Four Month Sleep Regression

When I was reading up on baby sleep during Julia's first days, I felt overwhelmed with the things that I thought I had to do to make sure that Julia slept well. There was so many sleep trainers out there, all advocating a different method and story.

I worried about this. A lot.

Eventually though, we fell into our own groove. I never forced anything on Julia, including a strict schedule. I don't wake Julia up at a prescribed time and I don't have certain times that Julia takes a nap at. Even her bedtime is slightly varied - although I am more strict with this. She generally bathes and goes to bed between 7.45 and 8.30, depending on how tired she is. She's gotten into a good rhythm - she's a very cheerful girl and displays her sleepiness very easily, so it's easy to see when she needs to go to sleep. She still only naps about 30 minutes each time, but she wakes up happy and ready to go. There have been a few times where it has been clear that she was not ready to wake up and I've spent time getting her back to sleep.

As many of you know, we took her out of her swaddle at the beginning of January. She transitioned successfully after about 2 weeks. Her startle reflex was INSANE when she was transitioning, but introducing the soother at this point really helped.

Where are we now? Julia goes to sleep at night in her sleeping bag. I nurse her to sleep, but there are times when she doesn't go to sleep. I give her the soother and put her down in her crib and she usually goes to sleep.

She wakes up once for a feed at night and then again at about 5am. She still comes into our bed at 5am for more sleep until whenever she wakes up!

Anyways, back to the focus. I've read about this four month sleep regression wherein babies become more fussy and hard to put down at night. They wake up more frequently and their sleeping patterns are generally uncharacteristic of their pre-established sleeping patterns.

Julia is 4 months old this week and I haven't seen any of this (yet). There are elements that I have begun to see, being that Julia is much more interested in playing during the day, so doesn't feed as efficiently during the day. The result of this has been that when she gets up for her 2am feed, she has been feeding longer.

Will I see the 4 month regression? Who knows! I'm really starting to enjoy the ever-changing nature of motherhood. As the days go by, I find myself becoming more and more flexible in Julia's changes. The result? I'm not (at this moment) planning on doing any sleep training with Julia as I figure that when Julia is physically and emotionally ready to give up her night feeds, she will do it herself. She's done this for her other night feeds, so we will see if this happens for her 2am feed.

Will I change my mind? It's possible. I'm waiting to see what happens to her sleeping patterns when she starts baby-led weaning at 6 months. Until then, we will carry on!

Have you seen evidence of the 4 month sleep regression?