Restless legs!

[thismotherhoodthing]

My 9wo was doing one 4-5 hour stretch at the start of the night, then it was hit and miss thereafter. This week she has started sleeping really badly and waking every time she is put down so have resorted to letting her sleep on me. She is napping ok during the day once we get her down but often only does 30-40 minutes before waking

Last night and tonight she is lying on her back and keeps throwing her legs up in the air inside her sleeping bag and waking herself up. I've literally had to lie and hold her legs down to keep her asleep (it has worked but I'm exhausted!)

Is this anything to worry about? I googled it (always a mistake) and it's being up a neurological condition called PLMD which obviously worried me as I'm an anxious mum anyway. Has anyone experienced this?

I am pretty sure this is normal, our baby does it and I hadn't considered it not being normal! She started it around a similar time and still does it at 20 weeks, mostly now just when trying to get to sleep.

The only way to stop it is swaddling I think really. I just left our baby to it and can't remember how long it took for it to settle but she did start doing it less.

Their sleep is so up and down for the first few months it can be hard to know what is contributing to what. She may just be going through a growth spurt or development phase. Our baby still only naps for 30-45 mins max unless in the car. I have tried to just go with whatever she is doing and not worry too much + hope for some return of sleep sometime soon! Around her age we started a bedtime routine and settling her to sleep earlier (7/8 ish depending on finish time of last nap) so you could try that if you haven't already and see if it helps?

Is she outside a lot in the day to get plenty of daylight? It sounds like she has quite a good nap schedule to make sure she's getting enough sleep in the day? Assume you've checked the obvious like is she hot/cold?

Hope the 4-5 hour chunks return soon 🤞

I've read it can be a self soothing thing.
My six month old leg slams at night

Swaddle swaddle swaddle!

Dd used to do this and as soon as I swaddled she just woke up for milk and a nappy change. Life changing at the time!

Use some YouTube videos to see how to get them all snuggly.

Some babies hate it, so it may not be the golden ticket, but no harm in trying.

@Ostryga what did you use to swaddle? A Muslin? She had a brief period around 6/7!weeks where i swaddled her successfully with a Muslin for naps and she slept in the tommee Tippee swaddle bags overnight however now she seems to hate it and wakes up thrashing about and crying and I seem to have lost the knack with getting the Muslin swaddle tight enough now that she's a bit bigger and she just breaks free. I have bought some of the love to dream swaddles as she sleeps with her arms up however the sizing is tiny and she doesn't even fit into it properly despite buying the right size for her weight.

@MGee123 she does it even when swaddled! She is freakishly strong! We have tried to do some sort of bedtime routine from the start, although admittedly we can't seem to keep to the same timings as feed times seem to be different each day

She is getting plenty of daylight and I'm trying to put her down for naps an hour or so after waking but finding it challenging as need to fit in a feed and burping / keeping her upright afterwards (she has reflux) a bit of play/tummy time and a nappy change - so sometimes think I miss the sweet spot and she gets over tired