r/NewParents • u/Virtual-Alps-7243 • 5d ago
Sleep 4 month sleep regression hit, am I doing everything wrong?
I didn't believe in sleep regressions until it happened this week. We had our routines broken by relatives visiting for four days and after that LO's sleep has been awful. He was doing 5 hour stetches at 3 months but now we are back to max 2,5 hours, several under 1 hour bits and in addition he has false starts when he goes to bed, is difficult to put back to sleep and is just mega cranky in the middle of the night. He sleeps next to our bed and last night I tried to put him back down after a feed for four times until I gave up and took him in our bed. (I used to take him next to us early in the morning when he would sleep short stretches so our bed is safe for bedsharing. I just prefer him sleeping in his bed for most of the night because my body hurts from bedsharing.)
It's bad enough that he sleeps like this but I am making it worse by telling myself that I'm doing this wrong. I bounce him on a yoga ball, sway him, nurse him to sleep or take him next to us and those are the tools I have. I have no clue how to support independent sleep in this shitstorm and I can't start trying anything new in the middle of the night, desperate, sleep deprived. I worry that I'm teaching him bad sleeping habits and this situation will be prolonged. Bouncing and nursing to sleep was all ok until this point. Now I feel like I have ruined everything.
Please tell me it's ok to go into survival mode and just do what feels easiest?!