Does this sound familiar?
Your baby has started sleeping for longer stints over the past few weeks. Some babies may have even slept for a full night. You are well and truly out of the newborn stage and then – BAM – suddenly your baby stops sleeping! They wake multiple times at night just like they did as a newborn, they’re hard to settle at naps and bedtime and they are fussier during the day too.
What on Earth is going on?!
Well, an awful lot actually! At around the 4-month mark babies’ little brains are rapidly developing and they are learning new skills…
At 4 months your baby’s hand-eye co-ordination is developing, they will start to recognise objects and people they are familiar with, they will track moving objects with their eyes, they will watch faces closely, they will reach for toys with one hand and their language acquisition starts to come into effect too so they may soon begin babbling.
They will also start dribbling lots at this age and put everything in their mouth. This is because they have more nerve endings in their mouth than the do in their fingers so they find out more about an object by putting it in their mouth. It doesn’t mean your baby is teething. Almost all babies of this age will be dribbling and their first tooth could still be months away.
What can you do?
So, what can you do about these broken nights?
Is it time to sleep train your baby?
The answer is no.
Your baby needs you now more than ever.
Their little world is changing and that can be confusing and scary to a baby so they will need comfort and reassurance during the night as well as in the day.
This is a such a tough phase – we have been there too – and it can last for a few weeks, so it’s important to look after yourself during this time and rest when you can.
And it may help to reframe this ‘regression’ to ‘progression’ given all the exciting new skills your baby is learning.
Hang in there! This too shall pass.
[Source: Unicef]