Baby practising crawling at night!

[ecwinters]

Hello again!
My DS has finally (at just 9 months) managed the 3-2 transition and for about 2 or 3 weeks we had lovely 2 nap days and his night sleep wasn't too bad either. 

However...last night I woke to hear him cry out and couldn't see him anywhere on the monitor!  After I dashed into his room, I found him down the side of the sleepyhead (between the sleepyhead and the side of the cot).  He's been in a sleepyhead grande since he was 6 months old and was previously in a 'normal' sleepyhead - and loved them both.  I couldn't work out how he'd got there, so I resettled him and watched...and a few minutes later he rolled over (which I didn't know he could do in the sleepyhead) and crawled off down the cot! 

I called DH and we removed the sleepyhead, made up the cot, and resettled DS!!  For the next couple of hours we watched on the monitor as he lay there for a bit dozing, then rolled over and crawled around his cot.  He didn't cry, but eventually I just went in every time he did this and resettled him and about 2:30am he gave up and slept until the morning.

I've read that there's a sleep regression around this time, involving becoming more mobile so am 'happy' to sit it out, but I wondered a) how long it might last! and b) what strategies people have found successful in helping their baby get enough sleep during this regression.  He's been quite grumpy today due to the very long night waking (which is unusual for him) so it isn't fun for him at all.  My instinct is to go in after a few minutes and resettle him (i.e. lie him back down) - if I leave him I'm not sure he 'knows' how to lie back down again!!!  But I know he needs to learn how to sort it out himself.  He's an independent sleeper but sometimes struggles to go back down again at night if he wakes up, so needs a stroke on the head or two! 

Any thoughts would be most welcome.  Thanks very much. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Is he crawling during his A time? I would focus on getting him practicing that skill during his waking hours more as it will help him not need to practice at night! If he is not upset and calling out/crying tbh I am not sure I would go in right away without giving him a chance to settle on his own.

[*Liz*]

We had a couple of days of chaos when I took DS2 out the sleepyhead. Its a LOT more space. Def safest to remove it if he is rolling and getting down the side at it would be a suffocation risk  .

I would only go in and resettle if he is crying, otherwise leave him be.

Once my DS2 sorted himself out, he slept far better alone than in the sleepyhead. He liked his space  .

[ecwinters]

Hello - sorry for the delay, Christmas and a lack of internet connection got in the way.

Weirdly, he's been crawling for about a month now, but this was the first time he'd 'escaped' from the sleepyhead, or in fact even rolled over in it - or we'd have got rid of it before.  He gets lots of crawling time I think - we do go out and about a bit but I try and limit time in cars/buggies as much as possible.  All he wants t do at the moment is crawl and pull himself up to standing on anything he can

It doesn't appear to have made his sleep worse - apart from the first day or so.  He's sleeping a lot more spread out, which I think he likes, and I find him in random positions in the cot!  During the day it's fine, but we're still getting night time crawling/shuffling forward on his tummy/sitting up!  However, I've tried leaving him and he is trying now to settle on his own even though he doesn't normally manage it.  It's tempting to just go in and lie him down on his back - and then he'll go back off to sleep.  Once he gets on his front, he doesn't appear to be able to roll over onto his back again - I'm not sure he can actually do this although I'd be surprised if he couldn't.  I will try and work at this during the day.

[*Liz*]

You are doing the right thing by giving him the time though  . A baby that can crawl and pull to stand can certainly roll from tummy to back, if they have a little think and figure it out  .

Silly babies  .

My DS mainly side or tummy sleeps since coming out the sleepyhead.

[ecwinters]

Yes, silly baby!  We've had a few nights of him trying to settle on his tummy once he'd crawled - managing it for a bit - and then waking up and sitting up!  However, last night he was doing the usual crawling to the top of his cot, but must have flipped over somehow as when I woke later on he was sleeping on his back.  So hopefully he'll carry on figuring it out.  I wish I could just go to sleep and leave him to it as he doesn't cry, just babbles and whimpers sometimes when he's trying to find a comfy position.  He's getting another tooth through which probably isn't helping him though!

Is it normal for them to wake at night so much?!  Because he's just gone to 2 naps we've been doing EBT but I think he's starting to rebel a bit against this - last night he played around for 20-25 minutes before going to sleep, which is a long time for him as he's usually asleep within 5-10 minutes.  He seems to spend half his night crawling and half sleeping at the moment!!!

[*Liz*]

How old is he?

9 months? If he is on 2 naps I doubt he needs an ebt really. Being a bit UT may be exacerbating things for you.

What does your day roughly look like?

My 3rd baby is pretty high sleep needs, but would still have been very firmly on 2 naps with no need for ebt at that age. My first and second would have both had one short and one longer nap by then.

Just wondering if he is trying to give himself a bit of extra A time. Still could be developmental though.

[ecwinters]

He's 9 months.  Actually, he'll be 10 months on the 23rd of this month - so 9 months and a bit

We only got to 2 naps at around 8 months and it was a struggle.  Getting 2 decent length naps from DS seemed impossible - but once we dropped the catnap he actually started to lengthen them on his own.  We still have days with 1 short nap, and sometimes 2, but he's a LOT better!  We tried an EBT because nights used to be dreadful, with multiple night wakings - most of them in the first half of the night but he could wake up to 8 times throughout the night.  I thought he was OT.  Also, we still have a short A time at the start and end of the day so it's hard to get through a 12 hour day - mostly now it's 11.5 hours.  But I agree - I think he may well now be UT now his nights are better and he's napping better in the day.  We still have wake ups in the evening though - but I think they may be habitual rather than OT perhaps?  He has one feed at night - if he wakes before 3 hours is up then I resettle him but after that he'll get a feed.  Then nothing until his morning feed and he seems happy with that.  Actually I'm wondering about cutting out that feed fairly soon as I'm pretty convinced it's comfort feeding but I'll pop over to the breastfeeding forum for some advice there!

Yesterday was:

Get up-6:15 (he nearly always wakes before I get him up.  6am is the earliest we start our day but I set my alarm for 6:15 in case I don't hear him.  He rarely cries, just plays!)
6:30-feed
7:30-breakfast
Sleep: 9:00-9:55

Awake-9:55
11:00-feed
12:15-Lunch
Sleep: 13:15-14:40

Awake-14:40
15:00-feed
16:30-Tea
17:20-feed
17:45-in cot but just played around crawling etc.
18:10-asleep
20:15-resettle (cried)
21:20-feed
23:00-resettle (was crawling and then got stuck!)
2:00/3:00-another resettle because of crawling but can't remember exactly what time this was

I know we need to push the first nap out - we are going to try 9:15.  I'm just worried about messing up his daytime naps as it took AGES to get a decent 1st nap. But I think he's probably making up for night sleep going down so early - sometimes he crashes out as soon as I put him in the cot.  I always wake him up after 1 hour and 10 minutes or I don't get a decent 2nd nap though.