"Sleep crawling???"

[annemoonstar]

I posted this question also within the thread about night wakings, but wanted to ask the bigger group...

As a result of some of the discussion within the night waking thread, I decided to do a little experiment last night and took a bit more time to respond to ds's night time moving around (usually I try to settle him and/or nurse him when he wiggles). What I observed was that pretty much every time he would work his way onto his belly, then onto all fours, and then he was off crawling on the bed! Several times I had to catch him before he went off the edge (the mattress is on the floor luckily!). When I would pick him up and lay him back down half the time he appeared to still be asleep or went back to sleep quickly. A couple of times I just nursed him as soon as we laid back down and he quickly went back to sleep.

So, he has been crawling for several weeks so this isn't a brand new milestone. AND we let him crawl around a lot during the day. He doesn't make much noise, and only once during the night did he start crying at all (I responded right away of course!). So do you think he is crawling in his sleep!!?? I've seen him sit up in his sleep before, but before now he has just fallen right back over and gone back to sleep (or fell on me and wanted to nurse). Anyone else's lo do this? I'm hoping it is a phase that doesn't last too long because its a little scary (what if I didn't wake up before he went off the edge??), and it also seems to be disturbing both of our sleep more than usual. Although last night was an experiement, I had been thinking that my intervening might have actually been waking him up, so was hoping that he would start to fall back to sleep more on his own--wishful thinking it seems! He usually just wiggles ALL the time!!

What a goof! Its funny when I'm not trying to sleep!

[4evermom]

Ds usually just moved towards me in his sleep but one time he just took off sleep crawling. I wasn't expecting it and lunged for the only thing I could see in the dark with my glasses off, his white diaper. I missed and he went right over the edge and landed on his head! He was about 10 months old at the time. It made me not real comfortable about sneaking away after he fell asleep.

He is 8, now. He has had some periods of night terrors (ages 5-6?) and more recently actually sleep walked. He'd sometimes sit up in bed and hand me something he dreamed he was holding, sometimes talked a bit. I think he is outgrowing his sleep disturbances mostly because he is outgrowing his high sleep needs. Being over tired or skipping naps when he still napped made him more likely to have sleep disturbances, sometimes just having trouble falling asleep, sometimes having night terrors, etc.

I just stayed with him for naps and we still cosleep. We both sleep better.