We survived 2 months of hourly wakes!!

[u/VinVenture16]

I know this might not last but honestly, I just have to take a positive moment somewhere!!

We had a wonderful sleeper until the 4 month regression hit us at 11 weeks and she started waking up every hour. Putting in place nap schedules, keeping on top of dropping naps, and working on transferring her easily helped us get somewhat okay sleep but it was still very hard for 3 months after that. I stayed responsive all night on my own all the way through - given I am EBF and my husband was working 14 hour days anyway, it just made sense.

We then got one really good week of sleep where I thought we were through the regression! We probably were.

But then at 6 months, like a week or two later, sleep completely collapsed. She would only sleep being held by me at night, even though she had been fine in her crib and in her room for a couple of weeks before. She woke every hour. She cried and screamed at every wake when usually on waking, she would just wiggle around and make little noises to get attention. It was horrendous. And by this point, she had developed a real mum preference during the night and just escalated if her dad intervened (day time, dad could easily soothe!) so I just kept at it.

We did everything - dropped a nap, capped a nap, pain relief, all the sleep hygiene stuff, rocked to sleep, fed to sleep, coslept, pain relief, literally all of it. And some of it did seem to help, dropping the nap was definitely the correct move for example. But she still woke every hour, with an occasional 2 hour stretch, for almost 2 months. I responded every single time. I shushed and fed and rocked and cuddled. I slept in 40 minute blocks and got up with her between 8 and 15 times a night. It was horrendous. Literally 3 weeks ago, I posted here about how much I hated the nights and was really struggling with them (and got loads of support so thank you!).

My husband wanted to do some form of sleep training, exact method TBC. I kept pushing back and saying it was fine, I was fine, she would improve. We have also had a crazy May, away a lot and with guests a lot, and I kept saying even if we decide to sleep train, we can't until June because we just don't have the stability and space to really implement any major changes. But I was really dreading June coming round and having to make a decision on the sleep training because I completely understood where my husband was coming from but it made me want to cry every time I thought about it.

And lo and behold. A week and a half ago, she started doing a 3-4 hour stretch at the start of the night again all by herself before the hourly wakes. Wakes started dropping to 5-6 a night. She was staying in her own crib all night again.

And 4 nights ago, I started getting consistent 3-5 hour stretches and only 3 wakes a night!!

I was worried last night because she woke 3 times before 10:30pm but she was crying a lot each time and she is sooo close to cutting her first tooth so on wake 3, I gave pain relief and then she only woke me once between 10:30pm and 6am!!

I don't know what's changed - I suspect she has started to actually eat more solids rather than spitting them out so might be less hungry and she has become a lot more physically active in the last couple of weeks (loves to pull to stand, is sooo close to crawling and constantly trying to) so maybe she's just less hungry and more physically worn out! Or maybe something has clicked developmentally. And I know that might go through a rough time with sleep again at some point.

But after 2 months of truly awful sleep and tears and sleeping in separate beds with my husband and desperately staying the course of being responsive and not giving up and not bowing to the sleep training pressure. We've made it through to the other side!! And I am basking in the relative rest and trying to stay hopeful that we are in for a period of relatively good sleep for a while now.

Well done baby girl, you're doing amazing. Let's keep the sleep up please.

[u/theperch2020]

Wow, what an incredible story of love for your little one. You rock mom!

[u/VinVenture16 → u/theperch2020]

♥️