6mo wide awake every night 2/3am - is this developmental (crawling)?

[Emsmaman]

Hi,

Our LO has never been a great sleeper but we had progressed to blocks of 3 or 4 hours sleep which was bearable. For the last week, since she started bunny hopping along the floor, she is waking up around 2 or 3am and then staying awake for 1.5-2 hours, all she wants to do is "crawl", no feeding or cuddling will get her sleepy again. My instinct is to leave her in the cot unless she cries so that she learns it's not play time and we won't join in, but then DH needs to get sleep so he can work, which he can't when she's shrieking and banging into the side of the cot . She inevitably ends up crying and I end up bringing her in bed to try and calm her down but she doesn't want to stay still! Is this normal "developmental regression" and how is it best dealt with? I hope it stops soon! If its developmental I fear that it will be like this when she properly starts to crawl/learns to sit and stand up/walks!

thanks for reading my sleep deprived rant

Hi, you're not alone .

My DS is 6.5 months and going through a terrible phase of sleeping. He used to be very good and sleep through or only wake once and go straight back down, but not now! With him a lot of it is probably down to me feeding him to sleep when he wakes at night. I didn't mind this once or twice, but now he wakes every two hours and it's exhausting. For the last couple of nights I have gone cold turkey on the night feeds and last night he only woke once .... Fabulous .....except he was awake for over an hour wanting to play. He is not near crawling but has mastered rolling over and is very interested in grabbing anything. So I do think some of it is developmental and some of it is habit.

I am going to continue with no night feeds, no picking up and settle him by rubbing his tummy and no eye contact. Last night was different in that he didn't scream much or get angry but was awake for quite a while. And while he is awake I can't sleep. He is definitely getting the message of no feeding. Sorry for rambling on, it is so hard being exhausted all the time. If you look on here there are lots of threads from people with babies of similar ages waking at night and lots of different ways on dealing with it.

I hope you find a way that suits you and your little one soon