Good sleeper gone bad

Robi1 · January 2014

My baby will be six months in a few days. She slept well from 2-5.5 months. We put her to sleep awake and she falls asleep on her own no problem. She used to either sleep for the whole night straight, or if she did wake up, she'd soothe herself back to sleep. She'd easily go 10-12 hours without nursing.

Since about New Year's, she completely lost her ability to sleep through the night. She still naps fine, she still falls asleep for naps and night by herself, so clearly she is able to fall asleep on her own. Yet now she wakes up 4-5-6+ times per night and cannot put herself back to sleep. I have NO idea what could be causing this, or what to do about it! At first I thought growth spurt since she was wanting to nurse a lot, but it's been almost 3 weeks... Then I thought maybe teething, as she's been showing signs of that for a while (lots of gnawing, drooling, etc, though no teeth), but wouldn't that bother her during the day too? She's totally happy and normal all day long, and takes three 1-2 hour naps

Anyone else had a good sleeper go bad? Do I just need to stick it out and hope it'll get better with time? I'm going a little crazy from lack of sleep. I'm also worried that she's just gotten into a bad habit of needing me to go back to sleep. I've tried letting her cry for a bit, but she doesn't calm down until I nurse her pretty much. I'd appreciate any advice...

taraleanne · January 2014

We did have some troubles overnight around the 6 month mark and they improved with time. I am pretty sure the night wakings lasted nearly a month and he seems to be able to self sooth overnight again now. There are a lot of developmental leaps around this time so even though he could fall asleep on his own, he would still wake and need me to help him settle.

Are you nursing her overnight to get her to go back to sleep? Is that the only way she'll go back to sleep? Perhaps she is hungry....is she eating enough during the day? If not, she will make up for it at night. Is she in daycare during the day and making up for lost time with you at night? It's time for you to start solids now- a fuller belly would probably help her sleep longer but don't be alarmed if you have a few wake ups still. It's tough work being a baby. With patience and consistency I'd be willing to bet she'll go back to sleeping better after you get into the new daily routine with solids. It takes some time to get into a rhythm for what works for you and your baby, at least I found it did.

Robi1 · January 2014

taraleanne said:

We did have some troubles overnight around the 6 month mark and they improved with time. I am pretty sure the night wakings lasted nearly a month and he seems to be able to self sooth overnight again now. There are a lot of developmental leaps around this time so even though he could fall asleep on his own, he would still wake and need me to help him settle.

Are you nursing her overnight to get her to go back to sleep? Is that the only way she'll go back to sleep? Perhaps she is hungry....is she eating enough during the day? If not, she will make up for it at night. Is she in daycare during the day and making up for lost time with you at night? It's time for you to start solids now- a fuller belly would probably help her sleep longer but don't be alarmed if you have a few wake ups still. It's tough work being a baby. With patience and consistency I'd be willing to bet she'll go back to sleeping better after you get into the new daily routine with solids. It takes some time to get into a rhythm for what works for you and your baby, at least I found it did.

I stay at home with her, and she's eating the same amount during the day as she always has, every 2-3 hours, or more often as she wants. I only feed her at night if it's been 2-3 hours, otherwise I try to soothe her back to sleep without nursing, or my husband tries.

We have started solids with her, but she's not very into it, so we're moving slowly. She had no trouble sleeping longer before without solids, so I don't think that'll make a huge difference.

I think you might be right about a lot of developmental milestones going on right now. Hopefully she'll figure it out soon...

taraleanne · January 2014

Have you checked out the wonder weeks theory yet? Google that, there is also an app.

I know she slept ok before without solids but because of all of the growing around they might just need that extra food, I don't know this first hand but I have read a few places that a previously good sleeper that starts waking up could be due to the need to start solids. Of course there are lots of things that wake our babies up

TheTamedShrew · January 2014

Are you feeding her right before you put her down for the night? Sometimes it can help to put something in between eating and lights out in your bedtime routine. She could still be associating food with sleep and needing that to drift back to sleep at night.

Also are you using anything that is different when she wakes up (ex. paci falls out, timed mobile/music stops, mom/dad not in the room)? Babies develop object permenance at this age so it is important for the scene when they fall asleep to be IDENTICAL to the scene when they wake up.

Teething could definitely be a factor also. You could try giving her a dose of infant tylenol before bed and see if that helps.

GL!

vvolek · January 2014

My good sleeper has gone bad too

I'm not sure what it is. She just turned 7 months and for about 3-4 wks already she's up 1-2 times a night wanting milk. She eats more than she probably should during the day. I'm going crazy from lack of sleep too

hollandmama · January 2014

I'm exactly passing through this. DS STTN since the 3rd week (10-12 hours) and 4 weeks ago he started waking up 3 or 3 times... but in my case is because I started working and he drinks less from the bottle and waits for me to nurse.

I hope you can find a solution... @CarlaAndJames wrote me this when I asked about the issue, maybe it will work for you... substitue "bottles" for "feedings"

CarlaAndJames said:

IF you decide you want to try to push them to cycle back, (and there's certainly no right answer here, so you do what's right for you!), I can tell you what worked for us - my husband doing the soothing at night.
We spent a few weekend nights with me nursing him almost around the clock during the day, then at night my husband would go pick him up and rock him instead of bringing him to me to feed. Only took the little stinker about 2 days to realize the all night buffet was not available and to start guzzling bottles at daycare. He went from 4oz a day to 15 almost immediately!

pantsarella · January 2014

Yep, DD was 6 months old last week and it's been since NYE for us too. She hasn't sleep right since then. I thought it was because we left her with my ILs for a couple nights to go to a wedding, so everything was out of whack. Then I thought wonder week/growth spurt...now I'm just thinking we're in it for the long haul. It's gotten a LITTLE better recently- for a while she wouldn't sleep if she wasn't being held and wouldn't even nap during the day. Now she'll sleep in her infant to toddler rocker (she still acts like crib is a torture chamber) but still wakes up a couple times a night.

kt012885 · January 2014

This is us too. DD the last week (minus Saturday) has gotten up multiple times and won't put herself back to sleep. Usually a trip in there with a binky will do it but not last night or Friday- she just screamed. Last nightw as a little better but Friday was awful. Before last week she was sleeping 11 hours in a row and rarely getting up in the night. I'll be watching this thread.

Robi1 · January 2014

Thanks for all the advice, everyone, and sorry for those of you going through this as well!

Nothing changed with our routine to cause this, and nothing really changed to end it, so I'm guessing it was a combination of factors - the 26-week Wonder week (everything they say is spot on for her developmentally), teething, growth spurt, etc. When she woke up during that period, she was clearly upset and hungry, so no amount of letting her work it out herself would have worked.

After three weeks of hellish sleeping, she started only waking up 2-3 times and then only 1-2, and when she did wake up she started putting herself back to sleep on her own again. I gave her time to work it out on her own because she did not seem as upset, and she didn't seem hungry either. Now she's basically back to STTN with the occasionally 5-6am wakeup for a feeding before going back down til 7-8. I guess she just needed the extra milk and help getting back to sleep for a few weeks...

I wish I knew what happened, but I'm thrilled that she's gotten herself figured out. Good luck to everyone else figuring this out.

PrimRoseMama · February 2014

Sorry Hun, babies gonna baby. It's most likely a phase. LO is probably working on a new cognitive or physical milestone. It will pass, you just have to ride it out.

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