sleep issues...help!

[Tori Lynne]

We have all new sleep issues!!! Just when i think we have conquered sleeping throught the night.... she starts new tricks!!



Background... Abby normally woke once, we fed her a bottle, changed her and put her back to bed and she went right back to sleep. On occasion she would wake more than once.

A while ago we weaned her from the bottle by giving her water instead. Worked great. Then we discovered that she is a tummy sleeper, made sense since she sleept on her tummy during the day So we started putting her on her tummy and she started sleeping throught the night!! Whoooo!!

Now recently she has been waking up again... and she won't go back to sleep. We go in and she has rolled around in her bed kicking and playing. When she sees be she starts laughing and getting excited, so I flip her over to put her back to sleep and give her the pacifier and she starts crying... crying because she wants me to pick her up and play with her!!! at 3am!! So once I *think* she is back to sleep I go back to bed... 2min later I hear her again so Nate goes this time and the same thing happens... now we both go back. My last resort is that I change her and give her a bottle of water. I rock her back to sleep because at this point I'm desperate!!!! Once she's asleep I put her in her crib... she wiggles for a while but finally goes to sleep. So now I've been up with her for hour... at least!!!

I don't know why she is pulling this all the sudden!!! She is driving me crazy!!! I thought I finally had a good little sleeper on my hands and now she has proven me wrong! I just don't know what to do with her. Once she wakes up I can't get her back to sleep and I feel like we are reressing by picking her up and giving her a bottle again but I'm not sure what else to do. You can only stand there and pat her butt while she cries for so long!!

Tonight we are going to try and cut her afternoon nap shorter and after her dinner and bath we are going to have a longer playtime instead of Nate just laying on the couch with her. Maybe this will help in some way. This is worse than she was before, at least when she woke then she would go right back to sleep after a bottle!

I'll do just about anything at this point!!!! Last night I just wanted to turn off the monitor so I wouldn't even hear her!! Isn't that terrible. She is just wearing me down lately and I have no idea what to do about this new sleep probelm!!!

[Kris]

Maybe she is hungry still at night since you took the sorce of food out and replaced it with water which isn't filling long lasting.

Did she learn something new developmentally? That will wake them as well.

Babys really don't need water at all under after a year they get it in BM/Formula.

[koalita]

When she first wakes up, is she crying or is she just playing? If she's just playing, I'd let her get herself back to sleep. Jason does that sometimes... he'll wake up in the middle of the night and talk to himself. He'll usually talk himself back to sleep, but if he starts crying I'll go in there.

[Tori Lynne]

She only gets the water as last resort. She hasn't been getting a bottle at all for at least a month now. The water was to get her off having formula in the night... and it worked!! I really feel that she isn't hungry.

And yes she is playing. I do just leave her be until she really starts to sound like she is fussing. And she has never put herself back to sleep. We used to just quietly go in and put her pacifer back in her mouth, pat her butt for a minute and turn on the fp aquarium and she would go right back to sleep.

She just recently started to roll a lot so I think that has something to do with it. She rolls around and then can't go back to sleep.

I have no idea what up with her!!

We'll see how she does tonight.

[Karri]

I know that when Aidan was learning something new, his sleep always suffered for a few days. And its also very normal for babies to wake up several times during the night (but then go back to sleep). Have you ever just let her and see what happens?? I used to run in the moment Aidan was making a fussing noise and it made things worse. Then I decided I would wait and see... we let him make fussing noises, as long as he didnt go into a full blown cry...and 99% of the time, he would go back to sleep on his own within the hour.

[Melissa]

I agree with Karri. DH wakes up with any little sound and thinks it means that Katie is awake for the day or awake from a nap, usually its just a little bit of babbling in her sleep. I react MUCH slower than he does and as a result Katie usually sleeps longer, especially for naps.

My advice (and feel free not to take it) would be to do what Karri suggested. With Katie, if she cried, I would wait to see if she was serious about it, or wanted to see what kind of reaction she would get. If she was serious, I'd help her.

Also, could she be going through a growth spurt? There are a couple of times where Katie would sleep through the night and all of a sudden she would wake up and want a bottle. That usually signaled a growth spurt where she would eat a lot more during the day.

[Katrina]

I agree that it sounds liek a growth spurt and/or because she is rolling and stuff. When they start getting mobile, their limbs and body feels different.. and it wakes them up.. i've read it described as a getting tingly similar to when you limb falls asleep and it stars to wake up...but not that severe. So they are feeling kinds weird and it makes them want to move around and 'shake it off'.
I also say leave her alone unless she goes into a full on cry. Even just fussing babies can often put themselves back to sleep, if they know how to.

[Tori Lynne]

I wanted to come by and say that Abby's sleep seems to be back to normal again!!

Maybe it was a growth spurt or the fact that she has been learning lots of new developmental things. But she is doing better now.

And both of us react very slowly when she wakes at night because we are deep sleepers so we are definelty not getting up at every whimper. We will lay there for a few min and see what she does. If her pacifier is close by she will put it back in her mouth by herself... this really helps!

anyhow, I just wanted to say thanks for the advice.. I was really getting tired! Thank goodness she is sleeping better now!