baby waking up at 3:00- wwyd?

[Deir]

Hi- My little 4 month old was such a good sleeper. I stress WAS!

Now she is not only waking up a lot but actually staying awake. Last night was bad. She was wide awake from 3- about 5. I tried pretending likei t wasn't happening- nursed her, snuggle her into sleep without interacting which has worked before but not last night. I eventually had to hand her over to dh with apacifier. My other boys were frequent wakers which was bad enough but I don't remember them ever waking fully. I am so paranoid about creating a monster sleeper. Any advice? She is in the cosleeper and then with me. I am going to try crib in the other room but we need to get an AC in there first.

[tzs]

the crib in the other room might work.
i think that whole 4 month sleep regression thing is about sociability, no?
i know my babe is so into things and people that if we are in the same room she'll fight sleep to hang out. in fact when we travel i even have to drape blankets all around the pack and play so she can't see out.
you could even just try it with a fan....our babe has been great so far without AC and just a diaper.
good luck....my sleep was not so bad but got way better when we moved her to her own room.

[Knitting Mama]

Cecilia has done this twice (she is 4 months old too). Maybe it's wrong of me to handle it this way, but if she's wide awake and clearly not going back to sleep quickly, we get up and she plays for an hour or two, then we go back to sleep. The two times this has happened, she's gotten up around 3 or 4, and we've gone back to bed around 5 or 6. I would rather not just lay there in bed with a wide awake baby and risk waking my husband up, since he has to be at work early every day. We just go back to bed and sleep more when she gets tired.

[october]

Yep, this is my 4mo DD too! Every night now, she wakes sometime between 2 and 3 and will be up for an hour or two wanting to play. Lately I've been placing her in her crib when this happens and going back to sleep. Sometimes she needs me, sometimes she doesn't. Last night she didn't cry for me to come get her for 2 hours!

[ann_of_loxley]

We play in bed until he is tired again and then go back to sleep. A lot of the time, his wake up time is 6 in the morning. Thats not terribly early - but if we have nothing planned for the day, I do the same - play and then we just go back to sleep after an hour or so. No one else in the house is up at that time and sometimes I get lucky and get two to three more hours of sleep out of him then! lol

[Quinalla]

Yeah, with mine if it is past 5am and she is clearly awake, I just get up, but before 5am I keep things quiet and lowkey. Sure, she may not sleep, but I don't want to offer any confusion that it's time to wake up now so do it again tomorrow, you know? So far, this has worked in that she only rarely wakes up wide awake before 5am, I think for her when it happens it is because she is sick or really working on some skill and just can't stand to sleep anymore. And she does always go back to bed for awhile after an hour or so.

[Catubodua]

wwid? feed him and then take him and the dog for a walk around the neighborhood. that's what we did at 2:45 this morning.

there are nights he wakes up and goes back to sleep quickly while he's eating and other nights where he's wide awake and wants to stay awake. i let him decide and just deal with the sleepiness the next day. it's an absolute waste of time to try to get him back to sleep if he's not ready.

[texmati]

I might try nursing in a quite room during the day-- at that age my ds would not stop popping on and off. Maybe wake him up early from his latest nap?

[cristeen]

When my guy does this, i let him play quietly on the bed in the dark until hes ready to sleep again. Its only happened a handful of times though, and we don't share a bedroom w DH.

[BathrobeGoddess]

Moved to nightime parenting...

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS did this off and on his whole first year. Usually just before a tooth would pop through. He always got really fussy if I tried to stay in bed, and so I would get up with him and go in the living room and keep the lights low, but usually would sit in the rocking chair and rock him.. or play.. I always hated it, it made me so angry.. but there was nothing I could do. And I didn't want to stay in bed because of DH.

With this baby, I think that if it happens I will just stay in bed with him. Sorry DH.

[Deir]

Thanks everyone! Nora is definitely sociable. She is the funniest thing at 3 in the morning. I can FEEL her smiling at me and she starts cooing in the dark. I try not to engage her but I can't help smiling- she is so cute! I have 2 other kids so getting fully awake and going with it is not a great option. I was so tired I was in tears twice today dealing with the older kids. When I just had 1- i could sleep when he did.

I am glad to see other babies doing the same thing- let's hope it doesn't last long!

[sapphire_chan]

Since she's 4 months old, I'd nap with her during the day, start checking for teeth, and try not to think about how long it's taking for the phase to pass.

She is in your bed, right? Cause that's the only way to survive growth spurts, get them right by the breast so they can handle midnight snacking themselves.