Author Topic: Night wakings becoming regular  (Read 979 times)

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Offline KellyC

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Night wakings becoming regular
« on: December 28, 2005, 11:24:21 am »
Hi

My almost 4 month old has always been a fantastic night sleeper.  Since 12 weeks his daytime naps have been terrible but we've spent 4 weeks doing pat/shush and PU/PD and he's now getting plenty of sleep during the day and goes down day and night with no or little intervention.

The last few days DS has been waking during the night a couple of times.  I'm pretty sure he's not hungry.  I don't go to him straight away and in the past he would fall back to sleep on his own but now the fussing always escalates into a cry.  When I go to him I only have to pat him on the back and shield his eyes for 30 seconds or so or pick him up once and put him back down and he goes back to sleep.  Any ideas?  I've wondered whether because we've taught him to go to sleep on his side sucking his fingers he can't go back to sleep when he wakes up on his back and can't get hold of his fingers.  Does this sound likely?  I think I'm going to try unswaddling him tonight (he only has one arm swaddled) as during the day when he's sucking his fingers he uses the other hand to hold his hand to his mouth.  Maybe he'd also be able to turn onto his side himself.  He's waking up lots anyway so I guess I may as well give it a go!  The other thing is that when I get to him in the night (he sleeps beside me) he's always looking up, as if he's checking I'll come if he calls.  Is that possible or a little sophisticated for a 4 month old?!  I'm thinking of moving to a 4 hour EASY but struggling to keep him awake long enough yet.  Could he be getting too much sleep during the day?

Thanks
Kelly x
Mummy to Zander (2005), Nathaniel (2007) and Caleb (2009)


Offline Katet

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Night wakings becoming regular
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2006, 22:57:37 pm »
the fact that he is starting to move around & waking up is a good indication it is time to remove the swaddle, so he starts to have more mobility to find his own "comfortable" sleeping position

Although I think part of the problem is that at 4mo they are getting really alert & because you are right next to him, he can sense you & in a light sleep phase may become more awake because he sees you, rather than "drifting off back to sleep"... it is a well documented fact tha co-sleeping babies DO wake more often & that goes for having the baby right next to you in a crib... can you move it further away/ hang a blanket over the side? so that he "can't see you" at night.
HTH
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05