4 Month Sleep Regression

So I had never even heard of such a thing until one night after having next to no sleep for almost a week, I decided to Google, "4 month growth spurt" & the regression is what I stumbled upon. My son had been sleeping like a champ since 6 weeks. We were consistently getting 6 1/2 hours of sleep per night and it was pure bliss. Once he hit about 3 months his sleep slowly began to suffer but it wasn't terrible. We started getting 5 hours then 4 hours then once he hit 16 weeks, all hell broke loose. He was now waking up every 45 minutes to 1 1/2 during the night. I was absolutely exhausted!!! (& still am). He was fussy all day and fighting naps like crazy. I was lucky to get him to nap for an hour during the day, which made for extra cranky evenings and an absolute war getting him to fall asleep. He would fall asleep in my arms and wake up screaming as soon as I attempted to put him down. I tried everything to relax him. I would give him a warm bath then a nice massage with soothing music in the background. I rocked him, bounced him, nursed him, walked around with him, wore him & NOTHING worked. So, on night five I did my Goggle search. According to what I found, at 4 months your baby starts to sleep more like an adult. They wake in the night except unlike an adult they are unable to easily fall back asleep. Unfortunately for me, my son needs to be nursed or rocked in order to fall asleep, so every time he would wake up our soothing process would have to repeat. I refuse to let him cry it out and such a young age like all the books tell you to do, so I would cry and nurse at the same time. I then downloaded, "The Wonder Weeks" app and discovered that my sweet son is going through a leap. This particular leap lasts an extra long time (weeks 15-19) and the signs of this leap include (quoted from the app):

• Your baby's head has to be supported again more often
• He asks for more attention, almost claims more attention
• He has firm mood swings
• He wants more body contact during feeding
• He seems to lack his usual "spunk" or seems absent

  
Yep, they nailed it! My son exhibited just about all of those signs. Although I was absolutely exhausted it was good to know that there was reasoning behind this lack of sleep and that it was not my fault. The fact that it would just be a phase gave me hope that I may someday get sleep again. Last night was night 5 of our ordeal and my sweet boy slept from 10 until 1:30 & kicked and screamed until 3 when he fell back to sleep until 7. I felt we had a breakthrough and I'm hoping and praying it only continues to get better as the nights go on. On the bright side to all of this, Bubby's development is clearly shining through. He began rolling from his tummy to his back yesterday and began scooting today! Those moments of mama's pride make all the long nights worthwhile. So, if you are experiencing this 4 month sleep regression, just remember that it is only temporary and the outcome of development will be worth it. I hope you too will soon get the sleep you so desperately need! :)