Prolonged awake period in the middle of the night - help!

[baileyslover]

my 7mth old ebf DS has never been a good sleeper at night but recently number of night wakings have reduced, and he has learnt to self settle at naptime, bedtime and early eve wakings. BUT he has recently started waking in the early hours of the morning, never at the same time and is wide awake. He doesn't appear in pain or hungry as will lie quietly in cot when I am rubbing his chest, and looks like he wants to sleep but he just can't fall fully asleep. If I withdraw then he starts screaming, kicking and ends up rolling onto his belly which winds him up more. So far tonight we are at 2 hours and counting..... It can be from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours before he will eventually sleep

One lower incisor came through in past couple of days so is it just teeth or am I missing something? I am at my wits end and dread going to bed at the moment

No words of wisdom but we are in pretty much same boat, ds happily smiling away as he is wide awake! He does have chickenpox but that's not why he's awake - he's awake just because

I could have written this, except DS is 9.5 months old. Have come on here in search of answers! In my case, I suspect it is because he is on the verge of crawling, and his brain is just developing at an alarming pace, and his body wants to practice/improve his skills. Am praying he cracks crawling soon and this settles the sleeping. If not I will cry.

We have been through 2 months of similar stuff. Can you bring him into your bed when he wakes? Often it's reassurance they need, hence why he cries when you leave.
It will pass...

My DS goes through phases of this, he's just 8 months. He is awake for almost exactly 1.5 hours. I am sure it is developmental, it was worse just before he started to crawl, perhaps a bit of teething (he has 8 teeth). As you say it's like he can't get back to sleep.

I leave him for as long as possible, try and settle him a bit and then leave, sometimes that buys me another 20 minutes of quiet time. He starts to get wound up and as it approaches the 1.5 hour mark, I often give him a quick feed to settle, and put him back in his cot, at which point he rolls over and goes back to sleep!

Essentially, I leave him to it as much as possible, although he has got stuffed toys that he plays with. I found that staying with him, made him more unsettled and took longer for him to drop back off.

Since I mentioned it to friends, nearly everyone said their LOs went through the same thing at some point, so it will pass!

Much much sympathy for you - my 14mo is doing exactly the same at the moment. I can't advise anything so far but DH and I keep muttering 'it's a phase.. it's a phase' as DD comes in with us for the umpteenth time and kicks me repeatedly in the ear..