sleep regression baby sleep

The Great Regression

Everything was going so well. We weren’t necessarily running a sleep surplus, but our deficit wasn’t too bad. We benefited from relative stability, and could pretty accurately forecast our nights. Our household sleep economy was chugging along at a nice even clip.

Aside from the first WTF moment, Isabel’s sleep was consistent and somewhat predictable within a couple hours, and thus so was ours. We had our routine and we were pretty rested, all things considered. But then she hit 3.5 months old.

The “experts” (aka the internet, aka the oracle) had warned us about this so called “sleep regression”. Friends had told us to be ready, and to postpone sleep training until this passed. But Isabel would be different! She was a great sleeper already! This “sleep regression” was for other babies…right?

WRONG!

We got hit. Elevenish weeks of 8-10 hours of stable, uninterrupted, sleep, became unpredictable. We definitely learned to be less-surprised by such an occurrence after the first time, but being the constant optimist, I didn’t think it would happen again so soon. Mrs. FWL on the other hand was/is rightfully on edge every night – knowing that tonight could be the night. This could be the night we have been warned about, been dreading, been trying to ignore.

Going to bed right now is like sleep-roulette; will we land on the bullet or wake up unscathed? Each “bullet” night sucks as much as the last one and usually follows the same pattern. Isabel goes to sleep and then wakes up anywhere from 2-3 times during the night. She didn’t all of a sudden become more gassy, dislike her swaddle, or “forget” how to sleep. No, her brain is going through a developmental whirlwind, and she is hungry/tired/stimulated/[fill in the blank].

Hey, but look on the bright side, at least I get to rock/hold her more….


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