Growing a Little Schulze: 4 months

Happy 4 month old!

Apparently this month is all about sleep. Or lack there of! 90% of my notes are about sleep issues. I even wrote about it on facebook: "The 4 month sleep regression is upon us! We've gone from mostly sleeping thru the night to 2-3 wake ups where only nursing works. Ugh. I hate this stage. Not sure when I'll do some sleep training. 4.5 months is a little young for my liking but really if I wait 2 weeks til he's 5 months what difference does it make?"

Sleep:
We had it good. I would nurse him on the couch after the girls were in bed. He'd fall asleep and snooze on me a little bit until I carried him up to bed. Many nights he would sleep through the night! Then getting him to sleep got harder. And then he was waking up 2-4 times a night. Day time sleep went south too. And with 3 to 4 naps a day, that a lot of opportunities for frustration! It was harder to get him to sleep and to stay asleep, even with the swing.

So I started with naps. I tried to move towards falling asleep on his own in the crib. I'd put him down drowsy and let him cry up to 5-10 minutes. Then I'd soothe him and try again. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. And sometimes I didn't even try. I just let him nap on me, or in the car, or in the swing.

On Tues 4/7 I wrote: "got him to do 1 and half naps in crib. During the morning nap he went down in his crib, woke up after 45 min-hour, nursed, and then slept more on me. Afternoon nap was on Boppy after nursing, late afternoon nap in crib."

4/28: He had a big morning nap after 30 min of trying to get him to sleep; slept 10:30-12, took a decent afternoon nap, then slept in evening on the way Kohls.

4/29- Afternoon nap - put him down drowsy, fussed for 6-7 mins then drifted off on his own. Slept 2 hours. Success!

Nap practice helped with nighttime sleep. Eventually. But it was a long month. It seems so minor in hindsight but when the whole day, bedtime, and the whole night is up in the air, it's just a lot of continuous anxiety about what's the right thing to do.

On 4/21, "Odd night. He fell asleep nursing on the couch 8:15-8:45. In bed just before 9. Woke up as soon as I headed up to put him in bed. Played in bed for an hour with a few whines. Jeff went up once or twice but didn't do much. It was quiet again by 10 so I guess he just drifted off on his own?

4/25: Down easy but cried 4 times before midnight. Twice I went in and soothed him, twice he went back to sleep on his own.

4/28: Fell asleep nursing, woke up on way up but fell asleep after fussing for 5 mins.