I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but I took a hiatus from posting on the blog for about a week and a half because things were a bit hectic here. Hannah has always been a good sleeper, but had been having a lot of trouble falling asleep and was waking up more during the night. There were days that it took me an hour to get her to go down for a 20 minute nap.
We eventually discovered that most babies go through this; it's referred to as the 4 month sleep regression! Once we realized that we weren't alone and that there was an end in sight, we felt a lot better. Apparently babies at this age are going through a lot of mental development (and physical changes) and work through it in their sleep, similar to how we may have trouble sleeping when we've got a lot on our minds.
In addition, she was also getting very frustrated when she was awake, and was grunting and crying more frequently than usual. I gave in and bought her a Wubbanub. I think that helped because it gave her something to suck on. We had been resistant to giving her a pacifier all of the time - we think it makes kids dependent on them and then it's harder for them to learn other ways to soothe themselves. It also falls out of her mouth constantly and then we have to put it back in, and we didn't want to be getting up in the middle of the night just to give her back her "binky."
Hannah is definitely a sucker though, and we do give her a pacifier when she's really upset. We just didn't want her to use it all of the time. She really likes the Wubbanub though, and actually seems to enjoy sucking on his tail more than on the pacifier part anyway. We nicknamed him "Cliff" because he looks like Clifford the Big Red Dog, but he's a lot smaller.
We eventually discovered that most babies go through this; it's referred to as the 4 month sleep regression! Once we realized that we weren't alone and that there was an end in sight, we felt a lot better. Apparently babies at this age are going through a lot of mental development (and physical changes) and work through it in their sleep, similar to how we may have trouble sleeping when we've got a lot on our minds.
In addition, she was also getting very frustrated when she was awake, and was grunting and crying more frequently than usual. I gave in and bought her a Wubbanub. I think that helped because it gave her something to suck on. We had been resistant to giving her a pacifier all of the time - we think it makes kids dependent on them and then it's harder for them to learn other ways to soothe themselves. It also falls out of her mouth constantly and then we have to put it back in, and we didn't want to be getting up in the middle of the night just to give her back her "binky."
Hannah is definitely a sucker though, and we do give her a pacifier when she's really upset. We just didn't want her to use it all of the time. She really likes the Wubbanub though, and actually seems to enjoy sucking on his tail more than on the pacifier part anyway. We nicknamed him "Cliff" because he looks like Clifford the Big Red Dog, but he's a lot smaller.
Hannah (hopefully!) seems to have gotten past the 4 month sleep problems, but we did read that she might go through another rough period in a few weeks. I've heard about an interesting concept - "wonder weeks" - there are apparently 10 predictable mental leaps that all kids experience. It's been so helpful to understand this!
I also read this fascinating article explaining babies' development that I found useful.
PS - Now that she's rolling over onto her belly and can't get back to her back, we might be in for some more sleep interruption...
I also read this fascinating article explaining babies' development that I found useful.
PS - Now that she's rolling over onto her belly and can't get back to her back, we might be in for some more sleep interruption...
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