Regression

Yes we haven't done any sleep training, naps are still short but I hear they learn to consolidate them better at 5 months which mine is just just coming up too at the end of the month 🤞night sleep is back to normal now. Are you struggling with night or day sleep?

Yes we haven’t done any sleep training. Our little girl is different each night but does do around 5/6/7 hours in one go each night

Yes we haven’t done anything and sleep is massively better than where it was. We were up hourly at one point for weeks x

It’s definitely possible as sleep training didn’t used to be a thing and still isn’t in many cultures. Babies do just learn to sleep without needing to be trained

No sleep training here and we were in the regression from 3 months till 4 and half months. Stick to a routine and be consistent with it, the babes eventually come out of it xx

Thank you ladies! We are struggling with both day naps and night sleep. Day naps in the cot last no more than 30-40 mins and night sleep has improved slightly with a 4 1/2 stretch in the middle but then hourly wakes either end of the night sleep. Although I think the reason we are getting that long stretch in between is because we’ve ditched the dummy and his no longer searching for it. I feel like we have been in it for over 6 weeks and I’m just praying for it to end soon!

Out of curiosity do any of you rock to sleep and then transition or do your LOs know how to self soothe? X

@Sarah this was exactly my thought! I was thinking there is no way that every baby goes through sleep training to come out of the regression. I’m starting to think all these sleep consultants saying the only way to come out of the regression is with sleep training are just out to take our money and that it’s a marketing ploy!

I rock my LO to sleep we can't put him down awake at all. Also my son was doing 30-40 min naps but we found extending his wake window and dropping down to a 3 nap day fixed that. He now does an hour and a half each nap and goes down so much better for bedtime as it used to take us soooo long to get him to sleep!

Thanks @Laura! It’s funny you say that coz I was considering dropping a nap as yday his first nap was 14 mins long and today 24 mins so was thinking maybe it’s time to drop one. But don’t know how it will be keeping him awake longer 🫠 It’s good to know those who rock to sleep still get good sleep at night as alll these sleep consultants say that babies won’t be able to sleep longer if they don’t know how to put themselves to sleep. I find that when he settles from “drowsy” his sleep is far worse

@Emma Cunningham 5 months definitely didn't help with our naps

No one “has” to do sleep training - in the end they’ll all learn but it’s dependent on how long the parents can put up with it and how quickly babies adapt as obviously they’re all different,.

Sleep regression isn’t for sleep training. The advise actually goes against it x

@Emmo is she 6 months yet? Also I have read sometimes if you stretch the wake windows a bit or drop a nap it lengthens the naps. I guess it means a few rough days transitioning perhaps?

@Emma Cunningham she'll be 6 months in 2 weeks

@Emma Cunningham yeah I'm not sure, because some days she's has had ww of nearly 4 hours then still only naps 30 mins, I guess she just hasn't learnt to connect cycles, although she does it fine at night

@Emmo same here! Our LO gave us a 6 hour stretch last night which means he can clearly link cycles but can’t seem to do the same for day time! Hopefully I time they will figure it out

Yes definitely! It really frustrates me when people imply that sleep training is an essential part of parenting and that if you baby doesn’t sleep well you can’t complain about it if you’re not willing to stick to some stringent sleep training routine. Obviously it really helps some people but it should be a personal choose and not pushed onto us as an essential process. Sleep is still difficult for us but a lot has improved since he was a newborn/ in regression so I’m just going to let nature take its course. I feed to sleep and transfer when he’s asleep. We’ve tried putting him down drowsy but it’s not worked for us yet! X

I also think those nap lengths are pretty normal for this age unfortunately! Apparently they learn to do longer naps as they get older when they need fewer naps in a day x