Sleep Regression - IT'S REAL.

Baby is born. Baby comes home. Time pretty much stops existing while baby figures out the difference between night and day. Parents don't care because they are in complete awe of their precious bundle of joy. Baby finally gets it. Nights become time to sleep and days become time for play. Baby wakes up 3 times a night to nurse, but goes right back to sleep. Normal. Months pass - baby sleeps through the night! And not just through the night, 9-10 hours straight!! Parents praise themselves. It must be some awesome parenting they did. They high-five each other.

Then, something happens. Baby starts waking up 2 times a night to nurse again. Ok…not a huge deal.

Then, something more happens. Baby is waking EVERY 2 HOURS. She's restless. She's fidgety. She's hungry. She's not hungry. She wants to be on her stomach. No, she wants to be on her back. She wants to bounce. She wants to sleep in your bed.

Sleep regression. When this happened to us, I immediately googled "4 months old not sleeping?" and "4 months old waking up a lot" and "4 months old IM EXHAUSTED" and every other phrase you can think of. Every. Single. One. gave me the result "4 Month Sleep Regression".

Turns out that, due to a huge developmental leap, it is very typical at this age for babies to just flip their sleeping routine on its head. They "regress" to sleeping like newborns, because their brain can no longer just check out like it used to. Ive read it described like this: Imagine going to bed the night before a big meeting or big event. You are tossing and turning and checking the clock every hour it seems. You can't stop going over scenarios in your head. Thats what it is like for weeks for babies that go through sleep regression. Usually, they are working on mastering a skill at this time, like rolling over or sitting up.

Ive READ that often times, once this skill is mastered, the regression stops. Meh, not so sure I buy that one. She's sitting up unsupported now, rolled over once (yes, once) and the "regression" has only gotten worse. Its now moved to naps also.

On the flip side of this, Camila is all of a sudden a REAL LITTLE HUMAN! She is the coolest little person ever! It seems like she went from being a little blob of poopie, sour milky mess to a thinking, feeling, giggly, bubbly, adorable HUMAN. She is so much fun and so amazing. She learns something new every day, she has "conversations" with us, she yells when she's bored and likes to read books and loves the swing at the park and grabs our faces and belly laughs. She giggles when I dance like an idiot and squeals when talking to her papi. She sings herself to sleep and responds to her name and pays attention when skyping with her family and is discovering her hands and toes.

Quite simply: SHE ROCKS. This is equally the hardest and most joyful stage thus far.

I don't know when this sleep regression will end (i hope its soon) but advice I often get from other parents is "this too shall pass." Enjoy the many stages they go through, because it will go by fast. So for now, we have decided to assist her however we can through this bump in the road. She will eventually work through it, and no, we won't create any bad habits by helping her sleep in any way we can - even if it means sleeping in our bed. We will continue our bedtime routine of bath and a book, and continue to put her to bed in her crib. Once she's through this stage, our goal is sleep training, which will be a whole new adventure!

Can anyone relate?! I would love to hear if theres anyone else that went through this sleeping hump!