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awful new sleep habit - any thoughts?

10 replies

belindarose · 15/04/2010 09:02

My nearly 8 mo DD has generally been an okay sleeper (goes to sleep easily, wakes a few times each night, usually for a BF) but since being poorly last week things have changed. Most of the night is okay, but she wakes around 4am and then takes up to 2 hours to get back to sleep! Most of this time she is crying, which is so unusual for her. I feed her and check if she needs a nappy change. I hold her and rock her in the rocking chair, which usually helps get to sleep, but it doesn't at this time of the morning. I've tried playing, reading, singing, but she doesn't want any of that - she just wants to sleep. This morning we walked around the house and she eventually got drowsy and dropped off.
Most mornings, she has then slept till 8 or 9 (thankfully, really, as I can too) whereas she used to get up at 7ish. This always worked well as it meant we could be ready to leave the house at 9 if we needed to, or she would have a nap at 9.30 ish.
I'm sure this will pass, and now it's written down it doesn't seem so bad, but it did at 4.30 this morning! Any ideas to help, or how to ride it out without burnout? Thanks.

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DrDoobs · 15/04/2010 20:21

Poor you! but sorry, no helpful ideas....

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belindarose · 16/04/2010 08:41

Same again last night, except she only slept afterwards till 7, so not much rest for me! It's so unlike her. Weird.

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lukewarmcupoftea · 16/04/2010 13:22

If they've been poorly and getting lots of attention in the night, then they sometimes get used to it and find it hard to go back to dropping off by themselves. Dd2 recently did this, we did controlled crying for one night and she went back to normal. Cc not for everyone I know, but the total amount of time she cried for (5+7+9+5 then dropped off) was way way less than the 2 hour screaming we were in for otherwise! So some kind of sleep training, even if not CC, might help (assuming you're sure she's fully recovered and not teething etc etc). Good luck...

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lukewarmcupoftea · 16/04/2010 13:25

Also, if she's catching up on the missed sleep in the day, she might not be tired enough to sleep well at night (4.30/5 seems to be the time when they will wale up properly if not zonked I've found). So you might need to get her up earlier and suffer the pain for a day or two to get her back to her usual pattern.

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belindarose · 16/04/2010 15:43

Thanks for your thoughts. I can't do CC, but glad it worked out well for you. I actually don't think she's been getting enough sleep in the day either, so maybe that has something to do with it. Perhaps need to try harder with daytime naps. She also isn't fully recovered from the illness and has two new teeth, so maybe pain or irritation is waking her. I feel so sorry for her in the night (and for myself!) because she really wants to sleep. Taking her to bed with me used to help if she wasn't sleeping well, but even that hasn't worked - resulting in screaming and keeping DH awake too- although I haven't tried it for a few nights, so might try again tonight.

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lukewarmcupoftea · 16/04/2010 20:53

Oh dear, if she's still under the weather then there's not much you can do really (apart from calpol!). Much sympathy, it's not fun... but will pass.

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belindarose · 19/04/2010 08:37

Ugh, getting worse I think. She's fully recovered from her illness now, but the sleep pattern has continued. Last night she just wanted to play! I was up with her from 3.30 - 5.30 when she finally fell asleep, only to wake up for good at 6.20! I think she's practising her crawling and getting to sitting in her cot and it gets her too excited to sleep.
I know it'll pass (and something new will come along!), but just wondered if anyone can suggest something else I might not have thought of!

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waitingforbedtime · 19/04/2010 08:49

If she is practising crawling thats probably causing it - I always found that with ds when he learned soemthing new be it crawling , walking, talking he had disturbed sleep for a week or two.

My advice would be keep her in her room NO MATTER WHAT. I could never do CC either but ds and his sleep improved dramatically once he knew that he stayed in hsi bedroom until 6am and that was it. Also no playing or anything.

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tortoiseonthehalfshell · 19/04/2010 08:57

Ohhhhh the nine month sleep shakeup. It kicked in at 8+1 for us, and it was dreadful. Even when we went to our contingency plan (alternate wakeups, cosleep) it was horrendous. It would take us hours to get her back to sleep even in our bed and sidelying breastfeeding. She'd be wailing from exhaustion, I'd be wailing from exhaustion, it was horrible.

So my advice is not what you want to hear but - it's a phase, it'll pass, if you have a partner negotiate with hir to split the wakeups.

This here is Survival territory.

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belindarose · 19/04/2010 09:25

Hearing that others have had the same is actually helpful. It's a shame that even co-sleeping doesn't improve it for us! I'll make sure we stay in her room tonight - the walking around was more for a change of scene for me than her, think! She finds some way to play whatever I do, even if it's just with her feet in the cot in the dark, and gets herself excited and LOUD! Unfortunately can't really share the wakeups, although did get a little lie in on Saturday!
Thanks.