Never did I realize how much stress is put on baby’s sleep before we had our baby. I also didn’t think we would be 4.5 months in and rarely sleeping through the night. I thought we’d have this figured out by three months.
Logan has been a good sleeper since he was born. Pretty much since Week 2, he would wake up just once a night. Really, since Week 2. We thought we were making great progress. We had a few weeks of growth spurts where there were two wake ups for food, but then it was back to once a night. Logan has slept all night long maybe a dozen times, but it’s not reliable nor do we know a pattern to get that kind of sleep. i.e. no matter how much he sleeps during the day, he still wakes up at night.
So we are asking…help our baby sleep. What are your tips and what worked for you? I have read the books, I know the techniques of “gentle sleep coaching” but we have a few problems.
1. Logan is still swaddled with his arms in. We have tried one arm out, two arms out, no swaddle, etc. but he needs the swaddle to sleep well. So when he wakes up and we consider letting him cry, the swaddle makes him more mad because he can’t kick and roll around. He may roll over and get stuck, he may kick his legs out and his arms are trapped. How do we break the swaddle? When did you do it and how?
2. Logan can roll back to front but not back. He gets stuck when he rolls to his belly, and then gets mad he can’t go back. Then he is crying because he is mad, wakes himself up more, and we have to go roll him back over. Most of the time he is really mad by now so he keeps rolling and getting stuck. The only way out of it is to pick him up. Then the game is over and he wins.
3. Because he is swaddled and can’t roll back, we don’t think we can just let him cry. We have tried letting him cry, but he never goes back to sleep. It just makes him more mad and he ends up screaming.
Basically, we know he should be sleeping all night. He has done it, he weighs enough that he doesn’t need the food, and he is getting better at self-soothing during the day that he should be ok overnight. What are your tips? Did you let them cry? Did it miraculously happen on its own? Help!
I’d say it’s great that he is sleeping through the night sometimes, and I’m sure it’ll get to be more often as time goes by! Just like us, babies have some nights when they sleep better and some when they don’t sleep as well. He’s still so little that a bit of help on the nights he doesn’t sleep so well is totally fine. Perhaps it’ll be easier if you help him out before he gets too mad about any swaddling/flipping issues so he’ll settle back down easier. Think of it as helping your baby, not that “he won”? Consider yourself lucky, my daughter was not a very good sleeper. She never once slept through the night until after 3 years old and didn’t consistently sleep rough the night until after 4 years old! Really hoping this next baby is a better sleeper.
Have you heard of the 4 month sleep regression? I know a lot of people with babies about this age (including us!) going through this right now. We’re using the No Cry Sleep Solution to help us get Isla to sleep through the night. It’s definitely helping.
It’s so hard! Every baby is so different and they go through so many different stages in the first year through teething, occasional sicknesses, new milestones, etc that I feel like it complicates sleep. For the swaddle, it may be one of those things you have to do cold turkey. We used it with Max up until he was around 5 or 6 months and eventually he was fine with it, but it’s hard when they are tired and you want an easy way to make them happy and/or sleep better. Also once he is rolling he will be able to get himself for comfortable and he should be going both ways any day now! My gut tells me this will all work itself out…hang in there!
Harper definitely went through the 4 month sleep regression and it was horrible. She also loved to be swaddled. I was dreading the day that we would have to drop it. We eased her into it by getting the halo sleep sacks with the swaddle option. These have removeable velcro “arm straps.” She did well in those and then eventually, she was able to break out of it on her own and broke herself of the swaddle. From then after, she just slept in the sleep sack. We had a good 3 weeks or so of rough sleep and then she went back to our normal good sleeper. Good luck. I know it’s hard!!
I used the aden and anais blankets to ‘lightly’ swaddle brantley. She eventually learned how to wiggle herself free and preety much broke herself from needing the swaddle. I also thought she hated being on her tummy bc she couldn’t roll back over. Then one morning I woke up and found her sleeping peacefully on her belly!
So maybe try wrapping the swaddle loose enough for him to wiggle out of when he is ready, but tight enough for him to fall asleep… good luck!