4 month regression? Almost 17 weeks and now refuses bassinet. Unsafe sleep situation last night.

[lmkuhn76]

@sweetkf Hiii one thing is babies hate being laid down on their backs. I used to put them down drowsy but awake, then slightly turn them on their side, tightly swaddled and pat and shush their butt/side of their leg. Once they were asleep, I'd slowly roll them to their back and then leave. Wake windows, being full, brown noise, etc all helped make this possible. And once they were comfy where they were, their naps would extend a lot more

 

[sweetkf]

@lmkuhn76 I’ve settled him this way once!! But the next few times I tried he got so mad!!

 

[lmkuhn76]

@sweetkf I think it works when you find the "sweet spot" in terms of wake windows. So def do sooner vs later when they're comfy and not overtired

 

[soundofmusic]

@lmkuhn76 I second this - side settling is magical.

 

[leapthy]

@sweetkf We extended our bassinet usage due to health issues and strangulation risk (premie, o2 support, pulse-ox, wires while sleeping, by definition not “safe sleep”). We hit the point where we only had a few weeks/2 months to make the transition.

We figured out some solutions to the health support and took the plunge.

• Ferber
• Cold Turkey (no going back)

Fully expecting up to 8 days of no sleep for any of us. We had great success on day 2 of Ferber. He’s now fully transitioned to his own room, sleeping in a crib, and safely too even on o2 support.

We’re all now sleeping better and I’m not waking up everyone with my snoring.

Pin it. Do the Ferber method. Never go back or regress. Prepare for a few to 8 days of no asleep. You’re LO will make the change. Promise .

 

[sweetkf]

@leapthy How long did it take your little one to fall asleep on the first night? And wow it sounds like you guys had parenting challenges way beyond anything I’ve had to deal with. I’m glad you found a way to make things work

 

[leapthy]

@sweetkf The first night was by far the most difficult. We’re talking about being up every 12 minutes for hours. However by day two and three it was good! We were prepared to a week straight of newborn phase again, but it didn’t happen.

Thank you for the acknowledgment. It’s been a difficult road and our LO is the strongest person I know. He’s doing amazing now and is a wonderful 1 year old (actual).

 

[sweetkf]

@leapthy Ah I got emotional reading that. So glad to hear he’s doing well!! Preemies and their parents are tough as nails - they have to be..

 

[mcmurdo]

@sweetkf My advice is to cold turkey the pacifier and pick a sleep training method, we did Ferber (at 7 months) and shush patting (4.5ish months), both worked great! There will be crying, maybe more or less than you except. It’s hard but the alternative is worse

ETA in my opinion the day sleep is excessive, I would slowly cut it back to 2.75hrs MAX, by 15 mins a day. If your baby is higher sleep needs you’ll find a sweet spot somewhere in there. If you’re expecting an 11hr night with 3.5hrs day sleep, that’s 14.5hrs total which is a lot. Yes, SOME babies do this but not most (getting ahead of all the downvotes)

 

[ckm]

@mcmurdo 2.75 max at 17 weeks? That seems wild to me!

My 9 month old now does 2.75 hours of day sleep but at 17 weeks was 4 hours total naps/ 10 hour nights

 

[sweetkf]

@ckm I think 14 hours of sleep a day is on the high sleep needs end! If my guy does 4 hours of naps he’s doing an 8/9 hour night…

 

[sweetkf]

@mcmurdo So should I cap naps at an hour max?

 

[mcmurdo]

@sweetkf Depends on your baby, if they naturally take one long nap, then 2 short naps just roll with that

 

[marlow7]

@sweetkf Have you considered introducing a soother and white noise? Also I often bounce to sleep on a yoga ball.

And husband could sit up and hold the baby while sleeping worst case even if he can’t feed.

 

[sweetkf]

@marlow7 He’s not a soother guy but the white noise does help!!

 

[bsy]

@sweetkf I’m not sure what’s with the downvotes here??? She’s clearly struggling and wants to find a safe sleep solution for her family. Let’s show some empathy, I know I’ve accidentally nodded off while breastfeeding at 3 am before, and it’s a horrible feeling.

 

[sweetkf]

@bsy Thanks! I did have a bare mattress on the floor for the first 6 weeks just to feed him safely on although we never coslept.. but then he started sleeping through and we took it out to put in his crib (I guess prematurely)

 

[londonleah]

@sweetkf My daughter was acting exactly like this when she was ready to sleeptrain. We just had to stick it out until she was old enough, but was cio trained in like 3 days. IMO her body language was telling us she was ready. Nursing to sleep just kinda stopped working one day and she would thrash about exactly like you describe while I tried to settle her.

Is your bassinet roomy enough? Squishy might be getting uncomfortable in such a small sleep space. We had to transition to crib around 3m because ours would kick at the walls of the bassinet or slam her feet down on the base and wake herself back up when I tried to set her down in it.

 

[sweetkf]

@londonleah Yes I think he’s a little big for the bassinet!! We just bought a crib mattress today so fingers crossed we’ll see some improvement! How old was she when you ultimately sleep trained her?

 

[strrpos]

@sweetkf Mine sleeps better in the crib than he did in the bassinet! He was getting too long for it.