7 month sleep regression?

[sarahr]

My DS has always been a fantastic sleeper -- we had isolated nights of sleeping through the night very early and then settled into a great pattern of waking up only once in a 12-13 hour night. But in the last week, he has started to wake up every 1.5-2 hours. He just nurses (usually pretty briefly) and then goes back to sleep, but still.

He has also stopped napping. He used to take 2, 2-hour naps. Now we're lucking if we get 2 45-minute naps. He wakes up happy and cheery, so there's no getting him back to sleep.

My poor baby needs more sleep than he's getting! Any ideas?

[Knitting Mama]

Teething, starting solids and moving (crawling/cruising/whatever) come to mind. Any of those start recently?

[sarahr]

No moving or teething that I can see, some solids. Do you think it's a stomach ache or hunger?

[Knitting Mama]

It could just be an adjustment thing, not really pain. Or it could be a growth spurt! Not sure though! Maybe Moxie's article on "regressions" will shed some light?

[SilverFish]

my baby is just a week away from being 7 months, and her sleep and naps have gone to crap recently. she's a bit late on crawling/creeping, but rolling over has recently become an effortless and frequent move, unlike before when she had to really think about it. we've also been getting more into solids. not to mention the really amazing social and emotional advances she's been working on. she has been really hard to get to sleep, and some days we were lucky if we got a couple 15 min catnaps! anyway, i started swaddling again. we were swaddling up until the 6 month mark, when a heatwave and a particularily bad period of teething forced us to stop, and she was sleeping "ok" without it, so we thought that phase was over. yesterday i was seriously losing it after the 4th day in a row with minimal naps and all night waking, and i swaddled again. THREE HOUR NAP! that hasn't happened for ages! and i swaddled again for nighttime, and i got a lovely 5-6 hour stretch before she broke free and flipped onto her tummy. but she slept very well again for the rest of the night.

there is so much going on in their heads at this stage! i think the swaddle, at least for naps, just really helps cut down on the distractions and helps them relax. and the better the naps, the better the nighttime sleeping.

[sarahr]

Originally Posted by SilverFish

there is so much going on in their heads at this stage! i think the swaddle, at least for naps, just really helps cut down on the distractions and helps them relax. and the better the naps, the better the nighttime sleeping.

Thanks. I think we might start to swaddle again for naps. He's just about busting out of the miracle blanket, but for a nap, it should be okay. And I'm glad I'm not the only one swaddling for so long.

[memz]

My DD is 8 monyhs and she was never a really great sleeper, but since about 6 1/2 months she started waking up every 1h30-2h....and it's still going on...so I can't really help you but can only say you're not alone....I am also still swaddling because believe it or not without it it's worse.... And during the day it's cat naps of about 30 minutes..so hang in there

[sarahr]

We went back to swaddling and, knock on wood, it seems to be better. He's 7 months and almost 20 pounds -- I wonder how long I can keep him swaddled?

[love2mother]

Yep- we are going through the exact same thing her (DD is 7 mos). . .. seriously, I could have written your post! I'm thinking it is probably a combination of things and just hoping that her natural tendencies from a young age to be a "good sleeper" will soon return. Sounds like there are others in the same boat here