Sleep Regression -- Help!

[Jessa]

My babies are almost six months old. They were sleeping consistently from 8pm until anywhere from 1am to about 4am. We'd feed them and they'd go back to sleep until 5:30am.

The last week or so, Marley especially has started needing us to give her her soother about every 20 to 30 minutes. This is NOT good!

We think the change might be that they discovered how to move around by rolling. Instead of staying in one place in their cribs, they're moving all over the place. In fact, most nights, they've turned 180 degrees every couple hours. Marley seems to get stuck though when she is lying across her crib. Perhaps she's hitting her head and that's what's waking her up?

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions? Things that worked for you? We've thought of maybe trying to have her sleep in the playpen to see how that works. That would probably be a short term solution though....

 

[buttonnose82]

we went through sleep regression at 3.5 months and it wasn't fun, I don't think there are any easy fix solutions, more a case of riding it out which I know would be tough with 3 little ones. I hope someone can suggest something for you

sending in the mean time

 

[Aunty E]

I know they're supposedly the work of the devil, but we put a bumper round Mog's cot bars as she kept getting her head stuck against the bars. I've seen thinner, breathable ones and individual ones if you're worried about suffocation. Imogen started sleeping badly at five months and we put up blackout blinds, put her in a sleeping bag so she couldn't kick off her covers, reintroduced the dream feed at midnight and she stopped waking up after a week or so. So it could be any of the things we tried, or just that she was having a growth spurt and waking up hungry and then stopped.

 

[yumimummy]

maybe hungry and ready for weaning?? my friend's baby was ready for some food at 4.5 months even though he was a little baby - and that stopped his sleep regression straight away. I know the guidelines are 6 months but babies havent read the official guidance lol

good luck - i can't imagine what three at the same time must be like - exciting!
.x.

 

[Jessa]

All fantastic ideas! We've put a breathable bumper pad on so we'll see what happens. We've already started them on solid foods. They have about an ice cube's worth of pureed something (started with sweet potato and we've moved onto squash) about 2 - 3 hours before bedtime. Should I be feeding them more food at this point? Hmmmmm. So many questions and so few answers, eh?

 

[anna matronic]

How long have they been having the solids? It may be time to introduce another meal? Saying that Evan is having 3 meals now and doesn't sleep better I have no advice though sorry

 

[Jessa]

They had sweet potato once a day at dinnertime for about a week and a half. We started them on squash last Saturday, once a day at dinnertime. I don't think it's quite time for two meals yet, but I could be wrong.

 

[NeyNey]

Do they have sleeping bags hun? Or Swaddles? I found Dylan would only sleep soundly in his Wrap Me Up until he was about 7.5 months old, and now he's in a sleeping bag, it helps stop him moving all over the place....but it also stops him getting cold, which is a big factor in waking up....

 

[vaileasmama]

Do they have sleeping bags hun? Or Swaddles? I found Dylan would only sleep soundly in his Wrap Me Up until he was about 7.5 months old, and now he's in a sleeping bag, it helps stop him moving all over the place....but it also stops him getting cold, which is a big factor in waking up....

we love our wrap me up tooo!!!
only way she sleeps...

 

[NeyNey]

Do they have sleeping bags hun? Or Swaddles? I found Dylan would only sleep soundly in his Wrap Me Up until he was about 7.5 months old, and now he's in a sleeping bag, it helps stop him moving all over the place....but it also stops him getting cold, which is a big factor in waking up....

we love our wrap me up tooo!!!
only way she sleeps...

I have no idea how we surivived without them lol. I was devestated when we realised we would need to move Dylan up into sleeping bags as he would stretch the wrap me ups something awful as he was getting too big and strong to stay in them!! Lol...all i can say is Grobags/Bubbaroo's will soon become your best friend!!

 

[Jessa]

They wouldn't stay underneath their covers, so we decided to take them off a couple weeks ago. We have a space heater in the nursery, so it's always between 22.5 and 24 degrees Celsius.

We put a crib bumper on Marley's crib last night and she slept from 8pm until 3:15am! Yay! Eli and Leah slept until about 2am. That's where we were before, so it seems as though it was just Marley's movement and hitting her head/body on the crib frame that was bothering her. I'm assuming her crying and fussing was waking the other two up which meant they weren't sleeping very well either.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice.

The next step is to see if we can truly get them to STTN. Hopefully that happens soon!