Long, strange NW: Did I do it right?

[lily_layne]

Last night my LO (7 months) had a long and unusual NW and I'm not sure if I handled it correctly.  Occasionally she STTN but usually she wakes once, anytime between 12 and 5, to eat.  Last night, she woke up crying hard at 12:20.  DH went in because he was still awake (this was a rare treat that he handled a NW ) and patted her back for 20 minutes.  She went back to sleep but was up crying again right away so I fed her.  I put her down at 1, she cried a few times and I think she went to sleep but then she cried out at 1:15, 1:30, and 1:45.  Each time she cried for less than a minute so I didn't go to her.  I'm not sure if she was sleeping in between the cries or not.  Finally, at 1:45 even though she wasn't crying I went in and rubbed her back.  She was at the end of her crib when I went in.  She kept trying to roll and pull herself onto her knees but she finally fell into a deep sleep around 2.

Was it ok that I left her or should I have gone in sooner?  She did sleep more than usual during the day but I don't think this was a UT wake-up because she usually babbles during those (but please tell me I'm wrong if you've had a similar wake-up that was UT).  Could it be pain?  Or is she practicing crawling in her sleep?

[Erin M]

It could be anything, really (helpful, I know ) -- could be her practicing crawling, could be some sort of discomfort (teething, sickness, etc), could be that something was a little different yesterday/last night.  It sounds like you handled it well -- I would always do the same thing when I had those random cries -- see if they settled at all on their own -- and then sometimes I'd eventually end up in their (and sometimes they'd go back to sleep on their own).  I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes a habit (in which case, I'd probably look at A time first) -- but my guess is it either won't happen again or you'll figure out the cause for it soon. 

[lily_layne]

Thanks for letting me know that it's ok to wait before going in there.  She STTN the night last night so I'm hoping it was a one-time thing.

[Erin M]

Great!  I think with the random cries, you almost disturb them more when you go in -- it ends up taking them longer to settle in the end that way sometimes. 

[lily_layne]

That's good to know.  Now the trick is to remember that in the MOTN!

[Erin M]

Ha!  It's so hard to remember anything in the MOTN!