What do YOU do when LO is wide awake in the middle of the night?

SeaSoul · October 2009

DS was up from 11:30-2:00 last night, ready to rock. He woke up when we transferred him from his room to our bed, so technically it's our fault, but he doesn't normally wake up (or if he does, he nurses right back to sleep). Whew, it was rough. Of course we spent our time trying to soothe him back to sleep but the kid was wide awake. Do you ever just get up with your LO and play? Sometimes I wonder if that would help get him back to sleep more quickly by tiring him out...hard to say.

eisenberg0814 · October 2009

i try not to get up and play - but its tempting. I try to lay there and not move. but almost always have to get up and walk around carrying her in the dark and she will get bored and go back to sleep.

suzymarie · October 2009

When that happened, oen of use would go with him and lay down in the dark living room, and try to be as boring as possible. That way the otehr person could still sleep.

SeaSoul · October 2009

suzymarie:
When that happened, oen of use would go with him and lay down in the dark living room, and try to be as boring as possible. That way the otehr person could still sleep.

We took turns last night, too, except it was the other way around...for some reason DH stayed on the couch and slept after he had been up w/ DS, so when I had him he was in bed with me. He kept sitting up and wanting to crawl everywhere...it was rough.

suzymarie · October 2009

Yah there is really no way to make it better.

If it makes you feel any better, my 2 year old still does it occasionally- one night last week he just decided to be up for the day at 3:30 am. It sucks! It makes me ask myself why I am having another child, LOL.

CalinsBride · October 2009

Sometimes I just play with him. He gets all his wiggles out and then we both go back to sleep.

Lotte134 · October 2009

We try to keep things as low-stimulation as possible. Unless he's sick, in which case all bets are off, we keep him in his room in the dark and just rock, nurse, etc... until we can get him down. I agree that it's very tempting to try to play and tire him out, but my worry there is that he'll get in the habit of waking up to play - more fun time with mom and dad! I also find that the more I tire DS out during the day, the better. We will roll a ball for him and let him crawl after it, we get him climbing the stairs (with us right behind him of course!), etc... to keep him nice and active since he has so much energy.

IU_baby · October 2009

Luckily this has only happened to us a few times.

We don't play with him, but we'll rock with him or walk with him to get him drowsy again. We don't cosleep anymore, so if he's not fussy or crying, sometimes we'll just turn on the projector in his room and let him watch that until he falls back asleep.

mrsjbaker06 · October 2009

I HATE when DS does this, but then again he is so cute when he does it that I just want to laugh. I used to play with him or rock and nurse him back to sleep, but lately I've been just leaving him lying down (we cosleep) and trying to be as still as possible and not look at him. That seems to get him to sleep sooner!

Lotte134 · October 2009

IU_baby:
so if he's not fussy or crying, sometimes we'll just turn on the projector in his room and let him watch that until he falls back asleep.

Good point. If DS is not unhappy I generally just let him be as well. He has his glowing seahorse and his lovey in the crib so he can play with those and talk to himself until he gets sleepy again.

EcoBaby · October 2009

If its clear that he isn't going back to sleep, I get up and play. I try to just keep the lights low. Its also less frustrating for me because I just get pissed after an hour or two of trying to get him to sleep. Its easier for me to just play with him until he is showing sleepy signs, and then get him back to sleep. DS will usually only last 1 to 1.5 hours if he wakes up in the middle of the night.

I'm the same way myself if I wake up in the middle of the night. I can lay there in the dark for hours, or I can watch tv for 30 minutes and go to sleep.

Shlei · October 2009

I am the type of person that needs very little sleep (even as a child I was like this) so I usually am up already either watching tv, reading or playing scrabble online. If my LO wakes up I put on some soothing music or get up and walk around with her in my arms. She usually falls right back to sleep.

kat.in.the.hat · October 2009

a lot of times, we have to do a complete reset. so she and I come into the living room, I watch bad TV and she plays, then I give her to dada and he puts her to sleep.

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