Help a cosleeper get more sleep!

[laughingduck]

I think we have hit the dreaded 4 month sleep regression (a little early too booo). My baby has gone from waking 3 or so times to waking every 2 hours at least. He sleeps in bed with me so it's less brutal than having to get up every time, but it is still really starting to take it's toll on me. My daughter did the same thing and I did nothing about it, thinking she would outgrow it eventually. Well she did, but not until she was 2.5 years old. I cannot do that again so am looking for some tips to help him (and me) sleep better. I am against cio but ok with a little fussing. Problem is at night his cries escalate quicker than during daytime naps, so letting him fuss a little hasnt worked since it quickl turns to a cry. If anyone has managed to make their bed sharing baby a good sleeper I would love to hear it. I will move him to a crib if I have to but would like to see if I can keep cosleeping first if possible. Thanks!

 

[MindUtopia]

What do you do when he wakes and cries? We never really had a 4 month sleep regression, but we did have lots of teething, illness and developmental bumps later on. We bedshared for 3.5 years and I felt like I got lots of sleep, much more than my friends who didn't, and at 3.5 my daughter announced she would start to sleep in her own bed, and did and sleeps through every night there (she's nearly 4 now). So I think we did pretty good with the whole sleep thing. We just went with it and never sleep trained.

At that age, I was pretty quick to not let crying escalate. They really can't self soothe or at least most of them at that age, so there's no point in letting them go on without acting fast. I would feed her straight away when she woke up, no trying to sooth or shush back to sleep. I figured as she was so little, she was waking because she needed food or a drink or the comfort that a feed would bring, so I'd just do it and usually as quickly as I could. That meant we both went back to sleep faster. Eventually, around 9 months, she stopped accepting a feed during the night if she woke or would only have a tiny one, and it was obvious that wasn't really what she needed, so I took the approach of trying to soothe her back to sleep first before feeding her. That worked and she easily went back to sleep and dropped all night feeds from then. It didn't mean she didn't wake but it was manageable enough and as we were bedsharing, I didn't really have to fully wake up to help her fall back to sleep most of the time.

I would just feed him and see if that works, do it little and often if you need to, just to get through this spell, and also get yourself to bed. The rough weeks, I would take myself to bed when she did and get a few extra hours, which made the nights a bit more manageable. It meant not seeing much of my husband for a week or two, but it always will pass and then you can go back to your normal routine when you've caught up on sleep.

 

[laughingduck]

When I hear him start to wake I lay still and hope he goes back to sleep. He usually starts to fuss after a few seconds then I nurse him or occasionally try to get him back to sleep with a cuddle but it doesnt usually work. When I nurse he only nurses a minite or teo then is asleep again. He doesnt nurse for longer than 5 minutes during the day usually either. He is a snacker. I wondered if I encouraged longer meals during the day less often maybe that would help with nightime too? I never know whether nursing often during th day will help or if that just gets him used to snacking all the time...

 

[minties]

I would just see nursing as my biggest tool and use it. I would rather be awake for a few minutes nursing than have a baby get more and more upset. They are really too young to know any better and boobs sure are comforting!

This is how I deal with Emma at night anyway and she sleeps so well. We bedshare also.

She had a fussy week about the same age as your LO but it passed, it didn't end up being a regression.

 

[laughingduck]

Last night it was every friggin hour with the exception of one 2hr45min stretch. I get that sometimes these things pass and I held onto that thought with my daughter but it never did pass until I got more proactive about it. I get that 3 months is young still but he has obviously made a sleep association to my boobies and I need to break that habit before the sleep deprivation ruins my health. Ive got an autoimmune disease that flares when I don't sleep well so I'm not able to put up with this much longer! I just moved a crib and put it next to my bed as a sidecar and am going to attemp to put him to sleep without nursing and see if that helps. Any other advice that may help would be appreciated!