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Is there such a thing as a 3 month sleep regression?

7 replies

SpanielFace · 04/12/2012 04:15

My DS is 13 weeks old. At 10 weeks he started to sleep through the night from 7.30pm until around 4am, wake to feed then go back down until 8. But about a week ago he started waking at 1ish for a feed as well. A week later and he's increased to waking three times a night. When he wakes, he seems really hungry. I'm 100% breastfeeding & starting to feel the tiredness creeping up again, and wondering why he seems to have taken a step backwards. I've heard of the 4 month sleep regression, but surely this is too early?

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SpanielFace · 04/12/2012 04:21

I meant to say, he is also back to taking 45-60 minutes to feed - he used to feed like this but had been getting quicker. It's hard work when each night feed can take over an hour!

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TanteRose · 04/12/2012 04:25

well, he was definitely spoiling you, sleeping from 7:30 to 4am at 10 weeks Grin

it could just be an early regression, or just that he is adjusting to some other development that is going on.

can you feed him lying down? (co-sleeping is the way to go here, even if only part way through the night)

try and console yourself by saying that he is SUCH an advanced baby, he is reaching milestones (4 month sleep regression) WAY before anyone else Grin

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TanteRose · 04/12/2012 04:26

also, if you really can't take the hour-long feeds, then you could try a dummy, in case it is purely comfort sucking (although, this is still important for ordering up more milk for growth spurts, so only use the dummy when you are absolutely desperate)

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SpanielFace · 04/12/2012 08:33

I can't get to grips with feeding lying down. I tried it, along with co-sleeping, but all that happened is that he hangs off the end of my nipple - I can't seem to get him to latch deeply. To be fair, he had a tongue tie which we had separated at 4 weeks old, and a lot of problems with his latch initially. I also couldn't sleep with him in the bed, I was so worried about squashing him! I envy people who can co-sleep but it didn't work for us.

Annoyingly, he won't take a dummy, never would. He sucks frantically for about 20 seconds then gets cross and cries, and it falls out. He is starting to suck his hand when he's going to sleep, so I'm really hoping he'll learn to self-soothe that way.

Tired today! I know I was spoilt by the early sleeping through - but I'd just started to get used to it! This is hard work!

Haha, yeah he must be super-advanced! Hmm. I'm just worried that the last 2 weeks have been a blip, and that this is how it's going to be for weeks/months now!

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ElphabaTheGreen · 04/12/2012 08:44

Our four month sleep regression started around 12 weeks as well, after several halcyon weeks of 9pm-6am sleeps with one quick feed at 4am. I guess you don't want to know that it got far, far worse and is still going strong at 6.5 months do you? No. Didn't think so. Won't mention it, then.

People keep telling me it's a sign of intelligence, but I'd gleefully swap a few above-average IQ points for more than two hours unbroken sleep each night...

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SpanielFace · 04/12/2012 09:27

Oh no! Please don't tell me that! He is really, really difficult to get to sleep in the daytime - he's a very energetic little boy, even at 3 months, and seems to be constantly "wired" - it's like he can't wind down for naps without 20 minutes of rocking/pushing in the pram/driving in the car. SO I spend a lot of my days trying to get a slightly grumpy and overtired baby to nap. But I've always said that I can live with it because he's such a good nighttime sleeper. Hmm. This isn't good!

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Snugabugz · 05/12/2012 09:49

OP I could have written your post a few weeks ago. Everything you have said fits DS2. He used to sleep 8pm to 4 or 5 in the morning and even slept through til 7.30am at 14 weeks. Then it all went bananas and he was waking three times a night to feed for an hour and a half. He was starving.

This lasted about five weeks (sorry) but now at 20 weeks he has just gone back to waking once at about 4am for a quick 15 minute feed

I got through by trying to feed as frequently as possible, offering food in a quiet place every two or three hours. The long feeds at night meant he was not as hungry during the day so I almost had to retrain him to eat during daylight hours. I started putting him to bed later (about 9pm) to squeeze in a extra long feed before bed. Went to bed as soon as he did to bank a couple of hours before he woke at 11pm for first feed.

If its any consolation during this period he has rolled over for first time, sat up for first time and started having the odd bottle of expressed milk. So I put this down to a developmental leap.

I have never managed to get him to sleep in his cot during the day, always go for a drive or walk in pram to get him off. I figured I would fight the night waking battle first before tackling daytime naps. Pick your battles!

Good luck

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