![]() They’re still sleeping about 11-12 hours at night and three-four hours during the day, split up into three or four naps. It’s a personal choice as to when or if you do this, but in our experience, doing it sooner rather than later (with the doc’s go-ahead) means you won’t butt up against other milestones - like standing, or teething - that can complicate baby’s sleep learning. Note: you may have heard the phrase “cry it out,” but know that sleep training doesn’t necessarily mean “cry it out.” Some methods involve letting baby cry some, other methods are no-cry, and then there those that are in between. DO explore the various sleep training methods by reading and talking with friends (good news: research shows that all the methods can work, so long as parents are consistent).Once you get the pediatrician’s green light, you can embark on full sleep training, AKA night weaning. DO hear from your pediatrician about night weaning.Keeping baby unswaddled is ideal so that she can learn how to use her hands as a soothing pacifier. Continue your same relaxing bedtime routine to help baby respond to wind-down cues. DO continue to practice placing the baby down in the crib drowsy but awake so she can keep practicing independent sleep.Baby’s longest awake times will be towards the end of the day before bedtime. DO continue to follow a structure that has baby awake for 1.25- 2 hours at a time in between sleeps.DO wake baby at the two-hour mark from any naps that go long.Other goings-on in the sleep department this month: Maybe this is a chance for some quality late night TV time? Do what you need to help baby (and yourself) get through these wakeful few weeks. This is a temporary dip in the road, and rest assured, not all baby’s sleep learning to date will be lost. But it’s a completely normal developmental stage, and a progress-making one at that! What a brilliant baby. ![]() So, yes it’s a “regression” in that some of the long stretches of sleep you may have gotten used to have disappeared. There are endless new connections being made, all of which are more interesting than sleep. ![]() Her brain is “on” all the time to help her absorb all manner of new skills. (If only they could scroll Instagram.) Plus, this is a peak time for baby’s brain development. Trouble is, when babies wake between cycles, they don’t yet know how to get back to sleep on their own. ![]() What’s happening is that baby’s sleep patterns are changing and she’s now alternating between REM and deep sleep, just as adults do. It can be really frustrating, but we promise that 1) it’s a real thing, it happens to most babies, and 2) you will - yes you will! - emerge on the other side of it. If you notice that your baby is now waking more frequently at night, needing lots of cajoling to fall back asleep, and taking shorter and more fitful naps (and waking up from them fussy), that’d be the 4-month sleep regression. ![]()
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