Awake in the middle of the night but happy

P&T11

My 10 month old has always been a good sleeper.  We never did any type of sleep training because he has slept through the night from a young age.  All of a sudden, he has started waking up in the middle of the night.  Not just for short periods of time, but for 3 hour stretches where he has more energy than he even has during the day.  All he wants to do is play/wrestle and is happy as can be unless I try and put him back to sleep. 

If I make any attempt to put him back to sleep, he starts crying hysterically!  I try to sooth him and lay him back down but eventually he gets so hysterical that it takes 20 minutes or so for him to catch his breath again and then he's ready for more play.  Eventually (after about an hour of trying to sooth), I give in and remove him from his crib (since he starts banging his head again the side) and he continues to play for 2 more hours before he gets tired and goes to be again. Once he is asleep, he sleeps until his regular morning wake up time of 6:30am and doesn't even nap more during the day.   

I'm not sure what to do and how to stop this because it has been a week and I don't want to encourage this behavior.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated:) 

candylies

Would he get hysterical if you just left him in the crib and didn't go in to "play" with him? 

DS has been waking around 4:30am and no matter what I do it seems to make it worse and he won't go back to sleep, so I decided if he wasn't crying then I wasn't going in there. He does eventually just fall back to sleep on his own.  If I go in there and pick him up or something like that then he gets upset when I leave and starts crying hard but if I just never go in there he seems fine and eventually gets himself to sleep again. 

EveryNameIWantIsTaken

If dd does that, which she does semi-frequently, I go in and put her paci back in and walk out.  When I have to go back in, because I have to at least a couple times, I put the paci back in and pat her back but don't talk to her or pick her up or anything.  She still eats in the middle of the night, so this is when she wakes up, eats, then wants to play.  I think taking her out of the crib when she's decided that's what she wants to do is the worst thing because then it gives her the idea that she's out and can play.

risaac01

I can only think about what my son is going through now. He is teething and notice a change in his sleep pattern but many experts (based on professional websites) said that sleep will change because of brain development and/or teething situation. We bring our son on the bed with us and leave him roll all over us and eventually he falls asleep on his own. We do not turn on the lights or talk to him. Every few mintues we say, its time to go back to sleep. He rest his head on the pillow and then return to playing. When he falls asleep we put him back in his crib.

Not a fan of the theories of leaving your baby cry but try to keep your baby active in the day. I notice when I run errands, go to the park, etc the whole day by 7pm he is tired and out for the count!

 Best regards during this time..

bluejetta

I too would try to leave him.  DD sometimes wakes around 2/3am and babbles moves about for what seems like a long time and I know if I go in there that would just wake her up more -- if she doesn't cry I let her be and figure iti s something she'll work out.

P&T11

Thanks for the response. 

When he first wakes up, he is screaming and that's how we know he is up.  I spend about an hour putting back in the paci, soothing him, leaving ect.  When I go in the room to put back in the paci, that when he starts smiling, laughing and playing.  i place him back down and start again.  Even though his eyes may close a few times, a minute later he is up again screaming and gets more and more upset.  After i finally give in, that is when the 2 hours of consistant happy play really being. 

I know I shouldn't give in but I am really not sure how to get him to stop crying.  When he is crying in his crib at night he gets way too worked up and really hasnt figured out how to calm himself down and put himself back to sleep.

 I really hope this is just a phase. 

vaohara

I think you need to encourage him to figure out how to fall asleep on his own in the middle of the night. You have trained him to wake and play in the motn and you will be crazy exhausted before he grows out of it. Everyone has different ideas about crying so take what you want but I think Ferber or some other sleep training is needed, but that's jut my opinion.

noahchristopher

What is his schedule like during the day???  Does he nap?  If so, how much, how often?

The initial screaming when he wakes makes me think discomfort of some kind.  Have you fed him anything new lately?  This could cause some stomach irritability.  Whatever the cause for the waking it seems that once you go in he's riled up and won't go back to sleep. 

Could be, 1. Teeth coming in, 2. Not enough daytime sleep causing him to have restless night sleep, 3. Tummy issues, 4. If he naps well during the day then a happy party in the middle of the night could mean he's getting too much daytime sleep and is transitioning to more wake time between naps.

I am a supporter of cry it out, but I would first try to determine if any of the above are coming into play and try to remedy that first before resorting to cry it out.  I'm not saying this because I think cry it out is wrong or a last resort, because we did a form of cry it out with our son and it saved all of our lives.  I'm just thinking some more investigative work needs to be done first since you say this is new behavior.

noahchristopher

You can also google "10 month old sleep regression."  This age is a prime time for sleep  to have some disruptions due to developmental things going on.

Also google "The Wonder Weeks." It's awesome!  It lays out times when a baby is going through major developmental "leaps" that cause all kinds of disruptions to their behavior and sleep patterns.

Good luck.

smilelari

What time does he go to bed?  How are naps?  How many hours of sleep does he get per 24 hours?

P&T11

The schedule usually goes like this:  He wakes up at 6:30am, has a one hour nap from 9am-10am, has a one hour nap from 2pm-3pm and then he usually goes to bed around 8:30pm and then wakes up by crying/playing from about 12am-3am.  

His naps and schedule are pretty consistant and nothing has changed with his diet ect.  He has gotten a few teeth but since he is happy during the day and his night playtime, I don't think that is the problem.   

I guess I'm going to have to research sleep training and see what method will work best for us.   My only hesitation is that most sleep training methods focus on putting the child to bed but my little one goes to bed perfectly every night, its just the middle of the night wake up.  I hope the same methods apply:)

brewcitybride

Just let him be, let him play. He will go back to sleep. DS does this. But I do not go to him, or he would not go back to sleep!

noahchristopher

I'd try not going to him too if you don't think it's discomfort.

The only thing I saw with his schedule is that he's up for 5 1/2 hours before bedtime?  That seems to be a long stretch for his age.  Maybe try an earlier bedtime.  Sometimes if they're overtired their sleep can be restless.  Just a thought.

smilelari

P&T11:

The schedule usually goes like this:  He wakes up at 6:30am, has a one hour nap from 9am-10am, has a one hour nap from 2pm-3pm and then he usually goes to bed around 8:30pm and then wakes up by crying/playing from about 12am-3am.  

His naps and schedule are pretty consistant and nothing has changed with his diet ect.  He has gotten a few teeth but since he is happy during the day and his night playtime, I don't think that is the problem.   

I guess I'm going to have to research sleep training and see what method will work best for us.   My only hesitation is that most sleep training methods focus on putting the child to bed but my little one goes to bed perfectly every night, its just the middle of the night wake up.  I hope the same methods apply:)

The same methods do apply.  However, the 9-12 month range is a really rough time to do sleep training because there's a lot of separation anxiety at this age.  I prefer to try to find the underlying cause of the sleep disturbance and fix that rather than trying to force sleep.  In this case, I suspect he's waking because he's overtired.  I would experiment with trying to figure out why he's waking and trying to fix it and then if that doesn't pan out move to sleep training once the separation anxiety stage has passed.

If you want to research sleep training, a good book is Bed Timing.  It covers what ages are best for sleep training and then goes over the different categories of methods.  It says that all methods are equally effective if applied at the right time developmentally, so you should pick a good time (so not 9-12 months) and then go with the method that's more your style (so CIO, no cry, etc).

FWIW, 10 hours of sleep at night really isn't enough.  It should be more like 11-12 (14-15 total per 24 hours).  And 5.5 hours between the last nap and bed time is a really, really long time to be awake.  Is he cranky in the evenings?  I would definitely give moving bed time earlier a shot.  With a nap ending at 3, I'd be shooting for a 7 pm bed time.

This will vary by baby, but I'd be trying to get something more like this:

6:30 - wakeup

8:30-10 nap

1-3:30 nap

7:30 bed

This is the 2-3-4 routine.  2 hours between wakeup and first nap, 3 hours between end of first nap and beginning of second.  4 hours between end of second nap and bed.  It sounds so counter intuitive, but most a lot of sleep problems are related to too little sleep.  Some babies are more sensitive to these types of problems than others.

Rdautenhahn

noahchristopher:

You can also google "10 month old sleep regression."  This age is a prime time for sleep  to have some disruptions due to developmental things going on.

Also google "The Wonder Weeks." It's awesome!  It lays out times when a baby is going through major developmental "leaps" that cause all kinds of disruptions to their behavior and sleep patterns.

Good luck.

Thanks for posting this about the wonder weeks. I have no advice for OP, but we have been going through the sake thing at 11 months and I find all of these responses very helpful!  

The wonder weeks is great!