Nighttime wiggling and mommy's diet?

[annemoonstar]

Hi all,
I have a serious 7 month old wiggle worm on my hands. Although he seems to be able to sleep while moving, he wakes me up so frequently I am starting to feel like I did when he was a newborn. We were going for 3-5 hours at a time between nursing, but now he wiggles and wiggles, waking me up just about every hour. The only thing that gets him to be still again is nursing, so I've been nursing him much more frequently just so that I can keep sleeping.

I thought for a while that the increased wiggling was due to his increasing milestone development--he is trying his hardest to figure out this walking thing! But over the past few nights I've noticed that sometimes he will wiggle and then pass gas and then settle back to stillness (only for a few minutes though--then he is wiggling again!). He also has had an increase in massive poopy diapers over the last three or four days. So I'm wondering if the external movement is more about the internal movement

He has been eating just a few bites of solid food a day for the last 3 months (he won't eat more than a few bites at a feeding) and I haven't introduced anything new lately. I also can't think of anything I've changed in my diet, although I'm thinking about keeping a diary to find out. But before I go through all of that, I thought I'd ask and see if any of you have noticed increased nighttime movement that correlated with your (or your lo's) diets?

I am a vegetarian, but do eat dairy. I also drink coffee, but just first thing in the am. The only thing I have noticed bothers him is when I eat beans, so I've avoided eating many beans since he was born. Otherwise, until now, I haven't noticed any behaviors that I would have attributed to diet.

Any thoughts?

[GracieP]

time to pee?

My DS went through the same thing around that time. That is when we started taking him to the potty to pee! After that, he would stop wiggling so much. It is a long road, though. At first we took him about three times a night. Around 9 months, he started only going twice a night and at 11 months going once a night. Now he still goes once a night but last night (13 months old) he didn't go at all! I thought he would go around 3am but he protested and held it all night. Now that doesn't mean he didn't wake up at all, all night, but he didn't wiggle, either.

I think at 6 months or so he just got the idea that he didn't really want to pee in bed. There were a few times that I was so tired I didn't take him and he did eventually pee in his diaper, but he'd do that after several blurry attempts to get me up. I'd just pop a boob in his mouth until he gave up. Then in the morning I'd piece it all together.

[InMediasRes]

Originally Posted by GracieP

My DS went through the same thing around that time. That is when we started taking him to the potty to pee! After that, he would stop wiggling so much. It is a long road, though. At first we took him about three times a night. Around 9 months, he started only going twice a night and at 11 months going once a night. Now he still goes once a night but last night (13 months old) he didn't go at all! I thought he would go around 3am but he protested and held it all night. Now that doesn't mean he didn't wake up at all, all night, but he didn't wiggle, either.

I think at 6 months or so he just got the idea that he didn't really want to pee in bed. There were a few times that I was so tired I didn't take him and he did eventually pee in his diaper, but he'd do that after several blurry attempts to get me up. I'd just pop a boob in his mouth until he gave up. Then in the morning I'd piece it all together.

Mine is 7mo too, and ECd since 1mo. The wiggling is always a need to pee, and once she pees, she stops wiggling. The more she nurses, the more she pees during the night.

If I eat/drink any dairy for a while before her bedtime or anytime after that, she pees much more frequently at night.

[annemoonstar]

Hmmm...ok, so I'm so confused about the pottying of infants thing. Do you get up when they start to wiggle and hold them over the potty? Doesn't that wake them up more? How do you even start doing this? I'm not completely opposed to trying this, but it seems like it would cause us all to get even less sleep!

Also, I don't notice the wiggling during the day--did your lo's not care as much about peeing in a diaper during the day? Or were you also pottying during the day?

Thanks!

[InMediasRes]

We're also doing EC (Elimination Communication) during the day. There is a forum here for it that has some great advice. You could do it just at night, but he would probably protest a lot more if you didn't do some of it during the day, at least at first. I suppose you could just figure that the wiggling is a need to pee and then change him right after he goes (if he seems uncomfy in a wet diaper and that's why he's wiggling).

We just have a huge stainless steel bowl next to our bed and I hang her over the side to pee and clean it out in the morning. Waking all the way up to walk to the bathroom would never work for us. Like you said, it would wake everyone up more! But we get better sleep when I pee her right when she starts the wiggling, then she settles a lot better afterwards. Sometimes she doesn't even need to nurse back to sleep.

Good luck. It might be worth a shot, but don't stress too much about it if you don't feel like it would work for you.

[ASusan]

Here's another thought: food sensitivities or allergies or intollerances.

DS will thrash, wiggle, wave his arms and legs (like nursing an octopus) when he's ingested something he's sensitive to.

[Louisep]

I have a wiggler too. Hm this EC stuff is interesting - is there a well known connection between wiggling and peeing? Why don't they just pee happily in their diapers at night?

[InMediasRes]

Originally Posted by Louisep

I have a wiggler too. Hm this EC stuff is interesting - is there a well known connection between wiggling and peeing? Why don't they just pee happily in their diapers at night?

There is a theory that babies have an evolutionary need to keep their "nest" clean at night. Babies are initially not that happy about peeing in their diapers either, but they usually get used to that around 3-4mo if they don't EC.

Of course, I am making some generalizations, but I've done quite a bit of reading on the topic as well. I know that in some "primitive" cultures, the baby just sleeps naked at night and mom hangs them over the dirt floor to pee when they squirm.

[CalBearMama]

We EC as well (we started with DS1 because of really restless sleep). The best night-time arrangement I have found so far for a boy is to sit up at the edge of the bed, pull him into my lap and start nursing him, grab a plastic bottle with a wide mouth, remove his diaper, and immediately hold the bottle in place to catch the pee. I keep a potty next to the bed to dump the pee into, so the bottle is ready for the next use. (Note: When DS2 was a newborn and still sometimes pooped at night, I put him directly on the potty, just in case of poop. Lately, he has gotten really annoyed with the cold potty in the middle of the night, so I have switched to using the plastic bottle.)

We have pottied DS2 since birth, both night and day (at least as much as possible given the other demands on our time). During the day, he usually gets fussy when he needs to go to the bathroom. Many babies probably do something similar, but since we're not used to pottying babies in our culture, the caregivers generally try other things to soothe the baby. By the time they get around to checking the diaper, it needs to be changed, so it is assumed that the baby was crying because of the wet diaper, when in reality, the baby started crying before going in the diaper.

I have used sign language (the ASL sign for "toilet") and a "sss" sound with DS2 since birth whenever he goes to the bathroom. This has been helpful, especially at night, because he usually won't start peeing until I have the bottle in place and cue him with the "sss" sound. He is also starting to say "sss" during the day, and he has been waving his hand to signal that he needs to go since he was really little, maybe 2 or 3 months old.

In addition to the "Elimination Communication" sub-forum of the Diapering forum here at MDC, you might check out www.diaperfreebaby.org and www.tribalbaby.org if you want more information.

[GracieP]

Originally Posted by annemoonstar

Hmmm...ok, so I'm so confused about the pottying of infants thing. Do you get up when they start to wiggle and hold them over the potty? Doesn't that wake them up more? How do you even start doing this? I'm not completely opposed to trying this, but it seems like it would cause us all to get even less sleep!

Also, I don't notice the wiggling during the day--did your lo's not care as much about peeing in a diaper during the day? Or were you also pottying during the day?

Thanks!

We take DS straight to the bathroom. It seemed like a hassle and like we would get less sleep, but his wiggling was already waking me up anyway. He doesn't wake up more, he just kind of opens his eyes when we get him out of bed but sometimes falls asleep while peeing. He goes to sleep faster if he pees. If he doesn't he's just restless for a half hour or more (keeping me up) till he pees in his diaper.

During the day! We tried EC during the day until about 6 months then he started getting angry with us for taking him and he's still on a potty strike. He's full-time diapered during the day.

Honestly, sometimes I thought it wasn't worth the trouble, but it makes the night waking shorter.