7 month old sitting up in cot

[HettyMeg]

My almost-8-month-old has recently started crawling and now keeps sitting up in the cot when we are trying to get her to sleep, either at bedtime or naps. We turn her back on to her back repeatedly and have to hold a hand on her stomach to stop her rolling over. Recently this has been taking up to an hour until she eventually falls asleep absolutely exhausted. Then she sits up again during the night and process starts again. My HV suggested it was overtiredness but have tried putting her down sooner and no difference. We cannot leave her alone in the cot as she cries and falls backwards, banging her head on the bars. I also don't want to do sleep training. Will this pass? Is it just the crawling causing it?

I think this is VVV normal when they learn a new skill. I don't think our approach will be very useful to you, because we had already sleep trained so she went to sleep by herself, and when she started sitting/pulling up, we just left her to get on with it. She bumped her head once, and then didn't do it again.

I know we're all told endlessly on here that if we leave our kids to cry they'll sustain lasting emotional damage, but honestly, babies are built to learn and if you give them half a chance they figure things out so quickly!

The advice is to put them down on their back but once they can roll both ways, most babies will roll onto their front to sleep. I wouldn't stop the rolling as long as she can roll from front to back herself. As for sitting up and crawling - all part of it when they learn those skills! We had also sleep trained by this point so again just left DD to it. It didn't last long as far as I can recall - like most things, it feels like a lifetime in the thick of it though!

@Jxtina86 she was settling herself pretty well at bedtime before the crawling started, we could go downstairs and she would fall asleep usually. Now the automatic rolling over is disrupting the falling asleep process. Hoping it's just a phase. Can't really just leave her as she can get herself up but not back down to fall asleep so just cries.

The novelty will wear off.

There’ll be a bit of respite, then she’ll learn to stand in her cot. We are on this stage now.

everything is just a phase OP. I have to believe that or I will go and put my head in the oven 🤣

And then they are teenaged and getting them up from being horizontal in the mornings is as challenging as getting a baby to lie down!

All a phase ! I hope !

If she rolls over, can you leave her and see if she wants to sleep on her stomach? It's ok to do this if she's rolling herself, and has the strength to roll back or lift her head up if she ended up face-planted on the mattress. You do have to keep putting them down on their backs to sleep until 12 months, but if they then roll over themselves it's fine to leave them. NHS advice agrees - www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/caring-for-a-newborn/reduce-the-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome/

That said I remember 7/8 months being the worst time for sleep with my eldest. He used to wake himself up trying to crawl and get frustrated because he couldn't do it in his sleeping bag. It did pass when he got more confident with crawling in the daytime, and he slept through for the first time at 10 months. Might help to give her lots of opportunity to practise her new skills in the day?

Why does it matter if she is rolling over? She's 7 months old...

And with the falling anf banging her head, she'll learn pretty quickly to stop doing it 🤷🏼‍♀️

To an extent, you do have to let them crack on and work it out. Lots of babies won’t always sleep on their backs once they can squiggle around, it’s normal.

You leave her to work out how to lay back down - you can help her practice this during the day. Or to fall asleep sitting up.

So long as she's safe and can't fall out of her cot if she stands up she's fine.

If you don't already use a sleeping bag/gro bag I'd try that as well make the crawling more difficult.

Sympathies OP, this is a trying phase! You don't need to roll her back over, but if she's got herself into a position where she can't sleep and can't get out of it then obviously you'll have to go in to her. There's no easy solution that I know of but thankfully it's quite a short phase IME. They soon learn how to lie back down.

@HettyMeg Hey. Did you ever manage to find something to help your little one? How long did it last for her? My 7 month has just started doing this and it’s awful! I’m so worried about him hurting himself.

@Teaandjam345 Hiya, it's frustrating isn't it? When our little one was doing this it was during a period where we were trying to do what the health visitor advised which was to put her down awake and she would put herself to sleep. Hahaha. It did not work. We tried for about 2 months and every bedtime took about 45 mins / an hour for her to fall asleep before we gave up and went back to doing what we did before (cuddling / holding to sleep then placing her in the cot). We were all a lot happier after that! I'm not saying that was a magical fix for the sitting up but her being fully awake didn't help as she of course wanted to explore. So after we went back to putting her down asleep or almost asleep, she gradually stopped sitting up and eventually it became less of a novelty. She still does it now though if she wakes up in the night but will often settle herself / lie herself back down now that she's older. Good luck x