I can’t believe it has already been 9 months since our little girl entered our world. I wish there was a way to freeze time, because she is growing way too fast! She is such a sweet, happy baby, always smiling, wiggling her feet and giggling. She is on the move these days, rolling and sliding her way across the floor to reach her toys and explore things. She is so much fun, but I just wish she would go back to sleeping through the night!
For the past month, Mirella has been waking up 2-3 times a night and prior to that, she only woke up once, if that. She was doing well sleeping from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 am and then going right back to sleep until 7:30 a.m. But, for the past 3-4 weeks, something has changed and I can’t figure it out. She wants to nurse when she first wakes up around 10:30 p.m. Then she wakes up between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. crying, but as soon as I go in her room, she is all smiles and wide awake. I started nursing her to get her to go back to sleep, but I didn’t want to start a bad habit, so I’ve been trying to rock her back to sleep, but as soon as I put her back down in her crib, she cries. We have tried to let her “cry it out,” but it’s SO hard! She sometimes falls back asleep after crying for a bit, but usually wakes up an hour later.
Is it a sleep regression? I didn’t have this issue with Keenan, as he slept through the night from 8 weeks old and never had any regressions. They say sleep regressions usually happen when a child is going through a growth spurt and learning a new skill such as rolling over, sitting up, standing or learning to walk, and typically at 3-4 months, 6 months, 8-10 months, 1 and 2 years. All of a sudden, a baby who is sleeping through the night will start to wake up, which is exactly what happened with Mirella. She learned to roll consecutively and slide to get things a few weeks ago, and is now sitting up unassisted, so it makes sense that she is going through a sleep regression. But, I didn’t think it would last this long!
Sleep experts say a sleep regression can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks before the child goes back to their normal sleeping patterns. Ugh! The most important thing is to not introduce a new sleep crutch like nursing or continuous rocking in order for the child to go back to sleep, but it’s very hard to not do that. Nursing seems to be the easiest and fastest way to get Mirella to fall back asleep in the wee hours of the morning, so am I shooting myself in the foot in the long run? As of last night, I’m trying to do my best to just pick her up, stroke her head and give her some cuddles before returning her back to her crib. My husband and I took turns last night, but she was still wide awake (crying intermittently from 1:30-3:00 a.m.)! I’m hoping and praying that tonight will be better and every night after that until this phase passes! I’m not sure how much more of these sleepless nights I can take. There is only so much coffee I can drink in a day to keep me going!
Questions:
Did any of your children experience sleep regressions? If so, how did you get through them?
Any tips or advice that you can offer to help with getting through this sleep regression with Mirella?
Jordan (our oldest)went through a brief episode of this. Everything I read at the time (16 years ago!!) said that if babies have been sleeping through the night they don’t need to eat anymore during the night so I didn’t nurse him when he woke up. I just checked to make sure that he wasn’t someone hurt and then we let him cry. It was rough but only lasted 3-4 nights.
I know that doesn’t work for everyone. Good luck figuring it out!!
We have been trying to let her cry it out, but so far, that hasn’t even helped (and I hate to see her so upset!). It’s so frustrating! I’m trying to take each night at a time and hopefully things will turn around!