OK this is getting really hard to handle

[CapeTownMommy]

My dd is back to her midnight-until-3am-playtime habit. And I just don't know what to do about it! The situation: about 5 nights out of 7 she sleeps like a dream - down about 7:30pm, sleeps until around 6am without making a peep. She sleeps in her crib in the room next to ours, btw. But the other two nights she'll wake up around midnight and be 100% awake and ready to play. It doesn't help to rock and cuddle and nurse her - she'll be content, but awake. Typically she's not unhappy at all, unless she's left alone in which case she becomes REALLY unhappy very quickly. So what happens is, I wake up, go to her, try to get her to sleep quickly (sometimes it works, but rarely) and if not, I take her to the living room and let her play and crawl while I read a book or something. Then after 2 hours or so she'll get tired and start complaining a bit, I'll rock her and she'll fall asleep. And then we start the game of putting her down asleep, she wakes up, gets picked up and rocked back to sleep, etc. for another hour or so usually.

Anyway, any ideas on how to stop her from waking up would be great! I just don't know what else I can do. It doesn't help to put her in our bed; she'll be perfectly happy but still wide awake, making a lot of noise and crawling all over the bed. And if she does manage to fall asleep in our bed, she'll typically keep at least one of us awake. Cosleeping just doesn't work for us - although I wish it did, the few times that we've managed to get some sleep all in the same bed was great. But rare!

It's becoming more of an issue now because my poor dh works until about 10:30 at night most nights now, from 9am, so he gets home really tired and then he'll get about an hour of sleep before she wakes us up (on the bad nights). The sleep deprivation is really getting to him, he's handling it really well but I'm worried about him.

[MarynMunchkins]

What if you moved the crib into your room? Then when she's awake you'd be close enough for her to see. :)

[Hermana Linda]

How many naps does she take? I had problems like that when my kids napped too late. Or maybe push her bedtime back a bit to 8:00 or 8:30.

[HomeWithMyBabies]

My two year old still does that on occasion if he's gassy. He can't settle back down so he moves around until he's all puttered out. :O

[CapeTownMommy]

OK, this was now two nights in a row. Feeling really tired this morning! At least this time she slept again after an hour, instead of 3, so the overall experience wasn't as bad as it had been.

We can't move the crib into our room, no space, but I'm not sure that'll even work. If she's awake in the night she's perfectly happy to play on the floor but she refuses to be put down in the crib even if I'm standing right next to her with my hands on her. I think it's her way of saying "I DON"T want to sleep now, get me out of this bed!"

As for naps, about a month ago she dropped her afternoon nap so she now naps only once during the day, usually around mid-day for 2 or 2.5 hours. I can't imagine that that's too much sleep for a 9 month old, or is it?

I just hate what the sleep deprivation does to my temperament. When I'm this tired, when she wakes at night and cries, I don't feel compassion for her. Instead, I'm irritated and angry. And while I realise that she's only little and she needs me, it's hard to respond in the way she needs me to. I can deal with this when I've had 2 or 3 nights of proper sleep. Then I actually enjoy watching her play even in the wee hours of the morning. But last night was really really hard on me. I so want to be a good mom to her, including during the night, and it's just so hard for me.

[Hermana Linda]

:hugheart I'm sorry to have left this for so long. I went camping Friday and Saturday so I had no time to check this and have barely had time on the computer since. Catching up on the laundry today, as dh fixed my washing machine last night. :phew

So, have things improved any? :hug2

[illinoismommy]

I just hate what the sleep deprivation does to my temperament. When I'm this tired, when she wakes at night and cries, I don't feel compassion for her. Instead, I'm irritated and angry. And while I realise that she's only little and she needs me, it's hard to respond in the way she needs me to. I can deal with this when I've had 2 or 3 nights of proper sleep. Then I actually enjoy watching her play even in the wee hours of the morning. But last night was really really hard on me. I so want to be a good mom to her, including during the night, and it's just so hard for me.


I totally understand :hug2

Are you with her all day long? I suspect it has something to do with the day time routine.... if she gets long naps some days she may not be tired at night

[CapeTownMommy]

Well I am happy to report that last was one of the best nights we've had in a loooong time. She's a little ill at the moment (just a cold, runny nose and so on) so she sleeps a little bit more during the day, but last night she went to bed at 7:30 like usual, woke up at 11pm-ish and promptly went back to sleep when my husband went in to check on her, and then slept until 7am! That was amazing! Of course, I had to get up at 6am to get to work early, and left at 6:45 so I never even saw her this morning, which was hard, but it's just so promising to know she's able to sleep like that.

I honestly don't think her 3am playtime has much to do with her daytime naps; most days she takes only one nap nowadays (2-3 hours over lunchtime). I think it was more related to having figured out how to crawl and stand, and wanting to practice. She's been crawling for a little bit over a month now and we haven't had 3am playtime for maybe 2 weeks now. My guess is that practicing the crawling during the day makes her use muscles that aren't really used to all the practice, so at night her little body is sore. And I know from experience that a muscle that's been overused feels better when you use it a little more (just gently, KWIM) so I guess that's what happens with her too. She wakes up, her body is sore, and she feels instinctively that if she moves about it'll get better. Enter playtime!

[erh384]

:hug2 I totally understand this, but for us it lasts from about 12:30-2... in our case I think gas has been the culprit, but when you are sleep deprived it certainly is difficult to empathize with the wide awake baby who is inturrupting your much needed sleep. I'm glad to hear its getting better for you :yes!