Oftentimes, your baby starts to wake up frequently at night or else, takes short naps. This phase is called as the 4 month sleep regression period that brings a permanent change to your baby’s sleeping habits. However, there are sleep regressions at other ages like 8 months, 18 months or at two years also but these are the temporary ones.
The 4-month sleep regression can start as earlier as after 8 weeks old and as late as 5 months. Moreover, this will bring a complete change in your little one’s sleeping patterns, for instance, few of them will get back to normal sleeping habits within 2 weeks or so, whereas others will demand a change in their sleeping habits.
Read More: 7 Foods that can Help you and your new Baby to Sleep
Tips for New Moms to Survive 4 Month Sleep Regression
How long does it last?
This is probably one of the mostly asked questions by the parents! Well typically, it will take around 2-6 weeks for your baby to learn a healthy sleeping pattern. This means that your baby will take this much of time to learn not to wake up in the middle of the night as much. But as all of us are different, so are the babies! While some babies take comparatively very less time to get through this, others can take much more time.
What if it lasts longer?
If it has been more than 2 weeks and your baby is still experiencing from the same phase of short naps and multiple waking, then it’s the time for you to focus on your little one’s sleeping habits.
How to survive this difficult stage in your baby’s development cycle?
I know you may be a little worried on how to solve this problem of 4 month sleep regression but this isn’t as difficult as you are taking it to be. We have got you a number of best solutions that you can rely on, to solve this problem. Read below:
Put the little one to bed when he/she sleepy
One of the best ways is to put your baby to bed when he/she seems to be sleepy. You shouldn’t wait for the time when he/she is totally passed out because this will make your baby learn how to get to sleep even without your help. Oftentimes, this is a major problem faced by most of the parents.
Read More: How Much Sleep does Your Newborn Need?
A sleep routine
Well, not just a sleep routine but a basic routine of everything including the daily activities of story, bottle and most importantly bed will help your child to a major extent.
Read More: When Do Babies Sleep Through the Night?
Take it easy
It’s pretty common that your baby will wake up a number of times in the middle of the night during this phase. But you do not have to make a humdrum whenever this happens. Do not turn on the lights or pick up the baby and prefer to have a little less conversation with him/her during this time. Otherwise, all of this will indicate the baby that it’s wake up time and you will thus find even more difficulty in getting the baby back to sleep.
Turn off the lights
Make sure that your little one’s room is dark when he/she is sleeping. Now, this will make your baby realise that it is not the time to wake up but rather still the time to sleep, if the baby wakes up in the middle of the night. As stated above, by this time you should make your little one to associate darkness with sleep.
Read More : Tips on Handling Sleep Problems In infants
Introduce the baby to his/her room
I know a lot of you may feel if it’s too early to put the baby in his/her own room but this will help your baby learn how to fall asleep on his/her own and this is the best way to make him learn the same.
Afternoon naps
Gone are the times when parents used to force their babies to take the afternoon naps. Because considering the 4 month regression phase, afternoon naps are only going to deteriorate the situation. It is thus always best to put your baby to bed early at night so as to have a proper sleeping routine.
The 4 month sleep regression is a developmental phase. So, there is no need to worry because this means that it’s the time for you to introduce your little one to healthy sleeping habits. Although, you will find a little difficulty to handle the situation during the first few days because your baby will wake up frequently in the middle of the night. But apparently, by incorporating a few ways, the 4 month sleep regression phase can be easily solved.
Read More : My Baby Sweats While Sleeping: Is it Normal?
