SLEEP SURVEY for parents of active babies....

[yetihed]

Hello everyone. My DS, now 8mo, has never been a great sleeper. He is a frequent night waker and loves to feed to sleep. He's making progress in the right direction but it's slow work. Sometimes I'm ok with this, sometimes I'm not.

The thing is, he's a very active baby- he started crawling 2 weeks ago, can pull himself up to standing and has started trying the 'hands free' approach to shuffling along the furniture! He is basically happy if allowed to play rough and tumble, climbing and clambouring all day.

I just wondered if there is any connection between the 2? So, all you mums of similarly active babies (whatever the age) out there- do your babies sleep well? Or is it a similar story for us all?

You could be describing my 8mo DD! She has been crawling, pulling up, shuffling for a while now and isn't a great sleeper. But she never has been, feeding often in the night, usually up every 2-4 hours. The odd night (i.e. about twice!) she has slept through about 6-8 hours. At the moment she has a cold and so her sleep is terrible. DD was moving in the right direction too but the cold has been a set-back, it will be slow progress.

I'm not sure whether being an active baby is linked to sleep, you'd think they would be tired and sleep better!

DD was very active and never slept! She was rolling at 3 months, wanted to be held standing up all the time, walked holding on at 5 months and alone at 11. Good news is that as a toddler she sometimes can't wait to get to bed in the evening (although she does still wake once in the night most nights).

DS is also very active, has just started to crawl and I can never cuddle him-I have to be doing stuff with him (rocking/walking around/bouncing). His sleep is even worse than hers was! The latest thing since he started crawling is sleep crawling-wakes himself up several times a night by doing this!

I do think active babies find it harder to relax into sleep than those nice quiet ones who just sit happily in their bouncers

Nice to hear about some active girls- I get a lot of 'well, he is a boy' remarks!

DS was crawling at 6 months and cruising at 7. He is a fantastic sleeper, always has been.

I hope things improve for you soon.

DS is stupidly active, always on the go (and very frustrated because he can't crawl yet at 5 months), and although sleeps reasonably well at night does not sleep at all well during the day.

Having said that, when he does finally go to sleep, he does generally sleep quite well, for a good half hour.

Both of mine were very active babies - DS was walking at 9 months, DD at 10 months. DS was a great sleeper from an early age however, m,D was always nightmare to get to sleep and has only really just improved in her sleeping habits now that she has turned 2!

Both my DDs were / are incredibly active - way more so than any of my antenatal group babies or friends etc. Everyone always comments on it as they cannot believe the tiny bundles of energy. Both were walking well before a year - DD2 well before 11 months. Thankfully though they have always been great sleepers - I always assumed it was because they were so active, but I guess every baby is different. I really hope that your DS' sleep improves soon.