7 month-old climbing/standing/crawling in cot

[OdaBear]

Hi all

Apologies for long-winded question!!

I?m having a few issues with my 7-month old son. He learnt to crawl at 4.5 months, and learnt to sit not long after ? now he is mastering standing, and is also furniture walking. Brilliant! Except he continues to do this at night.

He has been a fantastic sleeper so far ? from about 2 months sleeping for 12 hours with one feed somewhere in the middle. We used to swaddle, and he eased out of that with no dramas.

At the moment, I have continued to maintain a strict bedtime routine of bath, milk, story (if awake enough) and bed. This all happens upstairs, in his room at the same time each night.

I can?t remember how we were getting him to sleep after the swaddling and before the rocking ? but he now requires fairly vigorous rocking (no, I?m not lolling his head all over the place!!). We rock him on his bouncer chair. He is too big for me to hold, and my gentle mummy-rocking doesn?t cut the mustard with him anyway.

If I put him down in his cot, he begins climbing and crawling - every time! I can tell he is desperate to sleep, but his body/brain is compelling him to practice his skills. Has anyone had the same experience, and how did they overcome it? I?m concerned that he is getting so lump-like that he is going to rip through his bouncer chair one of these days. If we have no means to rock him anymore, I?m not sure what we are going to do?!?! Additionally, I know that some schools of thought are to train baby to self-soothe, and some are to just let them grow out of needing the rocking. If we do leave him (and I DO NOT make a habit of this), he goes from whimpering to crying, to outright full-blown disturbing distress very quickly, beyond the point of easy calming by me, let alone self-soothing. It is also way beyond my comfort zone.

Any input would be much appreciated!

Fiona x

We found sleeping bags really good - Ds would have a feed in the dark of his room on my lap, all done up in his sleeping bag, and I would put him down all nice and sleepy in his cot in his sleeping bag - so no sudden cold sheets etc.

Hi mistlethrush - I'm afraid his sleeping bag doesn't limit his mobility at all. He does have his feed in the dark, and once his rocking has done the job, he's well away. :)

"I can tell he is desperate to sleep, but his body/brain is compelling him to practice his skills"

^ That. It's just normal development. You don't 'overcome' it, you ride it out. They do it several times in the first two years and it's about mastering a new skill. They can't control it any more than we can. They go back to normal sleep afterwards.

Ahhh, I posted this exact predicament a bit ago. I'm afraid I didn't get much advice!! My 9 mo does exactly the same. Where at bedtime I could leave him to settle himself, now he crawls about (in his sleeping bag) pulls the bumper off, pulls the sheets out and generally has a fantastic time... Until he gets tired and can't get himself comfy as he's all tangled and upside down. So... I basically stand in his room, turning him back, trying to tuck things back in and patting his tummy until he's down. Leaving him doesn't work for above reasons. He now sleeps on his front, flipping over in the night, and more often than not crawls in his sleep waking himself up. Then he can't get back to sleep as he realises his teeth hurt, so we end up co-sleeping.

Sigh. So, I have resigned myself to the fact that this is how it is at the moment, and it'll pass in time. It's frustrating and rubbish but I don't think we can do anything!!!! :(

Hi ShowOfHands - I'm not trying to control it, per se, but I am concerned that my current method of helping him to sleep is only finite. If we cannot continue rocking him as we currently do, I'm not sure how I will help him to sleep, but am not prepared to let him wear himself out in distress whilst clambering around in his cot. He has learnt to roll, then crawl, then sit and now stand all in very quick succession, (over the last 2/3 months), and has spent the entire time practicing it all in bed.

Oh dear AlphSpag - not a promising sign. My fear is is that he's gonna be so knackered if I can no longer help him to sleep, which is going to affect him adversely round the clock. I'm a nurse, so I am used to sleepless nights and doing things for people at night. I also know how rubbish you feel when you're mega sleep-deprived. I guess I will have to continue rocking him until I no longer can. And then panic after that?? I did try patting him and staying with him to help him fall asleep, just to see if there was another way of doing it. But he only likes the feeling of being on a train to get him to sleep!

I have a 9mo who is walking. He was/is exactly the same in terms of leaping through the skills quickly and while fairly young. My 5yo was exactly the same too. And it's flipping tough. The practising new skills thing and the ways of helping them settle are two separate things really. Once the skill is mastered then they go back to sleeping as they did before they started the nocturnal shennanigans.

And in terms of the settling, well it's a learning curve and ime what you do is you work with the child you have. And they change over time. So once they've mastered walking for example you might find that they're much more physically tired or they might be more developmentally ready for self soothing (it is a developmental thing, much like the walking they're mastering in their sleep) and their own behaviour changes before yours has to. You can only nudge it along and often by trial and error. So shush pat. Pick up put down. Cuddling to sleep. Introducing a blankie/toy. White noise. Feeding to sleep. Particular lullabies. And on and on and on. Until you find the one that works and/or they work out self soothing.

Of course there's also cc and cio but I can't advise on them as I'd never do them.

I rocked to sleep or drowsy. You sort of find it easier and adjust to their new weight (DS was a big baby 9lb 4oz at birth). Then after a while it stops and they are easier to put to sleep again!

After a while ds didn't want rocking and I could lie him down after a feed (although he was usually asleep anyway).

Hi ShowOfHands - thanks. We are white noise fanatics in our household. I guess I wanted to open up my forum further than my mum as she didn't have these issues with me or my brother. I'm more than happy to continue with what we're doing, but I also look to the future (even if that future is just a month!), and I do get worried that my current methods will no longer be viable. As I say, I have no problem with doing things for him in the night - I'm used to doing it for strangers in hospital. As he's learnt all these skills so quickly, and is inevitably praciticing them, its difficult to see an end to it.

As for controlled crying - I don't get it at all. It doesn't even sound ethical. And don't even get me started on crying-it-out.