Suddenly a terrible sleeper?

BeckyF82 · November 2014

I am SO tired. DD has been pretty good at sleeping (we bed share) since she was about 2 months. She generally tends to have dinner at 6.30, have a bath, a play, a bottle about 8, and then bed with us at about 9 and she would sleep through till 7am ish ( I get up for work at 5am and DH stays home with her).

But the last four nights she's done all her usual sleepy cues at night and closes her eyes etc but within seconds of closing her eyes, spits out her dummy and starts crying, and immediately rolls over onto her tummy. Then she's wide awake as though it's morning and she wants to play. No matter how many times we flip her and get her all sleepy as soon as she closes her eyes she cries, rolls over again and wants to play. This happened at least a hundred times every night for the last four nights. In the end DH takes her downstairs and she happily plays on her mat for about 2 or 3 hours until she finally decides she wants to go to sleep about 2am.

We're both exhausted and I'm trying to teach each day having had about an hours sleep.

Is there some sort of sleep regression I missed? Why would a baby's body clock suddenly change like this? Gah!

kmos816 · November 2014

A few things come to mind.... Could she be ready for her own crib and is she awake enough during the day or does she nap 'too' much? Babies on average need 13-14 hours total at this age- if she is napping a lot might not need the night sleep.
When out LO wanted to party at night our Pedi advised to keep it dark and quiet.... Don't give in to play time at night.
Other than that babies are always changing so it could just be a phase!

JWest07 · November 2014

I have a suddenly terrible sleeper, too. We bed share some, but typically LO would spend several hours each night in his own bed. Also, until a week ago I could rock him to sleep and put him down for naps. Not now. His eyes open as soon as his body hits his bed and then the wailing ensues. I try letting him cry a little to see if he will calm himself, but no luck.
Like OP, I'm wondering if there is a common sleep regression I didn't know about. Or a developmental milestone that could cause these unexpected changes we are seeing?

OliveOyl2014 · November 2014

Same here. Just started the past couple days. We also bedshare and thankfully she doesn't wake too much. But she started being a very restless sleeper. Constant tossing and turning and moving all over the bed. And naps have been horrible too. Usually she goes down with minimal issues but it's been torture getting her to lay still enough to sleep. I'm just chalking it up to teething. Nothing else seems to be an issue. Good luck! Hope it gets better soon!

bootsiebabe · November 2014

When my DS started rolling on to his tummy to sleep it REALLY pissed him off. For the first few nights, like you, I kept flipping him over and getting him settled. No sooner than I'd get back to bed and peek at the monitor would he be flipped back on to his tummy. It took him a few days (and tears) to get used to sleeping on his tummy and now he flips back and forth with no problem. Maybe she's hitting the point where she's ready to explore other sleeping positions? Sorry about your sleep though... good luck!

BeckyF82 · November 2014

Id be happy to let her sleep on her front but when she rolls over she immediately gets up on all fours and starts crawling all over.

Honestly it's torture. Her eyes are heavy, it's obvious she's exhausted but if I try and lay her down she starts arching and screaming and rolling straight away. DH tries to keep her active during the day as much as possible. We tried putting her in her cot last night but the same thing happened. In the end DH HAS to take her downstairs to play because otherwise I wouldn't get any sleep at all and couldn't work.

The previous night I tried sleeping downstairs and just letting DH persevere upstairs with her but he would have ended up being driven insane because she just didn't stop. Just so frustrating as she's so obviously tired but won't let herself sleep. Zzzzzzz

katy4128 · November 2014

JWest07 said:
I have a suddenly terrible sleeper, too. We bed share some, but typically LO would spend several hours each night in his own bed. Also, until a week ago I could rock him to sleep and put him down for naps. Not now. His eyes open as soon as his body hits his bed and then the wailing ensues. I try letting him cry a little to see if he will calm himself, but no luck.
Like OP, I'm wondering if there is a common sleep regression I didn't know about. Or a developmental milestone that could cause these unexpected changes we are seeing?

This exactly.

Nxy · November 2014

We just got over this with DD. I would set her down her eyes would fly open and she'd be awake. We moved her into her crib but, the crib is still in our room. It got so bad we just decided to let her CIO. It was really hard the first night but after that she stopped. I know that isn't a solution for everyone but it worked for us.

speechie517 · November 2014

B is currently playing on the floor and has been up for the past hour and a half. She wants nothing to do with rocking, cuddling, or even nursing.

hordol · November 2014

Does LO have a nap schedule? If she was sleeping 9-7, that's 10 hours which means she has 3-4 hours to make up during the day for naps. If she's not getting enough overall sleep she could be overtired and have a hard time staying asleep. When is her last nap before bedtime?

momofmanyinthemitten · November 2014

Katy0525 said:

JWest07 said:
I have a suddenly terrible sleeper, too. We bed share some, but typically LO would spend several hours each night in his own bed. Also, until a week ago I could rock him to sleep and put him down for naps. Not now. His eyes open as soon as his body hits his bed and then the wailing ensues. I try letting him cry a little to see if he will calm himself, but no luck.
Like OP, I'm wondering if there is a common sleep regression I didn't know about. Or a developmental milestone that could cause these unexpected changes we are seeing?

This exactly.

Another vote for this.

BeckyF82 · November 2014

She normally has about an hours nap at 10, 1 and 4. She has only ever been able to nap whilst being held and she. 'S continued to nap fine throughout this. Hopefully this will start to get better or otherwise I'm going to end up having to take time off work because of lack of sleep!

kmos816 · November 2014

BeckyF82 said:
She normally has about an hours nap at 10, 1 and 4. She has only ever been able to nap whilst being held and she. 'S continued to nap fine throughout this. Hopefully this will start to get better or otherwise I'm going to end up having to take time off work because of lack of sleep!

Have you tried an earlier bedtime? As hordol suggested she might be overtired? My LO will typically take a nap between 4 & 5 and is in bed for the night at 7. She also takes crappy naps during the day though and needs a full 12 hours at night!

thejewelster · November 2014

We are also going through this! I am chalking it up to a few things (cuz I really have no clue) - Teeth? Growth spurt (he's genuinely starving when he wakes up)? New skill (started army crawling)? Leap (starts in a few days)? That's all I have. I just hope whatever it is ends soon!!!!!

Rrrrrachel · November 2014

I think the explanation is babies are just mean.

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