My son just turned one and he has started to sleep sitting up. Is that a thing?
Some background:
He has never been a good sleeper. Last few months, he has been waking up 2-4 times a night, for 2-4 hours a night. This is better than when he was younger. We always made excuses for him: Teething (started at 5 months and no teeth until 10 months), Eczema, cradle cap, reflux, developmental, sickness and just plain spoiled. But I am not sure any of that was really an issue, as we got a good handle on things a few months ago and the sleeping still an issue.
I've tried the cry out method in the past and for one reason or another I gave up soon after. I did it on our older child with success, but it has felt like a losing battle on this guy. I am trying it again now, hoping he is ready for it, but I am slowly giving up again.
This time, I believe he understands what I want from him. That he needs to sleep through the night. And he seems to want to sleep through the night moreso than he has ever before. So he has started to sleep sitting up. He won't complain much and I'm not sure how long he can do it for, because when I notice it, we hold him instead as we don't want him doing that. However, some days we wake up and he is in his crib sleeping sitting up and I am not sure how long he has been that way.
One thing I noticed last night is that he can't find a comfortable sleeping position. I tried for about 2 hours. I tried everything I can think off with a pillow and on a couch (by himself or on top of me) and on a crib. The amazing thing is that he tried all the different positions, and tried to fall asleep but after a few minutes, he would wake up uncomfortable. So he is actually trying hard to fall asleep comfortably. This has not been the case in the past. Before, he would just cry if he wasn't being held and walked to sleep.
So now I am wondering if he is a natural stomach sleeper and we forced him to sleep on his back all this time and so he has never found a way to comfortably sleep. I've tried to put him on his stomach and he refuses, without even trying. I think he is so used to his back sleeping routine that sleeping on his stomach is too radical of a change. Then again, shouldn't sitting up be too radical as well?
I kind of assumed once he got old enough and wanted to sleep that it would happen for him. I think we're at that point, but the sleeping is still not happening and I don't know what else to try.
