Split Night

[Flipflop1010]

My 6 month old has started waking up between 2.30-4am and isn't going back to sleep for 2 hours. He isn't distressed, just wide awake. I go in and hold him without interacting or soothing him but he will just happily look around the (dark) room or chat. If I try and put him down he cries and becomes very distressed which will then take longer to calm him down. He falls asleep on his own at bedtime (7.30pm) and self soothes during the night before this wake. After about 2 hours he falls asleep in my arms and I can put him back down in his cot where he'll sleep until 6.30-7am. He usually has 2 naps a day which can vary from 30 minutes to 2 hours (at 10-10.30am and 2-2.30pm) but this doesn't seem to affect the split night. We don't tend to do a MOTN feed unless he' very distressed and I can't calm him down.

Has anyone gone through something similar? What worked for you? Can anything be done or is this just a developmental thing? TIA

Try bringing him into bed with you. Obviously make sure it is safe and then go to sleep yourself. He will either go to sleep or let you know that he needs you.

I have done this a couple of times when I have been too exhausted to stay up. He is happy and sleeps well but I don't want it to become a regular occurence - will we not be making a rod for our own backs if we do this every night?

Can you shorten the naps. Allow him to cry a little?

Exactly the same as my lo. He stopped for a while, started again recently. Now 13mo. It's horrible. No advice really, but I'm trying to play with naps and letting him cry a little to self settle himself again. You're not alone. Watching with interest. Good luck. Xx

Exactly the same as my lo. He stopped for a while, started again recently. Now 13mo. It's horrible. No advice really, but I'm trying to play with naps and letting him cry a little to self settle himself again. You're not alone. Watching with interest. Good luck. Xx

My DD was doing that around the same age, lasted 3ish weeks then just started sleeping again. It was really hard at the time though

My Dd is now 2.5. She did this for a couple of weeks at a time, last time was just after turning two. Every time it stopped as a tooth broke the skin so rightly or wrongly I have concluded that that was her teething. She never cried or fussed, was just wide awake for a couple of hours at a time. Nothing would get her to sleep until she just dropped off on her own.

Sorry, I know it's no magic fix, but for me it was a case of riding it out and sleeping in her room on those nights (we had a single bed in there). It stopped as quickly as it started and she's generally a great sleeper other than those really really frustrating nights!