6m old obsessed with hands and feet and won't sleep

[crispyeggs]

6m old has never been a great sleeper, but we were getting towards one reasonably low fuss wake up to feed per night and I was getting enough rest that I didn't need to go to bed at 7pm and could actually spend an hour or two per day with my husband/eating an evening meal.

That was until 2 weeks ago when my little one discovered her hands and feet. Now, she wakes multiple times per night slamming her legs and cooing and gleefully grabbing her feet through her sleepsack, and will struggle to settle to sleep as she is running her fingernails along the side of her crib.

Seeing her this engaged is wonderful during the day but its seriously exhausting me during the night and its taking hours to tire her out and settle her, if I can at all.

Is this a phase and will it pass? Is there anything I can do or do I just need to ride it out?

Aw so tough, it is a phase though. My LO didn't do this to this extreme but certainly around 5ish months he had a sleep regression and was waking up alot, he also seemed to wake himself up by scratching the sides of the cot. I did find that moving him from the next2me crib into the bigger cot helped with that as he seemed to have more space but equally cpuld have been a coincidence. The main thing Ive learnt in 20 months as a FTM with sleep is just to go with it and try to remember it WILL pass - easier said than done I know though!

Do you have to be awake with her if she is happy?

My DD did this at 6 months. She was good at self settling but I remember being kept awake by her being active. I moved her to her own room and bigger cot and she settled down very quickly. She actually started sleeping on her tummy after moving to the bigger cot, I think she was waking more because she wanted to move around more.

I think we were waking each other honestly, we all slept a lot better after she went into her own bedroom.

Unfortunately yes. She had colic for 4 months and as a result she's used to being rocked to sleep and can't self settle. Even if I were able to sleep through the noise (she is SO loud!) she would become distressed after a few minutes of playing.