Before becoming a mom, I’d never heard the term “sleep regression.” Now I realize that if I had, I would have thought long and hard before having kids! Ok, I’m joking a little. But if you’ve ever successfully made it out the other side of a sleep regression than you know they are no laughing matter. What exactly is a sleep regression? They are usually short periods of time where your once sleeping baby decides they will wake up 10 times a night and fight every nap tooth and nail until your sanity has left the building. They coincide with developmental milestones which usually take place at the 4, 8 and 12 month mark of your baby’s first year. And news flash! There’s even a regression at 2 years of age! As I write this, I’m listening to my 2 year old fight a nap for the last hour and a half, of which she actually was asleep for 10 minutes in the car, but decided she didn’t want to lay down more than that. The jury is still out on whether I will “rescue” her from her incessant whining in her room. The jury thinks that won’t happen.
Sleep regressions are difficult for your baby because they are often learning new major milestone like sitting up and walking. It takes a lot of energy to learn those things, and their focus is directed towards those tasks until they are mastered. That means that sleeping takes a back seat. Sleep regressions are even harder on parents because we still have to carry on our normal business, despite being woken up 1,000 times during the night and getting no break from the usual nap time. The good news is that sleep regressions last a few weeks max, and that we’ve come up with a survival list on how you can push through.
1. Identify the Regression
Usually most parents discover sleep regressions after weeding out a number of other potential causes of sleep loss, such as illness, teething or wet diapers. It’s only after a number of sleepless nights and late night desperate Google searches they learn the horror that is the sleep regression. That being said, before you chalk up your new night owl to being in the throes of a regression, make sure they aren’t sick or there isn’t another cause. Then just resign yourself to the fact that you will have a few weeks of middle of the night angst and try to identify with your child. It’s not that they don’t want to sleep, it’s that they can’t manage it in the midst of all the other things they’re learning.
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Karly Wood
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