6 mo old waking between 3:30-4:30am!

[AnimalBabe]

Hi, my 6 mo old son woke this morning at 3:45 am and wouldn't go back to sleep! I fed him and put him back down and he looked wide awake/smiling. On our monitor he looked like he was rolling onto his belly to go back to sleep but I guess he was just playing, and then 20 mins later started wailing and he wouldn't go back to sleep until 5:45. I usually get up at 6am to get ready for work, so as you can imagine, I'm completely wiped out today. Yesterday he woke at 4:30am and the same thing happened. His normal wake up time is still early (usually 5:30-6am) but not this early, this is ridiculous!

I noticed he was putting his fingers in his mouth this morning after I fed him, so I'm not sure if he could possibly be teething, but I didn't think it was supposed to hurt that badly. Or maybe that just prevented him from being able to fall back asleep on his own? My other thought is that we simply need to push back his bedtime a bit. He goes down around 6pm, which I've always thought was too early, but it's hard to keep him up much later. I also read that keeping them up will only sleep deprive them and won't change the time they wake up..but that seems a bit odd to me. Has this happened to any of you? Any suggestions? I'm exhausted.

[boolady]

I noticed he was putting his fingers in his mouth this morning after I fed him, so I'm not sure if he could possibly be teething, but I didn't think it was supposed to hurt that badly. Or maybe that just prevented him from being able to fall back asleep on his own?

Teething definitely causes enough discomfort to mess with sleeping/waking. It was the cause of a lot of sleep disruption for DD. If he has other signs of teething, I'd follow up on that before I started messing with his bedtime. Moving DD's bedtime later when there's a sleep disruption issue going on (teething, growth spurt, daylight savings time) has only ever made her wake earlier.

[AnimalBabe]

Thanks boolady-what other types of signs go along with teething? I haven't noticed anything else like a fever or general fussiness...besides his usual. Haha. I don't feel anything under his gums either.

[ckso]

A lot of things could be waking him up, not just teething. I think if it was due to discomfort in teething, he would be fussy and not just awake and smiling. It's so hard to say what it is cuz it really could anything. Did he recently accomplish a new skill (like pulling himself up, sitting, etc)? If so he can be exciting about his new skill and that could disrupt his sleep.

Is he in his own room or do you share? I had the same problem (she might've been closer to 8 months) with DD and her crib was in our room. She'll wake up in the middle of the night, sees me and basically wants to be held or play and would cry. We too thought she was teething or something is wrong so we did just that, held her (by then we stopped the middle of the night feedings) and soothe her back to sleep. One night my hubby did that, he was tired so he decided to sleep on the floor next to her which also helps soothe her back to sleep. To his surprise, he saw her pull herself up, was smiling and looking at me as if she was trying to get my attention. He was a little upset and then realized that there's nothing wrong with her and we decided she needs to learn to self-soothe herself back to sleep.

So...if we knew there was nothing wrong with her, if she wakes up in the middle of the night, we let her cry. We stay perfectly still so she doesn't think we'll get her. I have a 5 min rule....I'll let her cry for 5 (or so) minutes and if she doesn't settle, I'll check on her. I can say at least 90% of the time, she just settles back down to sleep. If we try to help her settle, it takes more like 2 hours.

She got her own room when she's close to 1 year old and the night waking decreased dramatically. For us at least, it seems to help that she doesn't see us. We also keep the room pitch black since birth (no night light) so she can't see anything to distract her from falling back to sleep.

[AnimalBabe]

Did he recently accomplish a new skill (like pulling himself up, sitting, etc)? If so he can be exciting about his new skill and that could disrupt his sleep.

Is he in his own room or do you share?

So...if we knew there was nothing wrong with her, if she wakes up in the middle of the night, we let her cry. We stay perfectly still so she doesn't think we'll get her. I have a 5 min rule....I'll let her cry for 5 (or so) minutes and if she doesn't settle, I'll check on her. I can say at least 90% of the time, she just settles back down to sleep. If we try to help her settle, it takes more like 2 hours.



No, unfortunately, he's getting better at sitting up but can't do that without being propped up first. Sometimes I think he's practicing crawling, but he really only rocks back and forth.

He is in his own room. Sometimes when I think he's fussing from teething I use some orajel on his gums but I didn't try that this morning. I'll try it if (I mean when!) it happens tomorrow am and see if he calms down sooner. I didn't think rocking him would help b/c he was sooo wide awake for a long time.

We do the same thing in general, wait 5 mins, then check and shush and then wait a bit longer the next time, etc. Unfortunately it wasn't working this morning so that's when I went back in eventually and fed him back to sleep--after about 2 hrs which by that time he was probably just ready to nap! Poor guy.

[PGTB]

DS has been doing this for a while since he turned 3 months old. The worst time was between 3-4 months and 8 months. Now he is 10 months old and the episodes of him waking to stay up in the middle of the night are reduced, but still happen some nights, except he has more stamina now and stays up for 3 hours instead of 2.

I've been trying to figure out what causes him to just wake up and stay up in the middle of the night, but there is no real science behind it. I guess it can be anything.

I tend to think for our DS it might have been following:
- major milestones having to do with acquiring more control over his body and language. Learning to turn over, learning to sit up, babble and stand up were really a killer for him. DS tends to practice and if he doesn't get enough of the time to practice a new skill during the day he would do this at night.

- Mother's intake of chocolate for BFed baby? Another reason I suspected, I used to take lots of chocolate during the day trying to stay up at work. I would avoid midday caffeine in favor of chocolate (and would eat at least an ounce or 2 a day sometimes even a lot more). I suspect that at least for DS he might be more sensitive to chocolate than to caffeine.

- Overstimulation. Some days DS would be just over active, maybe this also has to do with milestones.


*I used* to blame teething on lots of sleep issues, but I am not so sure this was the case with our DS. He cut his teeth (he has 3 now) during the day, not at night. He now wakes up and moans with pain due to teething or gas, but usually he goes back to sleep when it's just pain waking him up. The 2 hours wakeful episodes are not usually pain related we noticed, as DS is just really active and usually in a good mood and very talkative. The waking due to pain is different, he is usually crying, moaning and turning around trying to settle and is sleepy, not active and not happy. I even gave DS advil one night and he still woke up for 3 hours to party.

I hope this helps. Hang in there. :hug: I feel for you, sleep issues are really tough. Since your sleep issues started much later, hopefully your baby isn't as sensitive as our DS and would revert back to sleeping well soon :grouphug:

[AnimalBabe]

Thanks for your comments! After about a week our son reverted back to his "normal" sleeping patterns and, as far as I know, doesn't wake and stay up for long periods anymore. (Knock on wood) I still have no idea why he was doing that. He hasn't gotten a tooth and didn't seem ill. It may have been gas/constipation since we had started him on some new purees. I just hope he doesn't start doing it again, for awhile at least.

PGTB: I also think chocolate affects him! I hope your DS is sleeping better for you now!:hug: