Awake at 2am for 2+ hours

[elluin]

My dd is 7mo old and right now our family is really struggling around 2am. She is a frequent waker (every 1-2 hours, often more), but usually she settles after nursing or cuddling. The problem is around 2am, she wakes for 2+ hours and our usual sleep methods (nursing or in-arms swaying/bouncing) are not working. Most of that time she is not fussy or wide awake, we just can't seem to help her get back to sleep! Sometimes I just let her lie awake by me until she gets frustrated, then dh will get up with her to do their little sleep dance (for an hour or more).

A little background... We have her crib side-carred; recently she sleeps about half the night next to me in the crib and half the night curled up with me in our bed. She seems to have started teething again (she has two teeth) and has a history of reflux, which we've gotten in check with chiropractic, diet changes for me, and holding her upright after she nurses. Neither teething nor reflux seems to be bothering her during those early morning hours... she's probably not too bothered by the night waking either but dh & I are struggling! The problem is compounded by my daily migraines (which peak between 1-6am with vertigo) and dh's 5am wake-up for work.

I've mostly come to terms with the frequent waking... but this long awake spell is taking a harsher toll! Any suggestions?

[Firefly68]

My 7mo dd does this a bit, too. Last night it was just over an hour. Not unhappy, just wide awake. I know not to stimulate her or play with her. We finally got her to sleep on dh's chest with a soother, then rolled her back between us.

[sillysmile]

My DD did that a few times a week at that age too. It's like she had just gotten enough sleep to get a burst of energy, and once she ever got more than a tiny bit awake we knew it would be 2.5 hours before she would get back to sleep. The only way that I could deal with it was by letting her play with low lights while I lay on the floor trying to rest. Trying to put her back to sleep was just futile and exhausting. She did grow out of this, and now at 23 months she is rarely wide awake during the middle of the night. She still wakes often, but is sleepy and happy to be rocked back to sleep. Sorry I don't have much advice other than to say that this is a common thing at that age, and most kids outgrow it.

[sgmom]

My daughter did this, off and on, for weeks at a time. But she would be up for closer to 4 hours. I would rock her for hours before finally getting up and bringing her into the living room. My saving grace was a blanket on the floor in front of cartoons. She could watch tv while I snuggle her and sleep. 

I got SO much advice from friends to not allow her to leave her room, no talking, lights out, "She has to learn that nighttime is for sleeping", blah blah blah. My only advice is to keep the area quiet (no high energy tv shows, no fast paced music, lights down, etc). But we can't force them to sleep, and if trying to make them sleepy is wearing US out, then we just have to do what we can to keep ourselves sane.

[elluin]

I guess sometimes I just need reassurance that what she is going through is normal - thanks for the support mamas!  I think every time we learn to get some sleep she mixes it up for us!  :)

[bodhitree]

Sometimes an inability to go back to sleep in the middle of the night can be caused by a magnesium deficiency. We've had good results from adding epsom salts to DD's bath at bedtime. That way she can absorb magnesium through her skin and get more into her system, and it really does seem to have helped. We use 1 cup of epsom salts in the bathtub.

[dickybird]

Has she started crawling?  My twins starting doing the lengthy night wakings at about 6-7 mos too, right before they learned how to crawl.  It was like their brains worked on the problem while they were asleep, and then they'd wake up ready to practice!  As soon as they were crawling for real during the day, they went back to the briefer night wakings (for the most part).

[Prairiemother]

One thing that really helped me cope with a bad sleeper - GET RID OF THE CLOCKS!  Don't look at how long or how often you're awake.  Ignorance really is bliss

[elluin]

Well, I really thought I would be able to get online more often... ;)  I wanted to update and say that I think it was the crawling!  Once she mastered crawling she started waking for shorter periods again (mostly nurses and goes back to sleep).

As for the clocks... at some point I did stop tracking how often she wakes to nurse and I sleep with my back to the clock, both of which seem to help me accept continued night nursing as a part of life.  We still have one clock in the room and when the waking periods dragged on it's very hard not to look!

[Prairiemother]

So glad to hear things are looking up!

  Now that you mention it I remember some difficult times when my eldest was starting to crawl, too.  We slept on a mattress on the floor and periodically through the night she would wake up and try to crawl away.