Wide awake at 3:30am!

[Taos Mountain Mama]

So, I really just need a little reassurance:

My daughter will be 7 months next week. In the last few nights, she has begun this INSANE new sleep pattern. We like to call it "not-sleeping-for-more-than-2-hours-at-a-time-and-getting-up-to-play-at 3:30am!"

She was never a GREAT sleeper, but she used to go about 3-4 hours at the beginning of the night before she would wake up to nurse, and then after that she would wake up every 2 hours or so. This was totally do-able for me, because she would just want some boob and go right back to sleep.

BUT - the last few nights have been an entirely different story. She wakes up around 3 or 4 and wants to get up and PLAY! She's in the crib right next to our bed, and I'll wake up to hear her babbling away. Once I nurse her, she just opens up those cute little eyes and is bouncing off the walls! This wakeful period usually lasts anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half, after which we both PASS OUT again (and then I am forcefully awakened at 6:30 by my alarm clock telling me it's time to go to work).

She's also been napping less frequently during the day, but she's never been a great napper (especially when she's home with Dad during the day - she just needs the boob to get to sleep sometimes).

We started solids about a month ago, so that might be it. And she's REALLY wants to crawl, so that could be part of it....

Someone please tell me this will end sometime in the future!!!!

Thanks!

[greenmulberry]

Well, my 6 and a half month old has just started this. I hope it is just a phase. And just like you, it starts right at about 3 am.

We co sleep and she is in the middle and she just rolls back and forth, practices her pushups, looks around and smiles, and just drives me crazy. She used to wake a few times but go right back to sleep when I stuck a boob in her mouth.

I could write more about it but I am too tired so I hope someone else has something good to say.

[osker]

Omg, we call it "frat party" and it is insane. She started it about 7-ish months and it still sometimes happens at 12 months. Hers is usually at 2:30am though! ;)  The only thing we've done to help it is to try to be consistent with our response.  She starts out the night in her crib (two feet from our bed) and when she wakes up (around 2:30) she comes into our bed, nurses, and goes back to sleep. When this doesn't work and she has a frat party she gets a couple of chances and then she goes back to her crib by herself if she can't settle down and sleep.  Usually she gets mad, cries for a few minutes, and then H will ask if she wants to try again. She'll say yes (she has been nodding yes since 7mos), and she'll come back to the bed to try again.  Most of the time this works and she'll settle down and go to sleep, or at least lay down and relax while awake. I would say that over the past four months this has lessened. It could have been three times a week at its worst, and is now down to once a week, max.. maybe even once every other week.  However, there are some nights when it just doesn't work and she is just AWAKE, in which case we just repeat the process again and again.  We occasionally will decide that something else is going on that night and offer her a bottle of pumped milk. This usually helps the really rough nights.  Also, she usually goes to sleep nursing while rocking in the rocking chair, so some nights when the back and forth doesn't work H ends up nursing her in the rocking chair again and sometimes that will help "reset".  

[EchoSoul]

Our son does this once in a while. I keep the lights off, let him play until he tuckers himself out and cues that he's hungry/wants to go to bed, nurse him, and he's asleep for the rest of the night. I once read if babies waken during the night, offer as little stimulation as possible. Don't look at them for long periods of time, and keep talking to a bare minimum. This seems to work('course..I started doing it not because that's what I read, but because I was too damn tired to talk to him, lol!)