Sleep...How I miss you!

Something has happened. My once amazingly wonderful sleeping baby has turned into somewhat of a night owl. She has started waking up CONSTANTLY in the night. I have not gotten this little sleep ever in my life.

Everyone expects to lose lots of sleep when they bring their newborn home from the hospital. It wasn't near as hard to handle because I knew that it was coming. After about 3 weeks, Avery started sleeping longer stretches and by 2 months or so she was sleeping through the night in her crib, waking up once around 5am for a feeding. Who would have thought we would go backwards now at around 4 months old! I certainly didn't! Last night she went to sleep around 8pm but then proceded to wake up at 11, 12:50 (twice), 1:30, 2ish (twice), 3 something (I fed her then), skipped the 4 o'clock hour (thank goodness!), and back up at 5:20. At this point, I couldn't take it anymore so I put her in the swing where she slept until 8:30. Surprisingly, I felt somewhat refreshed this morning because I got the three hour stretch at the end. Yesterday, I felt like a walking zombie all day long due to lack of sleep! Her naps have been still decent so I'm not sure what's up.

I've done some research online and found out something called the 4 month sleep regression. Apparently babies' sleep patterns change at this point, and they have to learn how to put themselves back to sleep. I think that this is our problem. She is still swaddled so she doesn't have access to her thumb or hand to soothe her back to sleep. I feel like I can't stop swaddling her because she just thrashes her arms all around. What a vicious cycle! Maybe it could be early teething? She has been chomping down on anything lately. I just don't know!

I'm writing this post, partially for advice and partially so that I can read it when she is older and be so thankful for the glorious nights of sleep that I will be having then! Don't get me wrong, I am SO thankful for our precious, happy and healthy baby and feel so blessed to have her. I think about a time when I would give anything to have her so I realize that I should never complain about minor problems like this. But, if I am doing something wrong or could change this then I am all for it!

If you have any nuggets of advice, please let me know! Hopefully this phase will end as quickly as it came. Otherwise, I will have to invest in some heavy duty concealer for the bags under my eyes!