Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

Original poster

DS wakes for 2 hours during the night. how can i get him back to sleep?

21 replies

mobo · 21/11/2007 22:13

My DS is 7 months old. He used to wake for a feed maybe twice a night and go straight back to sleep afterwards, so it wasn't too bad. Now he only wakes once, about 4am, but he doesn't want a feed he's just awake for about 2 hours. My DH and i rock him, walk up and down with him, sing to him... none of it makes him fall asleep until he's absolutely exhausted but if we just leave him in his cot he starts to cry.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I just want to know why he's so awake at this time and what i can do to help him back to sleep. I suspect i'm going to have to leave him to cry but does anyone have any other ideas?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

emmaagain · 21/11/2007 22:21

I'd take him into bed with me...

cat64 · 21/11/2007 22:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AhhChewww · 21/11/2007 22:28

Take her to bed.
When my co-sleeping 6m old dd does it (yesterday between 2-4), she doesn't cry just lies down next to me. I sleep through it.

gigglewitch · 21/11/2007 22:40

these are not 'p.c.' answers, i'll leave those to somone else Assuming it's not a medical problem, ears / eczema / etc

take him back to bed with you
have a lovely cuddle ... just tight enough so he can't wriggle
hold him lying facing downwards over your arm if it's sore tummy / wind, so your hand 'fills' his tum
figure out - if it's tummy ache, what he is having earlier in the evening, or if he is gulping air etc with it and giving himself a load of wind? smaller amounts and winding may work?
teething? - smallest dose of calpol?

my DS1 used to do this, we thought he was just a 'colicky' baby (so they told us...) actually he was intolerant to cows milk etc.
Mine all settled better with a baby pillow once they were about 9mo, but the health prof's advise not to give them one til a year old. my lot just hated lying flat, and loved my bed cos of the pillow!

Original poster

mobo · 21/11/2007 22:42

we've tried bringing him into bed with us but he starts to cry cause he knows we want him to go to sleep. he prefers to be held in our arms so he can look around him, nosy little blighter that he is.

it is good to know we're not alone though. we were beginning to think he was a bit of a freak why oh why didn't he inherit my love of sleeping?

OP posts:

Original poster

mobo · 21/11/2007 22:48

gigglewitch, he is teething although he doesn't seem very upset when he wakes, only gets upset when we put him back into his cot.

Hadn't thought it could be food related but it could be something to do with his tummy, as he's only been on solids for a few weeks.

OP posts:

gigglewitch · 21/11/2007 23:26

just food for thought (if you'll 'scuse the expression), have a think beyond the 'symptom' of crying.
But we are all such paranoid parents, remember that good old wives' tale, it may be just a 'phase', though one which you could do without in the early hours!
Perhaps keep a food diary, if he has wind / constipation / reaction to something? maybe his system needs a while longer to adjust? At first we just gave tiny amounts of really bland stuff like baby rice or rusk, for a whole week at a time (yes boring) but it's a sure way of figuring out what works for him

StealthPolarBear · 22/11/2007 02:58

hi
I'm sat here with my almost 7 mo who has been awake since half one

Original poster

mobo · 23/11/2007 19:36

hooray, another sleep deprived mum will it never end? it was 3.15-4.30 last night - quite a short stint by DS's standards. DH keeps asking me why DS wakes up like this every night, like i'm supposed to know!

OP posts:

TheQueenOfQuotes · 23/11/2007 19:39

We're in a similar situation, except DS3 is usually up from 2-4am, has his feed when he frist gets up but will not go back to sleep.......and co-sleeping didn't work....he just wants to play! But then when he does goes back to sleep it's usualy for another 2-3hrs....

MillieMummy · 23/11/2007 19:41

If it helps, my DD did this - she wanted to play in the night for an hour or so, so I used to sit up with her. But ..... by the time she was 12 months old she stopped and slept through the night. She's now 4.5 and is a 7.30pm - 6.30am girl ! Some of them just want to join in the (non existant) party.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 23/11/2007 19:43

DH does that - just takes him downstairs and lets him play....generally in his walker as it tires him out quicker LOL.

I hope it doesn't last too much longer as I'll have to go back to work after Christmas, and DH won't be able to sleep longer in the mornings as he'll have to get up to do the nursery/school run

CarGirl · 23/11/2007 19:43

I can only suggest sitting in the dark with him in his room - make it as absolute boring as you can - no rocking, walking around, cuddle him but no talking or eye contact, just stick with sush sush if he's upset. At the moment you are entertaining him so I guess he now expects it!

TheQueenOfQuotes · 23/11/2007 19:46

CG - we've tried that, give him his milk (usually has 6-8oz so he is hungry), and then trying to pop him back in his cot/sit with him in the room, but he's not having any of it..

CarGirl · 23/11/2007 19:55

it sounds like he thinks, wake up - have milk - play time - back to sleep.

If he's on formula I think I would be watering down the milk to make him hungrier in the day to stop him waking for milk at night but then I am a mean mummy.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 23/11/2007 20:15

CG - he's a very hungry baby and TBH I think giving him watered down milk wouldn't do much good. He already downs another 6-8oz as soon as he wakes up around 6.30! (average 24hr intake is 40-50oz!)

CarGirl · 23/11/2007 20:21

Still unless he is small if yo get him to have 9oz bottles & try and increase his solids intake to highly calorific food that may help??? Don't think it will be easy but it sound like you've got to stop the night hunger to stop the waking?

TheQueenOfQuotes · 24/11/2007 00:22

he'll be 6 months old tomorrow. So only just really starting on the solids (although ate half of a small pizza slice tonight )

Katiekin · 24/11/2007 00:35

Bring him to your bed so he is not alone. Prop yourself up on pillows and lie him on top of you so he is being held, keep the lights out and dont talk to him. Worked for us. Our ds soon learned and later on (age 18months)he used to come into our bed and go back to sleep without disturbing us if he woke in the night. Actually he still does this sometimes (age 10 )
I also learned to sleep sitting up quite well!

TheQueenOfQuotes · 24/11/2007 08:50

Katie - we've tried that too - he's not having any of it, he just tries to roll over and wants to play.

We don't mind him waking in the night for a feed - after all he's only just 6 months old (today actually) - it's just the wanting to stay awake and play LOL

CoteDAzur · 24/11/2007 16:45

To each their own parenting methods, but this seems a good place to pass on the wisdom I got from dd's paediatrician when she was 4 months old:

"Either you teach her to sleep through the night now or she will wake you up in the night until she is about 2 yrs old".

Best advice we ever had. Stopped night feeds there and then, dd started sleeping through the night within a few days. No sleep problems ever since knocks on wood.

Flip