You are four months in with your new baby, you are now adjusting to parenthood and your baby may be in a lovely routine. Yay, you have this parenting thing down! 

But then the four-month regression hits and you notice big changes with your baby’s behaviour, feed and sleep patterns. Baby may now be:

• Taking less interest in their feeds particularly during the day
• Needs more feeds during the night
• Is frequently unsettled and is needing lots more cuddles and support
• May be more difficult to settle for their naps and at bedtime
• May be waking in the night more frequently at night and difficult to settle back to sleep 

If this sounds like your baby then welcome to the four month regression, though I promise you these changes are perfectly normal. You may be wandering why your once settled baby is now inconsolable or why your once hungry baby is not feeding so much. You may be blaming yourself, thinking you have done something wrong yourself. You may have heard about the dreaded four month regression and are full of anxiety about it. Please let me reassure you this stage is perfectly normal and of course, you have not broken your baby. 

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A lot of us are guilty of not prioritising our own sleep and our well-being as a whole. Self -care ends up at the bottom of the list, I know it is for me with juggling work, my boys and running the house. I sometimes need that reminder that I am important too.

When we become new parents, we tend to prioritise our baby’s needs, which of course we need to do as they are heavily reliant on us to meet their needs. However, in order for us to care for our baby’s needs we do need to look after ourselves too, even more so with the lack of sleep.

Sleep deprivation is hard, and no amount of baby prepping can prepare you for this, it is different for everyone and of course, everyone has differing levels of sleep needs. However, if you previously loved those lie-ins and loved your 8 hours then been woken by a tiny baby is going to be difficult.

Here are a few tips to help you cope with sleep deprivation

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When families prepare for the arrival of their new-born baby, there is so much excitement. Lots of advice is given to the parents-to-be but colic is never mentioned. 

Who wants to contemplate having an inconsolable baby for hours on end? Caring for a colicky baby is a whole new kind of nightmare but it is a reality that affects over 25% of babies, globally. There are families everywhere in the midst of colic hell, feeling isolated and trying to navigate through this difficult time, hoping for a shining light at the end of the colic tunnel.

What is colic?

Colic is clinically diagnosed for a baby that is crying for more than three hours, three days a week, for a three-week period, but is otherwise healthy and gaining weight. It can strike between the ages of three weeks to six weeks old but sometimes it can be earlier or even later. The timing of when colic symptoms appear is usually down to what is really causing your baby’s misery.

The term ‘colic’ is used as a sweeping diagnosis to cover various reasons as to why your baby is crying. Once you know the root cause of your baby’s distress then you are more likely to be in a position to help.

Let’s have a look at two of the main causes of colic, shall we?

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Oxytocin has an amazing role to play in the human body and can help with a number of things such as helping us to relax and stay calm, reduce stress and anxiety, helps in childbirth and breastfeeding and is the hormone that helps us bond and fall in love.

Oxytocin is produced in the hypothalamus and is secreted into the bloodstream by the posterior pituitary gland. Oxytocin is often referred to as the ‘love hormone’ due to the fact it is released into the body during hugging, touch and orgasm. It is associated with empathy, love, trust and is paramount in relationship building.

When it comes to childbirth oxytocin has a big role to play as it stimulates the uterine muscles to contract and it also increases the production of prostaglandins which increase the contraction further. For some women who don’t go into labour naturally they are given the synthetic form of oxytocin, pitocin.

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