HELP - Crawling has changed everything

[karenfield]

Hi everyone, hoping for some words of advice on my first mumsnet posting!

My 9 month old started crawling about 3 weeks ago and since then I've had to reintroduce his 2:30pm bottle feed while all my friends have given it up; not a major problem, but wondering how normal this is.

But most frustrating my son has turned into a nightmare sleeper. He used to sleep 90 mins in the morning, another 90 mins at lunchtime and then from 7pm to 5:30am, then I'd give him a dummy and he'd sleep until around 6:30. His daytime sleeps are becoming more haphazard and getting him to sleep is suddenly becoming a problem. And at night he'll still go down OK, but has started waking at 3:30 ish. Last night, it was 11pm, 2:30am, 4am (when I gave him a dummy) and then he got up around 6:30.

Does anyone have any advice, particularly on the nighttime sleeping, that is as I'm sure you can imagine my biggest headache. Although I'm guessing it's all linked.

Any advice would be welcome, I'm feeling like a tired new mum again!

Karen x

[bluemousemummy]

Never been through this exactly, but it's not uncommon for babies to have sleep problems once they learn a new skill, particularly crawling or walking, possibly because they are so excited they want to practice it again and again! It will pass, not the most constructive advice I'm afraid, but it will. Consistency on your part is the key - when you go in at night keep it brief and boring and he may decide it's not worth disturbing you in the end

[karenfield]

Thanks bluemousemummy, good to know it's not unusual, I'll keep my fingers crossed it passes quickly xx

[sbjshow]

hi. my DS was the same when he learned to crawl but is now back to 7-5:30am. Was not sure if it was the crawling or if it was teething that disturbed the sleep as these things all come at once!