Wondering what is this term “baby sleep regression”? Every once in a while you would have noticed that the baby’s sleep cycle is messed up and also gets the baby fussy. Did the baby start waking up at night mysteriously or skipping naps for no reason? Exactly when you thought things are going just as planned and then suddenly out of nowhere the little one’s awake and its crankiness might get you thinking that having the baby was not the best decision! Hang on right there parents; we are going to tell you if your baby is going through a sleep regression or just has a bad habit and how to deal with it.
What is Sleep Regression?
Every baby is different and so are their symptoms. Your baby might show some true signs of regressions but your friend’s might not. That doesn’t make either of the babies abnormal. Usually, it has been observed that all the babies show up at least mild sleep regression.
4 Month Sleep Regression:
This sleep regression is permanent! Oh! don’t panic, by this we mean that this change is a permanent one in the baby.
Your baby abandons the older sleep pattern and never goes back to it. The baby now sleeps shorter naps and is awake frequently at night. But don’t let that discourage you, there are ways you can move past the regression cycle and teach your baby to sleep in a new way.
How to Conquer 4 Month Sleep Regression:
Here are few tips on encouraging your baby to sleep more during the night hours when they face the 4 months sleep regression.
- Continue to help your baby until they fall asleep the same way they used to fall asleep earlier. This means if you have been rocking your baby to sleep, or hold them until they sleep – continue the same.
- Dream feed your baby (which means offer a feed to your baby while he or she is still asleep before you retire to bed). This helps o soothe the baby and promote sleep longer.
- Use a swing to soothe your fussy baby. Induce a nap by swinging the baby.
- While the baby just does not want to sleep, ask for help. As your partner/ friend/ family to be with the baby until you take a nap.
8 Month Sleep Regression:
Thanks to the growth spurts (the development milestones) which happen around the 8th, 9th and the 10th months too.
At this stage, most babies would be learning to crawl, pull, hold things etc. The kid learns to understand its surroundings which mean the brain is developing faster at this age. However, this regression cycle gets better after a few weeks. Now is the time to develop a long-term sleep cycle for the baby.
How to Conquer 8 Month Sleep Regression:
Make a sleep pattern for the baby and this time, the sleep pattern becomes a long-term habit.
11 Month Sleep Regression:
This usually is not a big problem for most of the parents. By this time when the baby is 11 months old, they find their own way out of it by fighting it for 2-3 weeks. The baby refuses to have a second nap by their own. This means the little one is ready for a nap a day. However, few babies find it difficult as they aren’t yet ready to have one nap a day until 15 months. This phase passes in about 2-3 weeks of time.
18 Month Sleep Regression:
Your baby is now a toddler – walking, blabbering, and full of tantrums! This phase of sleep regression is to do with their independence which they have recently found. They learn that they have an opinion of things and want to do it their way. They find it difficult to sleep along when the parent leaves them in the room at bedtime. The anxiety comes into picture here for the toddler. The little one is fussy about the teeth growing which is annoying an painful for it.
2-year Sleep Regression:
Oh! Your baby is quite old by this time. There are various factors for this sleep regression phase. The kid now keeps up for a longer time and also has disrupted sleep. The kid has to make this transition anyway like potty training (know more about it here. The baby is transitioning into a bigger kid and might even be waiting for a sibling to join their gang. The kids at this age can have a nightmare an even bed-wetting habit which could be disturbing. Read more here on how to help the child in such cases. The kid has to deal with very exhaustive sleep regression around this age of their lives but learn to get out of it themselves.
Sleep regression in babies is very common trouble that the parents and the baby have to face. Read more on “baby sleep training”. Yes, these are challenging time for the parents but there are ways, in general, to follow in order to cope up with the sleep regression stages for babies.
Ways to Cope up With Sleep Regression :
- Set up a dark room: Have a calm environment and a dark room for the baby if possible. Turn on the night lamp for feeding and changing the baby, but do not put on the light. It will disturb the baby. This can be followed in the car or in their stroller.
- Develop a sleep pattern: Develop a bedtime routine for the little one and stick to it. For example, first you sing a lullaby, say good night and a peck on their forehead. And rock them to sleep.
- Put the baby to sleep in their own room: When the baby is about to sleep go to their room and rock them and put them to sleep in a separate room of their own if possible. As they get used to this and might habituate to sleep on their own. Do not get emotional as a parent; whenever the baby needs you, you are just few seconds away.
- Put the baby to sleep when semi-awake: Put down the baby in the crib when baby is awake, this way they know that you are nearby but also develop a habit to go back to sleep on their own.
- Let the baby fuss: As parents the moment we see baby fussing, we resort to go and soothe them and they quickly learn the patter than on doing so, the parents would come running to them. Thus, you should let the baby fuss and see them stop it themselves to realize they aren’t picked up still.
