Parenting Forums

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 9:43pm | IP Logged

my eight month old daughter has slept like a dream since she was around eight weeks old. unfortunately she has now started to wake in the middle of the night quite frequently. she went into her own cot / room about two months ago and initially all was well. however the last four weeks she has been waking around 1 am crying in quite a distressed state (which she can fake - but who takes chances at 1 am) she will then get so worked up she will throw herself over onto her stomach and then get genuinely upset because she can't get back. some nights it can take up to two hours to settle her back to sleep. at the moment she is back to sleeping in the moses basket placed inside her cot - but we cannot do this much longer as she is getting too big for it.

ANY IDEAS???

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 9:50pm | IP Logged

Hi hun

Firstly welcome to madmums. You daughter could be waking for a number of reasons....

Is she teething?

Is the room to hot or cold?

Has she got a wet nappy?

Is she hungry due to a growth spurt?

Is it knees up to the tummy indicating wind?

As for getting her out of a moses basket into a cot have you got an old warm blanket that you could roll into a sausage and place in an arch from feet ouver head etc to give her the added security that she needs and slowly increase the distance between her and the blanket. Also try laying the bedding across as it's a familiar smell.

Good luck hun i'm sorry i have no definate answers but it's all about working to a tick list and i still have to use one occasionally and my youngest is 2 at the end of this month.

Take care and hope things get sorted for you soon

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 10:00pm | IP Logged

hi, thanks for the reply

have usually checked stuff such as nappy temp etc. although it could well be teething!

i am concerned about using anything wrapped around head as i am a bit of a paranoid first time mum and worried about her suffocating herself. if we leave her with her muslin to soothe herself she generally wraps it around her as she is such a wriggler and i am worried that if i left her with a blanket she would wrap herself up with that. she often used to grab her sheets before i started putting her to sleep in her gro bag.

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 10:04pm | IP Logged

cheers

i will try that tomorrow night!

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 10:05pm | IP Logged

This is quite a common occurance, so dont feel different or alone as most parents go through this at some stage in their childs life, wether it be at 8 months or 8 years old!
The first thing i wanted to say, was that some children get into a habit of waking up just for attention (even at 8 months old)
As Zany said, go through everything you can think of to indicate a reason for her waking, and if everything is fine.. clean nappy, full tummy, and she's not ill at the moment, that sort of thing.. then the controlled crying could be the next step to get her back into her old sleeping patten.
Just leaving her for an extra minute each time before you go in to her (as long as she's safe, it wont harm her)

This is just a suggestion if all else fails, but hopefully she will settle down in her own time and be the good sleeper she once was.
x-x-x

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 10:08pm | IP Logged

Good luck hun it's hard being a mum..... but it's extremely rewarding.

Also is the bolier clicking off or on at that time etc.....

What i also was told that babies around 8mths old have a sleep cycle of about 60-90mins then have a period of light sleep etc then back into deep.... it might be a noise or something that is disturbing her, but teething might also be something to look into.

Take care hun.... x

If you need anything else give us a bell x

Posted: 02 April 2008 at 10:15pm | IP Logged

thanks

really hope i get my angelic sleeper back soon. i do feel some nights that it is just a "habit" almost like she thinks hey i'm up lets play. the controlled crying is really hard at 1 or 2 am and we have found that when we do go in to check on her it then makes her worse. like i said she can seemingly fake a distressed cry - she does it during the day if she doesn't like something, like having her teeth brushed or feels ignored or if i go to the loo -anyone listening would think she was in great pain or danger!. therefore it is hard to ignore her without checking whether she is ok or not. by nipping in her room checking she is ok (which she usually is) and then coming back out again seems to then really upset her and make her carry on crying for longer. i can ususally tell if she has then rolled onto her belly in temper as her breathing changes. this then means we have to go in and turn her back on her back which means she gets upset all over again as she has had contact but not been picked up and cuddled!