Tossing and turning and keeping us awake!

[Tway]

DD, now 9 months, has never been a good sleeper, but over the last month or two she seems to have improved, with a few 6-hour stretches and a quick back-to-sleep after a feed.

But the last week has been a new kind of sleep hell.

We put her down at about 8, and she sleeps soundly in her crib for 3 or 4 hours. Then she's up, and I feed her and take her into bed. Except she tosses and turns--back and forth, round and round--for HOURS. Her eyes are closed, but she bumps into me, kicks, slaps, and pushes in her sleep. I'm being woken up every 10 minutes, plus she's up every 3 hours to feed.

Is this the dreaded 9-month sleep regression?
Is she taking after her Dad, who walks and talks in his sleep?
Anyone else had this problem?

She's her same old self during the day, except she's not eating her non-breastfed meals with as much gusto (although she still finishes up).

Any ideas...???

[Tway]

Just thought of something else! DD has been learning at lightening speed these last few weeks, pointing, waving, snapping her fingers, miming brushing her hair, pointing to things I mention, you name it. She woke up yesterday clapping and this morning trying to blow a kiss. Maybe her mind is in overdrive...?

[Tway]

Oh dear--no ideas at all? Anyone? I'll take any hypothesis!

[Alisse]

Haha my son did the same thing. Went from sleeping within a really small area about a half-roll wide to rolling and flailing and spinning in bed. He even did some yelling/whining in his sleep. This happened for like a few weeks before he started crawl and pull-up to a standing position; cruising came shortly after. He's not as wild anymore but he does roll quite a bit sometimes. We ended up sidecarring the crib to our bed, keeping the crib mattress slightly lower than our bed so that when he rolls, our mattress acts as a bumper, (we were too afraid to make it flush with our mattress lest he roll and fall onto the floor during naps when we weren't in bed beside him).

[VisionaryMom]

Both of mine went through periods of physically rough sleeping. I do remember around that point in infancy that both were difficult to sleep with. DD is 3.5 now, and she's a terrible sleeper! DH swears he has kidney damage from her side kicks all night. OTOH, DS is 5 and is perfectly still during the night now.

[NSmomtobe]

Yes, my son is making the same movements in his sleep, except he gets more and more vocal with each one until he wakes up screaming (I try to calm him by rubbing his back and sometimes physically restraining him before he gets to that point). I also started a thread about it and so far have not gotten any response. He is learning to crawl and has just mastered sitting himself up, so I know it is playing a roll, but I wonder how long I can expect it to last because I was just getting used to the amount of sleep we were getting before.

[AndtheStars]

My DS is the same way. He likes to pick up his butt while he sleeps, straighten his legs and push forward until he runs into the headboard. I pull him back down and we start over. He has been sleeping restlessly for about 1.5 months now. Like the OP, he starts the night in the crib and then comes into bed with me at the first waking. He will nurse back to sleep/stillness quickly but it seems that he'll only stay still for 15-30 minutes before the rolling, kicking, scootching, flailing begins again. It must have something to do with sleep cycles. He doesn't seem to be awake and its a 50/50 shot whether all the movement wakes him up more or he eventually settles down again. We're getting a king sized bed soon and I'm hoping that with more room and a latex mattress, it will be easier to sleep with him.

[Tway]

Thanks, Mamas. Last night was horrid--I feel like she's a newborn again! She's definitely not herself these days, and I spotted 4 teeth way up in her upper gums. Maybe that's it, or maybe it's just where she is right now. Fine to be philosophical now, but man, oh, man was I grumpy mommy in the middle of the night. I really hope she doesn't remember my nightime "Just go to sleep!!" fits. I was bawling until DH came in off the couch and coo-ed to DD in his Daddy voice and calmed us both down.

[Tway]

Just wanted to update for any Mamas reading this and living through something similar.

DD woke only twice each night over the weekend--and ONCE last night. We got two 5-hour stretches! Holy moley! I know it probably won't last and there will be hard nights to come, but just knowing she can sleep more and that we can catch up on our much-needed sleep helps a lot. Especially mentally!

I guess it's true that babies will sleep through when they are ready. Thank you all for listening when the going gets tough!