How to get baby to STAY asleep?!

[x Helen x]

Getting her to sleep is no problem at all. I used to be able to get her to sleep and then that was that, she stayed asleep until waking for her next feed. Something has changed in the last 3 weeks (yes I know, probably 4 month sleep regression - yey!) but getting her to stay asleep is proving to be very difficult.

Once asleep, I'll get 40 minutes peace if I'm very lucky, usually more like 5 or 10 minutes, before she wakes up crying! I then go up to her room and "ssshh" and pat her back to sleep, come back downstairs and then again 5-10 minutes later she's off again! This goes on from about 8pm until 9:30pm when she finally drifts into her deep sleep.

Wondering if anyone has any advice or tips that might help her to stay asleep? I was going to try and buy Ewan the Dream Sheep tomorrow to see if that makes any difference at all (doubtful!). I don't want to do CC or CIO, so any suggestions that don't involve these methods would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Beccaboop]

My health visitor suggested just resting my hand on lo's chest instead of patting or stroking him just so he knows im there but doesnt get too over stimulated. It seems to work sometimes so i dont know if you could try that?

 

[charlie15]

I have a CD called from womb to world which is white noise with womb sounds, it's actually very calming and keeps LO asleep until she gets to a deeper sleep. I have used the hand on tummy method and definatley works if she's not too awake, so you have to be quick. Otherwise it's a case of rocking her back to sleep in the dark. My LO cannot have any light in her room as that makes her wake up lots.

 

[Sprat]

I hate to say it but it may just be a case of waiting it out. My lo gets put in his cot at around 7.30 while we put his brother to bed- he sometimes goes to sleep and sometimes he doesn't. If he goes to sleep it is just for 40 mins. I then get him up again and feed him again (i am breast feeding) and then he goes down again at 9. This time he goes for longer. We did the same with my first and the time he went for longer just got earlier and earlier. There may be better advice but for us we just waited it out. Good luck.

 

[x Helen x]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Yes I've tried hand on the chest and that seems to work pretty well at settling her back down too, but doesn't seem to stop her from waking up again 10 mins later lol! Settling her back down to sleep rarely takes longer than 5 minutes or so, it's just frustrating as most nights I have to do it 6 or 7 times (sometimes less, sometimes more) until she finally drifts into the deep sleep.

Charlie15 that's really interesting what you said about the light, I have the halo light on the baby monitor on next to her cot so I might try switching that off tomorrow to see if that makes a difference. Interestingly I did recently move the position of the monitor into her sight line thinking it might comfort her... I can't remember if this was around the same time the problems started though.

Definitely going to try womb noise too, thank you

 

[pompeyvix]

Anabella went through this a while back and sometimes she still does. If I am honest, we've just waited it out and it's gotten better. We have now removed her dummy (as she was waking when it fell out) and that has improved her sleep loads.

 

[dalismom]

same boat here, im going to try the night lite off tonight, thanks for thjs post!

 

[ElmaWG]

Do you think her bedtime might be too early or too late? My DS is 4 mo and we've been had to adjust his bed time quite a bit over the last 2 months. Started at 10pm, gradually went to 8pm. Then 2 weeks ago he seemed to like 6:30pm. But this week I noticed if he goes down around 6:20pm he'll wake every hour, but if it's closer to 7pm he'll sleep in 4 hour stretches (at least I think this is what going on...baby sleep is so complicated). So that might be something to consider...

 

[Noelle610]

I would try an earlier bedtime. Often when babies have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep, it is the result of being overtired. At 4 months, you want to aim for a bedtime that's 2 hours after she wakes from her last nap.

 

[greats]

My LO is going through the same exact thing! Getting her to sleep is no problem at all, it's the getting her to STAY asleep that's driving me nuts! Her first stretch of sleep seems to be fine (she'll sleep 3 hours first) but then after that she's been waking up either after 15 minutes of putting her back down or every hour until she's officially up for the day around 8am. I'm losing tons of sleep b/c of this regression thing

 

[MiniKiwi]

I still have to stay with LO to make her stay asleep She'll sttn in my bed but wake numerous times in her cot and have middle of the night, two hour long wakings where she just wants to play.

So it's not a very helpful answer, but that's how I make my LO stay asleep. Thank god for iphones

 

[x Helen x]

I wish I could move her bed time forward as I too was thinking that might help, as she used to wake up around 9am but now she tends to wake more around 6 or 7am. Unfortunately though I am back at work in the week (I work week day evenings) and some nights dont get home until 7:45pm. She wont take a bottle yet (I only work for an hour or so in the evening) so my husband wouldnt be able to put her to bed. Not sure there would be much point doing an early bed time 4 days a week and late the rest? But I could definitely try, at least to find out if this is the problem.

Turned her nightlight off last night and she woke up 6 times in the middle of the night LOL not good! Could have been a coincidence though, will try again from the start tomorrow.

 

[x Helen x]

Thanks for all the new advice by the way, glad to hear I'm not alone!