agitation during sleep

[Kenny10]

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this. my 5 and a half month son has never been a good sleeper but since he has started solids he is much worse. I usually take him into the bed around 1 or 2 as it is impossible to settle him into his cot at that stage. he is very agitated at this time of night having been reasonably settled before then albeit waking once or twice. his limbs are flailing during this time and he thrashes around the bed. this could go on for an hour or much longer in the middle of the night. does anyone have experience of weaning causing these kinds of problems. i gave him too much solids to begin with but have pulled back a lot now and so i thought that he would have adjusted at this stage. he is also a terrible napper taking 4 or 5 35 minute naps a day. i find myself longing for the early days when he woke four times a night for a feed and then went back to sleep. Will this pass? Help! he also had a similar reaction when we moved him from a hammock to a cot- took him three weeks to adjust.

[yetihed]

IT WILL GET BETTER!

Sounds a bit like my DS, now 10mo. Solids can disrupt their sleep patterns, especially if they are sensitive to physical sensations in their body which it sounds like he is. He is probably just adjusting to the new feeling of his stomach digesting solid foods and everything that entails- for the first 3 months of solids my DS could only pooh standing up, so perturbed was he by the effort required! Cute but a nightmare if he needed a pooh at 3am!

There is a small chance he may be sensitive to some foods- my DS slept MUCH better when I cut out strawberries and tomatoes.

BTW the first 4ish hours of sleep are deep sleep, then babies go into a series of shorter sessions of REM sleep which is why they are more likely to wake up at these times.

HTH

[Kenny10]

thanks yetihead. we live in hope. have only given him fairly plain stuff yet like carrots, sweet pots, apple/pear etc so they shouldnt be causing him any problems. i didnt mention it but he is teething into the bag which can't be helping i know. I suppose i am also worried about taking him into the bed so much in case he will never go back to his cot but its often the only way i get any sleep eventually. just wishing i could get a straight run of three hours even....

[yetihed]

You poor thing, those times are really tough- I bet it is the teething. I have had phases of having DS in bed with us for exactly the same reason, and I have always been relieved to discover that he does go back in his cot quite happily when he is feeling better.

As for the naps, my DS was like that til about 7/8 mo; now he does 1 hour early am, 2 hours at lunch then 40 mins late afternoon. It's great as it gives me a chance to catch up if we've had a bad night.

Keep telling yourself he has to sleep through eventually. x