What do you do when your baby is standing in their cot crying for you?

[Mumpbump]

DS keeps waking at about 5am and I don't think it's 'cos he's hungry. I don't mind leaving him to cry for a bit, but the problem is that if I go in to reassure him, he pulls himself up on his cot bars and holds his hands out to me. I don't know whether to pick him up or to leave him standing and hope he'll go back to sleep. He can get down from standing so he's definitely not stuck... Any thoughts?

Personally, gently lie him down, stroke his head and say 'sleep now' in a soothing voice.

pick him up, dont speak to him, after his calmed down put him back down again, stay with him until he is settled, i do this with dd who is 2 and wakes every other day in the middle of the night.

Sorry but I'm a picker upper. They're little and want comfort. I could never have ignored them. My dc never like sleeping, ming you dh and me never liked sleeping either. If I had left dd1 ( and I did one night) she went nuts and didn;t stop, showed no signs, she just wasn't tired.

If you don't mind leaving him to cry them stay outside the room but close enough to help if you feel the crying changes to something you're not happy with.

if he's just standing up then leave him. if he's crying then pick him up

I might try the lying him down thing as I kind of figure that every time I pick him up, it probably reinforces his crying. If that doesn't work, will try not going in and see how that goes... Thanks!!

I pick my Ds up give him a cuddle and kiss him and put him back down again, I keep doing this every time he stands up. Only usually takes 4/5 cuddles.

Definitely pick up. When dsdoes this we take him into our bed and he will often sleep again for a couple of hours.

Maybe he needs a later bedtime?

When ds1 used to do this, I would pick him up, but when I put him down he would scream blue murder.

I think being picked up gave him an expectation of coming downstairs (like in the morning) and when I put him back down in his cot, he was outraged.

However when I started to just lie him down and stroke his head, he never got his hopes up in the first place. Basically I was saying to him "If you want me, I am here. But you are not coming downstairs in the middle of the night." It did work, and he has generally slept very well since.

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We're trying a later bedtime tonight so will see how that goes, but I must say that when I pick him up, he looks at me expectantly to start with, has a little wriggle and eventually starts to settle on me! Agree that his expectation is that his day has started...

well call me a bad mummy but i pick them up and bring them into my bed..... cos i know when they start school they probably won't do it anymore and those baby days will be gone.

Ahhh difficult cos you are desperate to hug them.

But if you want a quiet future and a full nights sleep, I would give him a hug, reassure him by putting him down in his cot and perhaps stroke his head for a little while. Dont say anything then leave and dont return.