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Babies: 9 - 12 Months
What is wrong with my baby!?!?!?!?!
OK, so I complain about the nights here in our house all the time, but I'm really starting to believe that something so wrong. It cannot be normal for a healthy 5.5 month old to wake up every two hours, and to routinely stay up for 2 hours in the middle of the night every single night. I would be fine with being up once or twice a night but this is just ridiculous. I know he CAN sleep and only wake up once or twice since he's done it before. The routine never changes, so why is this happening? I need to discuss this with his pediatrician but I'm not confident he can help. No books seem to address this waking up ready to play at 3, 4 or 5 am every morning.
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Re: What is wrong with my baby!?!?!?!?!
he's probably going through a growth spurt or going to be meeting a milestone soon......
is he rolling over?
crawling?
getting teeth?
it could also be an ear infection....
welcome to my world! sorry, i can't help - - only sympathize. we've been up playing since 3:30AM. She took her first nap at 5:45AM and was up again at 7:30.
good times.
i love my pedi but when it comes to sleeping advice i want to kick them in the head (okay, that was harsh). according to them 'some babies are more active and don't sleep. unless she's exhausted all day then it's not an issue. there's no cure for this type of sleep (or lack there of)'.
How are you handling the wakeups? What exactly do you do when he starts crying/singing/talking/playing?
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We had a stretch around that time that was exactly the same. He woke every 1-2 hrs and he's stay up 1-2 hrs at times wanting to play (or just talk). At times we both just turned our backs (we co-sleep...) and let him go at it. Sometimes if we put him in the crib to play until he tired out and let him cry for a bit. Around 6 mths he pulled up, crawled etc so we're guesing that was it. This went on for a month. How long has you DS been doing this?
Ferber does address this in his book - I don't remember what exactly his advice is. I think the main point is that you can try to shift his schedule so that he goes down a little later at night or start waking him up earlier in the morning, because he doesn't need as much sleep as you're putting him in bed for.
?I have no experience with this particular problem, and I didn't Ferberize DD, but I did read the book, so I just wanted to let you know that it is addressed somewhere. Good luck!?
baby #4 due March '17!
Kelly Monaghan's 5K - 5/15/11 - 3rd Place in AG
Walk the Talk 5K - 5/18/11 - 31:12 PR
Ridley Run 3.1 - 4/14/12 - 1st race of the year, 32:45
Wassygirl: we don't play with him in the middle of the night. If we feed him and he is still awake and alert we put him back in his crib until he starts to cry. He stays in there playing and talking to himself for hours.
Menzel: but the thing is that this is not a temporary thing or something that just started. It has been this way his whole life.
His daytime schedule is perfect. He takes 3 naps a day and is a joy to be around. At night after his bath and nighttime routine he falls right asleep.
Our problem is that even though everything else remains the same through the day, the nights are never consistent. He could be up literally 10-12 times in a night (every 30-45 minutes), or he could only wake once to eat and go back to sleep. It ranges between these two every night with no pattern.
What about dropping a nap? My DD still napped 3x's a day at 9mths but my DS dropped down to just 1 nap a day at 7ths. Maybe he's getting too much sleep during the day.?
Kelly Monaghan's 5K - 5/15/11 - 3rd Place in AG
Walk the Talk 5K - 5/18/11 - 31:12 PR
Ridley Run 3.1 - 4/14/12 - 1st race of the year, 32:45
read healthy sleep habits happy child. it addresses all kinds of sleep problems. i'm sorry you are going through this!
just a thought- are you bfing? how is your caffeine intake? i noticed that sometimes even if i have a drop, it affects ds' sleep.
no advice here, just sympathy - we're going through the same thing! DD has never been a great sleeper but around 4 mths, i should she was working it out. now she's 5.5 mths and is up a LOT starting at 1am. we try to let her work it out herself but she's into rolling onto her belly and she doesn't know how to roll back. so once we go in, she grins at us like it's a party in the crib. i'm hoping what the pp's said is true and that they're working on something big and this will pass? i'm not holding my breath.
good luck to you and hope you get some sleep soon!
Judah'sMommy: As of a week ago, DS has begun to only wake up once at night. I feed him, put him back in the crib and he plays for an hour before going back to sleep on his own.
Prior to that, he was also up at least 4 times a night if not to eat then just to play. You are doing the right thing by not playing with him at night and putting him back in his crib. Hopefully he will soon get the hint that nighttime is boring and is meant for sleep. How long are each of his naps? DS only sleeps at most 3-4 hours during the day.
I don't have much advice other than hopefully he'll grow out of it soon!!
I'm sooooo sorry you are dealing with this. I can sympathize. My DD is also 5.5 months and we are up at LEAST 4-5 times a night. Thankfully she doesn't want to play but wants me to hold, rock her back to sleep. And then when I put her back down she wakes back up etc. I'm reading every sleep book in the world right now to try and figure out what to do. I know my prob is that she doesn't know how to put herself back to sleep though.
does he have anything in his crib? Is he just amusing himself talking etc? The only thing I can suggest is if there is anything in there to occupy him take it out and then yeah maybe phase out one of his daytime naps. Maybe he just needs less sleep than the average baby?? If he is not miserable I would assume this is the case.
DD is also totally not predictable. On occasion I can get 1 or 2 wakings but that is usually the exception
Are you feeding him every time he wakes?? You may want to try upping his calories during the day if you do feed him that often at night.
Also, read The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems and Healthy Sleep Habits. I also really like the Sleep Easy Solution.
Books are your friend!! They have helped us tremendously.
How far apart is his last nap waking time and his bedtime? According to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child babies 5-12 months only need 2.5 hour wakeful time at the most before going to sleep again, and he swears that children who wake up frequently at night and/or start the day too early aren't going to bed early enough. He claims that if you let your child stay up longer than the 2.5 wakeful period their bodies get overstimulated- making it harder to unwind and have a restful sleep.
I have seen this to be true in DD. If I let her get even slightly overtired her little body becomes so fidgety and she will flop around in her crib fighting sleep- even while yawning and closing her eyes. She'll also wake up more throughout the night. Maybe try pushing up his bedtime???
SO TRUE! Charlie goes to bed at 7pm. It stinks, because I don't even get home until 5:30, but it has helped him sleep better.
I don't get up with my baby when she wakes up at night, unless she is really freaking out. Sometimes she cries for a minute or two, but she typically goes back to sleep on her own, or quiets down. I'm sure if I went in there she would want to stay up, play, eat, etc.
Do you go in and get him every time he makes a peep? You might try just letting him fuss for a bit (I know it's hard!) and see if he goes down on his own.
Also, I know all babies are different but you might try not feeding him at night - we dropped the night feeding by upping the amount of formula at each daytime feeding. If he knows you aren't going to come in and play/feed, he might stop waking up all night.
Good luck!