[hannahmom]

Am I being alarmist? Is this a phase? Is this normal? PLEASE HELP MAMAS! My husband is ready to whip out medication to get dd to sleep and I'm being serious.

My dd is 8 months old. Within the past month alone she has been hitting developmental milestones like CRAZY. She started crawling, standing, trying to walk!, got 2 teeth with #3 on the way, figured out how to wave, says mama and dada discriminantly and there are more I'm sure.

Since this began, her sleep has deteriorated horribly. She has never been a great sleeper per se, she was still waking at least once or twice throughout the night before this began. Now, she doesn't nap except for maybe a couple 20 min spurts -she wants to play play play and when she wakes in the middle of the night she is AWAKE and wants to play then too.

We have a nice bedtime routine that works but it is the nightwaking that is really troublesome. It is so frequent and she is sooo wide awake, I don't know what to do. We have a cosleeper, she has her own crib - neither makes a difference. We have tried feeding when she wakes, not feeding when she wakes. Rocking. Not rocking. After a couple HOURS she eventually drops off. My dh and I both WOHM and we are zombies.

Does anyone has some advice?
TIA...

 

[Harper]

My dd did this for awhile and actually every now and then still does. She would wake in the middle of the night and stay awake for anywhere between 1 and 3 hours. I still have no idea why. We just felt lucky that she wasn't crying or fussy. She was just awake. Luckily for me my dh does better with less sleep and he also has an endless reserve of patience which I do not! We are also both WOHM and sometimes I was glad of it. When I had only had a few hours sleep it was easier for me to come to work and veg at my desk than imagine spending the day at home trying to care for her all day!!

We took turns--usually in hour blocks--so that one of us could get some sleep. We didn't talk to her or turn on lights or music. I would nurse and rock her and dh would rock her. She was content just to look up at us and occasionally babble. She was adorable in these wee hours but I would get so frustrated I wanted to put her in a crib and let her cry!! That was when I would transfer off to dh.

Not a lot of advice but as with all else, remember, this too shall pass.

 

[sarasprings]

I know what you are going through is difficult. My son always woke 10-12 a night, so I have no advice since your situation is different. It did get worse for him when he hit milestones, though. When he started crawling and walking his legs moved all the time. When he started talking, he woke up talking at night.

It is normal, although, as with everything else, there are different degrees of normal.

 

[Sleepymama]

So when she wakes up at night she wants to play? I would suggest putting your mattress on the floor, babyproofing the room, and just lie there and be boring. She can crawl around on you while you doze, and she'll probably either poop out and go back to sleep or come for food/comfort and go back to sleep. It will pass! The other thing you can do is trade nights with DH or at least have shifts. You might need to sleep apart for a little while (and have some pumped milk on hand for DH) but a good night's sleep every other night might get you through this tough time (Dh and I still trade nights, have since DS was about 10 months old)

the naps are probably contributing to the night wakings though...she is in daycare? What's the sleep situation like there? Is there any way your DCP can put a little more effort into helping her sleep longer (like, comforting her back to sleep when she starts to wake up? Darker room?) It's a difficult cycle...but will pass!

Also, what time does she go to bed? You might consider making her bedtime earlier. Our DS started sleeping a little better when we moved his bedtime from 8 to 6:30 (slowly)

HTH! We've BTDT for sure!! We both WOTH then too, and I agree that it was easier to drop him at the sitters and let her deal with cranky boy all day while I zoned out at work (while teaching, um, not such a good semester though!!)

 

[rubysmomjess]

My dd did about the same thing at the about the same time. They're just so busy learning it's hard to stay asleep. I don't have anyother advice except what PPs have said. It really helped to trade nights so that every other night you get a decent night's sleep.

Also, I know this is frowned upon but occasionally we would turn on a baby video (baby einstien)

and she would watch the video and mommy or daddy would snooze. Usually dd would fall asleep before the video was over. Not something you want to do every time she wakes...

Oh and don't worry, this phase will pass eventually too. Good Luck!