What were we thinking! promote confidence and reduce distress in parents with a first baby

My baby is 4 months old ... what's next?

By Poppy

My baby is 4 months old ... what's next?

So you arrive at 4 months, thinking the hard part is behind you, well we did anyway. Penelope was becoming a better sleeper, we knew her cues and she responded well to a little more routine that together we were beginning to get the hang of. To be honest, until 4 months I believe it’s hard to set any formal routines. For us, each day was a little different- feed times, wake times, fussy spells. At 4 months I felt we were somewhat on the road to a little more predictability each day.

It doesn’t always follow that smoothly though. At 4 months she began sleeping 7pm-7am, brilliant, brilliant brilliant!!!! 2 weeks into this, we were suddenly being woken at 12am, sometimes 2am, 5am, you name it. What happened? It felt like we were back at the beginning again. Someone mentioned to me it was ‘the 4 month regression’. Regression, yes sir it was!

But no sooner had these sleep disruptions began again, they ceased just as quickly. We had another couple of smooth sailing weeks, until the next hiccup…a bit of teething. The wake up calls began all over.

What we’ve learnt is that it’s never going to be perfect, don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise. You’ll have some stellar days and weeks and some not so flash ones. I’ve learnt to just take it as it comes and appreciate the good periods, and worry less about the not so good periods, knowing they too will soon pass.

Posted in:  Baby 17-20 weeks