Waking 01:00am - ready to play

[alexast]

My 7,5 month old angel baby girl was sleeping through the night until a few weeks ago, when she started waking during the night, ready to start the day

Her typical schedule looks like this:

5:00 am - breast, back to sleep
8:00 am - wake up and breakfast at 09:00am
10:15 am - nap (usually 1 to 1.5 hours)
12:00 pm - lunch
2:15/2:30 pm - nap (usually 1.5 to 2 hours)
4:00 pm - breast
5:30 pm - dinner
7:00 pm – breast
7:15/7:30 pm – bed
22:30 pm – dream feed

She always goes to sleep on her own without any problems. We just give her her pacifier and her cuddly toy and she goes right to sleep. Sometimes we use a little shush-pat but most of the time we do not need to.
For one week she has been waking between 01:00 am and 02:00 am ready to start the day. She lies in her crib (which is in out bedroom by the way) clapping hands and playing, after a while she starts fussing and then she cries. She never cries a lot but she stays awake for at least 2 hours (sometimes longer) before she goes back to sleep. I try not to encourage her playing during the night (no talking or picking her up, no taking her into our bed) and try to ignore her until she cries, but she seems to be happy playing by herself for quite a while. When I try to shush/pat her back to sleep she starts playing with my hand instead of going back to sleep.
I don’t know what to do since she does not seem to be upset or crying. How can I make her understand that it is no good idea to play during the night?

[Samuel's mum]

That's tough.
There's nothing that springs out from your routine - although you could try more like a 7/7.15am wake-up to give her a 12 hour night.
What about environmental factors? room temperature? Light? Noises (any adult snore!)?
You could try a 'wake to sleep' approach and try and rouse her slightly before 1am to see if you can shift her sleep cycles.

How is she eventually getting back to sleep? Do you usually help her?

[alexast]

Thanks fort he quick reply.
The room temp. is around 20°C, I used to have a little night light but I allways turn it off now, because I thought that it might disturb her nightsleep. My husband snores a lot and had a cold recently, maybe that is the problem. Maybe she would sleep better in her own room (otherwise I have to send my husband on the couch ).
When she wakes up I usually get her back to sleep by putting my hand on her chest when she starts to get tired again (after 2 hours playtime ), no patting because that seems to stimulate her to play with my hand.

[Vicku]

Hi!

We had the same happening with our DD at that age. Has there been any recent developmental leaps like learning to sit/crawl etc? They often enjoy and feel the urge to practice their newfound skills so much that they want to do it whenever they get chance. Even in the middle of the night!  So if coming out of a light sleep, instead of going right back will want to start the day and play,as you describe. If this is the reason, it will pass, and the best thing is to do what you're doing and being consistent showing her that it is NOT playtime but still night.

If her routine has been working fine I wouldn't change it too much, but you could try a slightly earlier wake up in am as samuelsmum suggest. Maybe she needs slightly less sleep as she's getting older?? Could try a very gradual change as not to disturb things too much.

This was also the age we moved our DD into her own room. Wasn't so keen at first as it feels like they grow up soo fast and you don't want to move on from that closeness (also thought it'd be a nightmare getting up to BF) but it actually turned out really well and she was then sleeping better than ever. We were too as we didn't hear every little noise anymore but would still hear if she cried. I think they also get more sensitive to our sleep noises, and will tend to want to play with us if knows we're near.

Btw, can she put in her pacifier by herself yet?

Hope it gets better! Keep us posted!

[Bryony]

I agree with PPs suggestions - either a new skill or slightly too much sleep overall....   I would just leave her to it though if she's awake and playing - leave her till she either goes back to sleep or cries otherwise if you go in she will think it's party time 

[alexast]

Thanks for the good advice. I just wanted to give you some update how it has been going.
First of all my husband moved out of the bedroom for a couple of nights, in case the snoring is disturbing her. She slept through the night immediately. I moved her wake-up time to 07:30 and after a couple of nights my husband moved into the bedroom again. She has been sleeping like an angel since. I guess she just needed a couple of good nights to get back on track. We will keep on waking up between 07:00 and 07:30 trying to have her night not longer than 12 hours and I hope everything is fixed for now … until the next problem comes up 

[Samuel's mum]

That's great

[Vicku]

So glad to hear that! 

[lne]

glad things are going better ! 

i just wanted to post to tell you that DD slept through once we moved her from our room....

now, if only we could get DS to STTN (and he is in his own room!)

- eleni