I have read that babies' sleep schedules often go haywire when they are reaching major developmental milestones (rolling over, crawling, walking ... ) We've never had TOO much trouble with this. Maybe a night or two of Julia waking up crying.
BUT, a couple weeks ago, we started having the middle of the night crying episodes every single night. At first we would go in and lay her back down and calm her enough to get back to sleep. After four or five nights in a row, we just started letting her cry herself back to sleep. She only did that for one night and then found another way to self-soothe: She thumps her feet against ANYTHING. Mattress, crib slats, crib bumper, whatever is there. Which means for about two hours during the middle of the night, we can hear "Wham!" "Whap!" "Thump!" echoing in our bedroom. I know she gets it from my side of the family because I can remember my brother and I doing this. It just isn't as annoying if you are the one doing it and not the one listening to it. Especially from 2 am to 4 am.
And, yes, I've tried waking her up early, truncating her naps, skipping a nap altogether, anyway I can to try to make sure our girl will sleep through the night. The result is just a cranky baby after around 1 pm, a frustrated Mommy and another middle of the night waking. Grrr.
I can only hope that once she feels confident with her walking skills that she'll sleep through the night again. And that it happens soon enough that this middle of the night waking hasn't become a habit.
1 comments:
I am laughing so hard right now! My husband even came in to check on me (my laugh sounds weird through a clamped mouth, I guess).
On the other hand, I am sorry. After several months of thinking that Elizabeth was sleeping through the night, my mom stayed over and slept in the girls room. She informed me the next day that Liz does not, in fact, sleep through the night. Rather, she wakes up and plays and talks and moves about for about an hour sometime after 1am. Simply having this knowledge, my body seems to wake up just enough to hear the little tyke 'bumping' in the night! She is a leg thumper, too, upon occasion!
May the force be with you and sleep find you soon!!! Or Julia, in this case!
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