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DS is doing something pretty annoying...

MissingchampagneMissingchampagne member
in April 2016 Moms
My baby has developed a "fun" new sleep habit that I haven't figured out how to break. Our sleep situation looks like this:

He sleeps in his pack-and-play, in the room with us still. He goes to bed every night after a bath and bottle, awake but drowsy, around 8pm. 

Wakes up around 10:30, sometimes stays awake for an hour (this is when my husband gets home from work, he seems to sense him no matter how quiet he is and wants to hang out with him). Goes back to bed. 

Midnight feeding, sometimes 3am feeding. He definitely does not sleep through the night yet. Anyway, 6am rolls around and he starts SCREAMING. My husband and I have later schedules, and nobody wakes up this early. I have tried rocking him, shush/pat, feeding, diapering, just plain old leaving him... but he doesn't stop. The real (pardon my language but) ... the real bitch about it is, he wants to get into our bed. The MOMENT he's in our bed, he happily falls back asleep between us. If I transfer him back, he wakes up and yells again.

Every day he does this. His internal clock is set to "6am screamathon". Seeing him happily settle in for another 3 hours of sleep in my bed drives me nuts, why oh WHY can't he do that in his own bed? He slept the first part of the night in his own bed, but after 6am it's the scariest place on earth?
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Re: DS is doing something pretty annoying...

  • muzskmuzsk member
    Babies are very smart and selfish. They will look for their ultimate comfort...and that is usually with mommy and daddy. Its the same as when a crying baby will normally get solace in his mother's arms. Don't fret. Its a phase. It will pass. He just wants to see u both around him. 
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  • mb0112mb0112 member
    I wonder if adjusting your schedule or moving him to his own room would help.  Maybe he is just naturally awake for the day at 6 but snuggling helps him take a "nap" vs being alone in bed makes him discontent.  If he sees you right there he might want you more! Also he can sense dad coming in. 

    If he is your only child and you don't mind adjusting, maybe try a new schedule. If you work, what is your schedule like? If that is his only chance to hang out with you and dad maybe just put him to bed late at night and hope he sleeps later in the morning.  That won't work once he gets older but a late bedtime should be ok for a baby as long as he gets enough sleep.  Or, even try an earlier bedtime for him, then an earlier bedtime for you, and just go with the flow and get up at 6 rather than fight it. Like if you did his bath at 6, had him sleeping by 7, went to bed yourself at 9 and get up at 6, you'd have some "me" time and a good amount of sleep assuming your feedings are pretty quick. 
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  • g&tlewisg&tlewis member
    My DS is waking up screaming, too, but it's all throughout the night. I can't get him to calm down until I pick him up. Some nights I end up sleeping with him on the couch so I can at least get a little sleep before I have to get up for work. This morning he was sleeping on my chest and still woke up screaming. I know he's not doing it on purpose, but it's super frustrating. We go in for his 6 month appointment on Monday so I'm going to ask the pediatrician for some advice.  
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  • stephplstephpl member
    Not sure if this helps anyone, but my son went through about a week or two of flipping out anytime he went down in his crib. It lasted about a week, then slowly started getting back to normal. From what I read, it sounds like around 6 months they go through a phase of separation anxiety...maybe that's what's going on? Hope it gets better for everyone else too!
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  • Sarcasm101Sarcasm101 member
    edited October 2016
    I would try adjusting his sleep schedule forward. Pretty much any baby sleep book will tell you babies need to go to bed between 6-7pm. and will wake between 6-7am. Even if everyone in the house's schedule is later, babies cant really make that adjustment yet. 

    How is napping going? when does the last nap end? Does LO have a lovey to help self soothe? sound machine?

    ETA: I also agree with PP about moving LO to his own room and into a crib. 

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  • loveymayloveymay member
    My LO has been doing this lately too, not the screaming part, but waking up crying in his crib various times throughout the night. Sometimes he wont go back to sleep so I'll bring him into our bed and he falls right to sleep and doesnt wake until around 6ish (which he has decided is the perfect time to start the day). I like snuggling with him but not all night because I dont sleep well when he's in our bed. Plus he fidgets like nobody's business! Idk how to fix the situation, so Im just chalking it up to a phase and trying to get through it.
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  • redseligredselig member
    loveymay said:
    My LO has been doing this lately too, not the screaming part, but waking up crying in his crib various times throughout the night. Sometimes he wont go back to sleep so I'll bring him into our bed and he falls right to sleep and doesnt wake until around 6ish (which he has decided is the perfect time to start the day). I like snuggling with him but not all night because I dont sleep well when he's in our bed. Plus he fidgets like nobody's business! Idk how to fix the situation, so Im just chalking it up to a phase and trying to get through it.
    My LO has been waking up crying multiple times  too and won't go back to sleep unless I co-sleep with him. We came back from holidays a week ago and the six hour time difference returning eastwards has probably affected him. I certainly hope it's just a phase because I'm so tired!
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  • mb0112mb0112 member
    Could teething have something to do with it?  
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  • MissingchampagneMissingchampagne member
    mb0112 said:
    If he is your only child and you don't mind adjusting, maybe try a new schedule. If you work, what is your schedule like? If that is his only chance to hang out with you and dad maybe just put him to bed late at night and hope he sleeps later in the morning.  That won't work once he gets older but a late bedtime should be ok for a baby as long as he gets enough sleep.  Or, even try an earlier bedtime for him, then an earlier bedtime for you, and just go with the flow and get up at 6 rather than fight it. Like if you did his bath at 6, had him sleeping by 7, went to bed yourself at 9 and get up at 6, you'd have some "me" time and a good amount of sleep assuming your feedings are pretty quick. 
    My husband works long hours and I work from home, so my schedule is flexible but I have adjusted it to work around my husband's so that I get to spend the late nights with him and go to bed when he does. If I went to bed early, I'd really never spend time with him. When DS was born, he naturally fell into our household's patterns as well, and would go to bed at midnight. Eventually he consolidated his last nap of the day into an earlier bedtime, completely on his own, and I followed his lead (though he will sometimes wake up and spend time awake with my husband and I in the evenings). I do miss the midnight bedtime/later rising, and have tried to see if he'll stay up a little later, but he's the type of guy that will pass out with blaring music on a freight train if he's feeling sleepy. 

    stephpl said:
    From what I read, it sounds like around 6 months they go through a phase of separation anxiety...maybe that's what's going on? Hope it gets better for everyone else too!
    He has been, overall, much more needy. So you may be right. He used to be very easy to pass off to a caretaker for an hour at the gym kids club, and now I almost immediately get a phone call that he's been crying since I walked away.  :(

    Sarcasm101 said:
    How is napping going? when does the last nap end? Does LO have a lovey to help self soothe? sound machine?

    ETA: I also agree with PP about moving LO to his own room and into a crib. 
    He has a little monkey toy that he snuggles on all night. His self-soothing techniques are another mess. He used to stroke his own head/hair over and over again, and now he has this helmet on and he can't, which seems to frustrate him. So he just does this leg kicking/slamming thing about 50 times consecutively, until he's kicked himself into the corner of the pack and play with his neck at a weird angle and he's wide awake. He takes two naps a day. The first one is very short (about 45 minutes). The second is about 1.5 hrs.mb0112 said:
    Could teething have something to do with it?  
    Definitely could... he's been desperate for some relief for months now.


    To all the mommies going through the same thing - it sucks! loveymay said:
    I like snuggling with him but not all night because I dont sleep well when he's in our bed. Plus he fidgets like nobody's business! 
    Same! I'm worried I may roll and pinch his hand, or he may choke on my hair, or any number of things! And I'll wake up with his fingers up my nose or him clawing at my chin. 
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  • g&tlewisg&tlewis member
    Sunday night I was up 18 times with DS, and my husband was up several more. It was HORRIBLE! He would just wake up screaming and wouldn't calm down until I went in there. I eventually got him up and slept on the couch again. We went for this 6 month check up yesterday morning, and the doctor told us we're just going to have to let him cry it out. I really didn't want to, but I am so desperate for sleep that we tried it last night. It actually wasn't too bad. He woke up several times throughout the night but actually soothed himself back to sleep without me having to get up. Seriously hoping he continues doing that, because I couldn't function yesterday after being up that much the night before. 
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  • MissingchampagneMissingchampagne member
    g&tlewis said:
    Sunday night I was up 18 times with DS, and my husband was up several more. It was HORRIBLE! He would just wake up screaming and wouldn't calm down until I went in there. I eventually got him up and slept on the couch again. We went for this 6 month check up yesterday morning, and the doctor told us we're just going to have to let him cry it out. I really didn't want to, but I am so desperate for sleep that we tried it last night. It actually wasn't too bad. He woke up several times throughout the night but actually soothed himself back to sleep without me having to get up. Seriously hoping he continues doing that, because I couldn't function yesterday after being up that much the night before. 
    How long did he cry before he was able to rest? I've attempted this a few times and so far my son has been fairly persistent, but maybe I'm not waiting long enough since he's in the room with me (and I'm trying to keep my husband from waking up and joining the yelling lol). 
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  • UnbreakableKimmySchmidtUnbreakableKimmySchmidt member
    I think there must be a 6 month sleep regression...DD is a BEAR to put down and has started waking up several times during the night....we did CIO sleep training at 4 months and has worked great, until now. 


    Are any of your bad sleepers cutting teeth?  DD just got one and I'm pretty sure she's working on another which I'm sure factors into her lack of sleeping.
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  • marwaaiadmarwaaiad member
    Has anyone tried giving water instead of milk at night and if it has worked?

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  • MissingchampagneMissingchampagne member
    @UnbreakableKimmySchmidt Agreed, my son is definitely going through SOMETHING (wonder week/growth spurt... something) because I'm seeing a lot of other changes in awareness, hunger, neediness, how vocal he is... all at a much faster developmental pace than before. No new teeth coming in at the moment, though I imagine that will also be a world of fun ;) 
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  • g&tlewisg&tlewis member
    @Missingchampagne I would let him cry for 5 minutes before I'd go in. Sometimes he would settle down right away, and other times he was usually back asleep before I went in after 10 minutes. My husband said it would take him a little longer to get him to calm down though. He also had his shots yesterday so this could all be completely different once he's feeling better from those... 

    @UnbreakableKimmySchmidt Mine is definitely teething. His bottom two teeth are so close to popping through and have been for at least a week. We've been having sleep issues longer than that though. 
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  • mb0112mb0112 member
    Missingchampagne said:
    @UnbreakableKimmySchmidt Agreed, my son is definitely going through SOMETHING (wonder week/growth spurt... something) because I'm seeing a lot of other changes in awareness, hunger, neediness, how vocal he is... all at a much faster developmental pace than before. No new teeth coming in at the moment, though I imagine that will also be a world of fun ;) 
    Week 26 is a wonder week and you count the weeks based on your due date so it's possible that many April babies are going through that right now.  Also at the 6 month mark they start to learn cause and effect a lot more, so the babies could be doing things that they have learned get certain reactions, with the goal of being close to mom and dad!  I find it helps to understand the mental leaps and reasons babies feel overwhelmed. It makes me feel more sympathetic and less annoyed to know there's a good reason behind the behavior! 
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  • UnbreakableKimmySchmidtUnbreakableKimmySchmidt member
    It sounds like DD is going through a wonder week (25 weeks!).   The last two days have been rough BUT she slept all last night...until I got worried and had to go in and check on her....of course she was fine, her little legs were just sticking out the crib...
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