9 months old - change in sleep/ behaviour

[Nubbin]

Hi

We have been v v v lucky with dd to date - v happy baby slept through from about 6 months (8.30 to 6). She has just turned 9 months and everything seems to be changing. We struggle to get her to go to sleep - then regular as clockwork over the past 2-3 weeks she wakes up at 3 ish and screams. It normally takes about half an hour to calm her down. From the start it is distressed crying as opposed to a bit of a whinge (still in the same room as us so we would hear her if there was a build up). She also used to wake up smily - now she wakes up crying.

She is also getting quite aggressive - (although I think this is just because she doesn't know where her feet and hands end and how much a punch in the eye hurts!)

So is it just teething? We can't see anyone new ones - she cut two teeth at 7 months with no real fuss.

Hi Nubbin,
My ds is the same, he goes down at 5.30pm until 7am (and has done from week 2), and although he doesn't wake at all in the night, he used to wake up smiley and now he wakes up crying. He is 7 months but is onto his second tooth and although he is a bit whingey in the day, it doesn't affect his sleeping at all. It could be change in diet if she has new teeth and is having new foods, is she hungry when she wakes? Are you burning enough of her energy in the day, her memory isn't retentive enough to start with aggression, but she may have a temper! I try and ware(?) my son out as much as possible with fresh air and lots of play, usually before his bath, so I have a calmness before bed, this may encourage her to sleep through a bit more?

I'd wager it's developmental. You can't rely on them keeping to the same pattern when they're that young. Because they still have some massive developmental things to crack like cruising, walking, talking etc. These are things that affect their mood and more specifically their sleep. It take a lot of energy, focus and determination to achieve these enormous goals. And how frustrating must it be for them to want to move and walk and talk and be part of the world and be trapped in this little body that won't do what they want?

Sleep change is the first sign of a developmental spurt. Increased waking, inability to self settle, moving around in their sleep, waking unhappy, not responding to sleep cues in the same way, standing up in their cots and not being able to lie back down etc. All classic signs of a developmental spurt.

Thank you - only just been able to log back on. Looks like it is a wait it out then!

Just a thought Nubbin but how many naps is your DD having and for how long? About the same age I noticed that it was taking longer and longer for DS to go to sleep and I realised that it was because he was ready to drop down from 3 naps to 2. That third nap was just too close to bedtime. So one day I just changed to two - no idea how I did it if I'm honest - I think I just stretched out the time before his morning nap and then again the same before the afternoon and it worked perfectly. From that day on he was on 2 naps a day (they also extended one 2hr and one 1.5hr) and bedtimes went from a 45/1hr battle to asleep within 10mins.

Don't know if that might help the night time wakings as well? You never know!

My son is 8 months and 1 week and I too have just changed him over from 3 naps a day to 2. He wanted 1 morning nap and 2 afternoon naps because he can't stay awake for more than 2 hours or 2.5 hours.... he now stays awake from 10 am to 1, sleeps for about 2 hours and then we have dinner at 6, bath at 6.30 bed at 7 means he's been up for 4 hours, but he goes down within 10 minutes instead of 45 minutes or an hour of breastfeeding mixed with kicking, blowing bubbles, crawling around to grab things, etc, etc, etc!

He's pretty tired by dinnertime, but we rush through it, get a 10 minute bath, jammies, bedtime story and .... I think I'll stick with this routine. If only he'd stay asleep between breastfeeds a little longer!