just waiting for her to say 'hang on a mo, Ive not had a bottle all night!), last time she went 12hrs this time 11...its progress...she was fussy during the night and I could very easily have fed her to stop her wriggling but she fell back asleep on her own lol...

 

[lizziimayy]

Gosh I'm lucky if Gabriella manages 10 hours at night! At the moment it's usually 8-9 hours. Been up hourly since 3!

 

[kitten2014]

Bless ya, she usually goes 11-12hrs but guessing cos not having a feed she can't sleep as long...she usually takes 11-12 at night and 3-4hrs during the day...needs a lot of sleep our lil miss lol...Im so proud of her going all night without a feed and its only second night sleeping in zippy instead of arms swaddled...just working on lengthening her naps now...she'll take 30-45mins no problem, but always give her an hour or so in cot to see if she'll take longer...how often does your lil miss feed? The only way I achieved 2.5-3hrs was longer naps otherwise have been doing every 2hrs up until about 3wks ago...sigh...

 

[lizziimayy]

Gabriella managed 10 hours last night and she usually naps for about an hour. She feeds around 2-3 hours. She used to feed every 1-2 hours until recently!
Going to start really concentrating on having set naps and hopefully she'll start having 3-4 hours during the day!

 

[kitten2014]

Hi, dont worry too much about set times but try and get a regular routine going i.e. wakeup, bottle, play, nap, bottle, play, nap etc etc, sometimes it will be nap, play, bottle, play, nap that doesnt matter but she will eventually set her own times...its good that she has already extended the time between bottles as that increases the chances of her having decent naps once you start putting her down regularly...think about her bedtime routine and adapt that to a shorter version for naptime, say 5mins...it could be as simple as a hug and singsong or you could have teddybear time and a short story...whatever it is, do it every nap time for a while (unless you're out and about of course...altho I have sung baa baa black sheep outside whilst she's been in car seat lol - but I dont get easily embarassed, within 2mins of me singing she fell asleep so she associates it with naptime) and eventually she will know that those things signify naptime. This is important if like us you have a very curious excitable baby that needs winding down before a nap lol...

 

[kitten2014]

also bear in mind that regular oppotunities to sleep (ideally every hr n half) is more important than the qty of sleep achieved, she may be one of those babies that simply doesnt need much daytime naptime...you will soon know whether she needs the time or not...also our lil miss spends anything from 5-20mins winding down in cot before falling asleep so prepare for a bit of waketime in the cot, for that reason I always offer our lil miss 1.5hrs to get her nap and generally she'll take anything from 30mins to 1hr 15mins, obviously if after hr n half she's still asleep I leave her...

 

[lizziimayy]

She had a 2 hour nap earlier! Just getting her down for another nap now, I'm offering her naps every two hours when she starts to get tired and so far it's working and I'm so glad!

 

[kitten2014]

woohoo! excellent! our lil miss did 2hrs once but never in one block, longest she's done is 1hr 15mins solid then another 50mins 20mins later...she takes a while to transition...

they also suggest not to offer a nap after 5pm if bedtime is usually around 6.30/7ish as they can get confused but sometimes ive had to as 4.30/5 is when she's been up 1hr 30mins and she cant possibly go all the way thru, Ive also found that bedtime is the longest waketime for her, she can go 2hrs 15mins then but first thing in the morning just over an hour after wakeup - im told this is quite normal...in the final waketime of 2hr she has two bottles, at beginning and at end of waketime right before bed....fx she goes through the night again! she's only had 3 bottles but each was 6-7oz so not worried,

 

[lizziimayy]

She usually goes to bed at about 8 so if she sleeps 1-1.5 hours now it should be fine I breastfeed so I have no idea how much milk she has! I just tend to feed her on demand which works and she's putting on weight perfectly!

 

[kitten2014]

cool, well keep up the good work, let me know how it goes...