Many parents are relieved when their infants start sleeping for long stretches rather than waking up every few hours. However, in this case, a mother writes in whose infant headed down that path, but is now waking up regularly again. She wonders if this is sleep regression, or simply a growth spurt. The answer, most likely, is that it is both – a natural growth spurt which has disrupted the child’s sleep rhythm and thus driven short-term sleep regression.

Key Takeaways:

• It can be tough to tell if a baby who is having sleep problems is experiencing a regression, or simply a growth spurt.
• In actuality, the two are inherently tied – a large growth spurt will often drive a sleep regression.
• The key is regularity – keep your baby on schedule as they grow through the phase.

“Sleep regressions typically ARE tied to growth spurts. Of course, babies are growing pretty much all the time at a pretty rapid pace in their first year of life, but there are a couple developmental windows that generally mess with their sleep.”

Read more: https://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/sleep-regression-growth-spurt-or-both/