4 Month Milestones and Sleep Regressions: Ignoring the Noise

When you’re a first time Mom, you try and read as much as possible. Except, sometimes it’s just Facebook groups, “Dr. Google”, and your pediatrician.  When your baby hits the 4-month mark, suddenly the groups get more active and you’re wondering a whole bunch of things: Is my baby sleeping okay? Is it normal for my baby to be awake at night? Is it normal for my baby to sleep for 12 hours? Honestly, there are a thousand questions to ask the closer your baby gets to the milestones and 4-month sleep regression. I struggled with anxiety wondering what would happen, especially since I was going back to work not too long before my daughter turned 4 months.

My baby wasn’t experiencing the same things

It became important to learn how to separate my baby with what I thought my baby should be; especially since she didn’t seem to be experiencing all the other things that the moms were posting about in my groups. We had just started breathing fresh air after the chaos of the newborn days. Now, I was sitting here reading and wondering if my baby was going to change and it wouldn’t be the same each night. (When is it ever the same?) I was scared about my work suffering from no sleep. I was so nervous.

A lot of the moms in my Facebook groups were struggling with sleepless nights and having many different experiences with their babies. Some babies were sleeping 4-5 hour stretches, and a few were up every hour nursing. There were babies that needed to be held, some babies that didn’t want to cuddle at all, and some babies were sleeping those long 12 hour stretches. If you’re a first time Mom, you wonder – do I wake the baby to change her? Do I wake her to feed as we did in the beginning? My only advice with all those questions and all this NOISE out there is t ignore it and listen to your baby. You know your baby!

Is my baby hitting these milestones at the right time?

Somehow, I got this miracle baby. She started sleeping through the night right after I went to work; no doubt due to the exciting days spent away from home with lots of places and faces. The transition from bassinet to pack and play was seamless. Her crib will be next and we’re excited about that milestone too. However, there are a few things she’s “behind” on. We’ve just hit 5 months and she’s still not rolling over a lot. She’s cutting her first few teeth. She’s not sitting up completely on her own, but she’s close. The thing is that she’ll get there; they all do. There is no definition for your little one, and nothing is “normal” when it comes to people. Everyone is different, especially babies.

Don’t get caught up in your Facebook groups, googling all the different milestones for 4-month old babies, and wondering how to survive things that haven’t even happened yet.

Stay strong and ignore the noise mamas! You’ve got this.