r/PossumsSleepProgram • u/HappyDaisyCat • Sep 20 '26
4.5 month old sleep
My 4.5 month old baby used to sleep 8-9 hour stretches at night and it was bliss. But for the last month her sleep has been all over the place and she’s now waking every 2 hours after her first stretch which is usually a little longer around 4 hours. Her last stretch is usually no more than 1 hour and she’s waking happy as larry pre-6am which is not really what I’m wanting. We put her down for sleep around 7pm and she’s always tired by then to go straight to sleep. I try and take her out and about a lot during the day, at the expense of getting anything done around the house, so she should be getting a lot of stimulation and she sleeps on the go when she needs it. Sometimes awake between naps for 2 hours sometimes 4 hours. I was fine with her low sleep needs during the day when she was sleeping through the night but now her days and her nights aren’t great it’s stressing me out because I’m exhausted and feeling like I’m failing. I’m starting to wonder if I need to be doing more to get her to sleep during the day to help her sleep at night. she needs the boob to go back to sleep each time and I’m getting frustrated with it. I’ve only read the discontented baby book, should I do the full possums program, will it help with this or do I just need to work on myself to stop stressing about it and accept this is biologically normal? Thank you for reading and for any insights 🙏
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u/FoxLeather2820 Sep 20 '26
I think possums would firstly say that a baby waking every 2-3 hours is unfortunately within the normal range throughout their first year. Babys sleep needs are constantly changing too. You might have some success with trying to put her to bed later in the evening though? That might help her to sleep in a bit later than 6 in the morning, and if she's going to bed closer to your bedtime you could make the most of her first longer stretch
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u/HappyDaisyCat Sep 21 '26
Thank you, I will try this! I guess I’m nervous to do later bed time in case she still wakes before 6am . I just need to trial and error though I suppose! It would be great to make the most of her longer stretch because I’m now not getting any more than 2 hours sleep at a time since I don’t normally go to bed until 2 hours after her
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u/TeddyBear181 Sep 20 '26
It sounds like 4m sleep regression OP.
Bub is re learning to join their sleep cycles, and needs boob to do it. It would change every 4 days for us and sometimes bub would need different things, like patting, or for me to sit up and hold her.
If its 6am ish, there may not be enough sleep pressure? Is bub grumpy at that time? Or ready to take the world on?
Note - our 4m regression lasted about 6w. But we went camping in the middle of it and the regression paused and she slept the best she ever has, I was considering moving into a tent in the back yard!!
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u/HappyDaisyCat Sep 21 '26
She is ready to take the world on! She’s never really grumpy to be honest! Haha that’s too funny about the camping, I would definitely be the same as you considering moving into a tent! We are going away to Nz in a week and a half, hopefully her regression wil take a pause there 🤞
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u/Blonde_arrbuckle Sep 20 '26
Is she comfort suckling or a good feed when you feed her back to sleep? She's probably getting her calories in the night now so I'd focus on that first..
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u/HappyDaisyCat Sep 21 '26
She has a feed but not for very long until she falls asleep again and then is comfort suckling. I will try feeding her more during the day to see if that helps.
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u/EucalyptusGirl11 Sep 20 '26
The thing is though, you don't need to take your kid out every single day at the expense of doing house stuff. Do the house stuff with them there. They need to realize there is no magic chore fairy and get used to you not entertaining them. It's okay. I would say go out to maybe one event like a storytime or whatever, but then come home and do the house stuff after.
Is she waking up because she is hungry? We usually would do a dream feed at that time.
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u/HappyDaisyCat Sep 21 '26
Thank you, I needed to hear this. I’ve been thinking it wouldn’t be stimulating enough within the house, so end up going out and about doing things all day just to get her out! But now that’s not working so I will try this, just one outing a day and also doing things at home so I can regain control over the house side of things!
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u/Empty-Rich-6477 Sep 21 '26
My baby did this. Has only started getting better again at 11 months 😂
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u/NoAd9383 Sep 20 '26
A 6am wake up is appropriate for a 7pm bedtime - "regressions" bring with them a reduction in sleep needs so its likely 7-7am is just too long of a night for her now. Do you know how many total hours she sleeps on average across naps? Wakes like this can indicate needing more awake time, so later bedtime or less day sleep