10 month old's changeable sleep pattern - discuss!

[Sally987]

Hello - hope you can help... we're not sure if anything is wrong, or if this is just the way it is with babies of this age.

Over the last month, our DD has suddenly become incredibly hard to settle at night, if she wakes. She's not really a screamer, but she'll fuss / cry / wriggle up her cot and get trapped / sit up etc for over three hours, if she wakes (and we can hear, as can our neighbours, argh). It's wearing us out. Any tips?

She will sleep 7pm-7am for stretches of days (sometimes two days, sometimes up to two weeks), but then the waking starts again. She has recently got two teeth, but I can't feel more. But if I think she's teething, even Calpol + Bonjela doesn't help her settle. Bringing her into bed with us doesn't work either.

Here are the facts!

She's EBF (just 3x a day now) and doesn't appear to ask / root when she wakes.
Food: she's BLW, but eats stacks, really a lot, and a good range of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, dairy, pasta etc. She has water too.
Daytime napping: usually 1hour from 9.30amish, then 1 to 2 hours from around 1.30pmish. I rarely let her sleep past 3.30pm.
Activities: we get out at least once a day, go on the tube, round the shops, to soft play, read, she crawls all over, plays with her toys, chases the cats, doesn't watch TV yet...
Bedtime: 6.45pm - 7.30pm, averaging just after 7.

Any thoughts on what we could try to help?

Oh - to add, she doesn't wake at the same time each night, it could be 2am, it could be 11.30pm, it could be 4am - there's no guessing.

Bumping this as I have the same issue with 9.5 month DD. Hoping someone can help us

Can't help, but I think it's a sleep regression. My LO is the same and has had a variable pattern for some weeks (almost 10 months old). She's been teething forever but nothing come through at the top yet (even though her bottom two teeth came in at 4 months!). We're also co-sleeping at the moment, but even then she's restless at night and sometimes is up for a couple of hours at night, sometimes crying, despite me trying everything to comfort/settle her. Hoping it will soon pass ...

Have a look at wonder weeks book. My DS is going through a similar PIA phase and having checked in the book, it's a BIG one.

I cannot move in the daytime without him wailing and he's decided that 5:30am is the best time to start the day.

Fingers crossed it passes VERY soon .

We had exactly the same problem a couple of weeks ago with our ten month old - waking for 2-3 hours at various times of night. I think is was definitely developmental as it lasted a couple of weeks and he is now back to his normal (slightly better!) pattern. I know its not much help but we just had to ride it out and after about 10 days he was past it.

The same here and ds is 9.5 months.

He has recently started to crawl and sit up by himself, which he now does in his cot as well - at 3am

This too shall pass

Hello - thanks! Yes, Wonder Weeks, giant fan / believer - think she's probably also on the way out of the 46 week's one, as she's about 45 weeks now. I can really see a lot of the signs, eg, putting things in things, rather than just taking out.

I've just been in to check on her: she was diagonal and ready to crash into the cot bars. Averted! So maybe that's an extra hour or two right there. Either way, I'm putting down the laptop and getting in whatever it'll be before she wakes up!

Thanks again - any other theories most welcome.

Oh Jesstar - teething, it took me ages to work out when DD was teething (two bottom ones at 7 months, top two in the last two weeks), but another sign, and a classic one I've since discovered, is lots and lots of poo - as in, it feels like every nappy you change is a pooey one. That delicious piece of knowledge has really helped me decide if it's teething / onset of illness / one of those things. But this recent bout of multiple hours of crying has left us completely perplexed. Right, putting the laptop down.

Thanks Sally987, yes she gets a lot of poo when she's teething with horrible nappy rash. But despite several episodes of this, nothing comes through. Her top four teeth are very prominent in the gums but haven't broken through. Anyway, her sleep seems to be a little better, but that could be because we're co-sleeping. Dreading trying to get her back into the cot!

Way too soon to call this a breakthrough, but, it's the going diagonal / bashing head on bars that's actually waking DD I think. She woke twice last night. Rather than leaving it to see if she could sort herself out, I raced in as soon as I woke, to find her squished up both times. Grabbed her Grobag, slid her back down, gave her her blanket and ta dah, straight off again. So I think waiting to see has been the worst thing to do on these occasions, as she winds herself into a fury very quickly. (I did not go back to sleep however, DP snored from 4.30-6am - grrr.)

They are funny things, aren't they, children! My LO is doing the exact same thing, turning in all kinds of directions, doing 360 degree spins in bed and back to front to back to get comfy. Seems to also do it in her sleep ... and was doing it in the cot banging her head on the sides, and now fidgets in bed with me instead! May be it is a developmental thing that they have to go through.