Need help with night wakings caused by scooting in crib!

[caydensmama]

Hi ladies!  I need help trying to figure out what to do with my daughter who insists on scooting in her crib and waking up in the middle of the night.  She falls asleep fine, but after a couple of hours - and being placed at the bottom of the crib, in a positioner - she scoots herself to the top, bumps into the crib, and wakes herself up.  This happens at different times of the night, but more so in the early morning beginning at 4:00am.  I've been doing wake to sleep the past few nights, but the times she wakes up aren't the same every night.  I don't want her to hurt herself, so I still have the bumper on the crib.  Aside from Velcro  I don't know what do!  And she breaks out of a swaddle if I try to swaddler her anymore!More info is below...thanks for your help!

How old is your child?  5 months tomorrow.
What’s his/her daily routine?  She wakes up around 6:45am / 7:00am and has been on a 4 hour EASY for about 2 months.
What’s nap routine?  Don't really have one, goes down at same time every day.  Takes 3 - 1st one is around 8:45am, 2nd at 12:30pm, + a cat nap at 4:00/4:15pm.
How long are naps?  1st is 45 minutes - 1.5 hours with PU/PD, 2nd one is 1.75 - 2 hours, 3rd is 30 - 45 minutes.
What's bedtime routine? Time?  Start winding down around 6:00pm, bath and in jammies by 6:30pm, bottle at 6:45pm, asleep by 7:00pm.
Do you bottle or breastfed?  Bottle.
How much? or how long?  Any where from 5.5 oz to 7 oz per feeding; 4 daytime bottles + 1 dream feed....average is about 27 - 29 oz per day.
If breastfed.. one side or both?? (at each feed)  N/A.
How many wakes per night?  1 between the time she goes down and around 10:00pm; 3-5 between 3:30am and 6:45/7:00am.
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up?  Fussy and crying.  Not up at all if we move her back down of give her the binky.  (AAHH!!!) 
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry?  We try not to go to her unless she's really crying.
What have you tried to settle?  Moving her down to the bottom of crib, giving binky, tummy drops, tylenol, pu/pd.
What do you do for A time and how long is it? She's fine once she moves down or has her binky again.
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones?  Teething.
Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? (for LO’s under 6 months)  Just started; eats 2 tsp. in the morning.
Do they have a prop? If so what is it?  She has a binky.   
Do they have a lovie?  She has a dighty (sp?)....very soft, gause-like, diaper cloths.

[Sarahboh]

Is the bumper helping or does she still wake up. Ella has moved all over the crib since she was about 12 weeks old and she was still in the swaddle while moving (I have no idea how she could move in it) so I can relate. I put her bumpers back on at 5 months and she was out of the swaddle from 4 months on. The bumper I find atleast prevents her from bumping her head and hurting herself. I know the recommendation is no bumpers until 1 year, but if I didn't have them on I would have more of a problem. She is good with rolling each way and moving all over so I figure her risk of lying with her face into it and not being able to move is nill. She actually looks over the bumper as I leave the room. Hope this helps

[Paulsmama]

Hi, this may be way off base, but we also had a problem with DS crib scooting and waking himself up around 4.5 mos.  After spending a few nights in his room turning him around when he hit the top of the crib, figured out he was scooting/squirming because of gas discomfort (had always been a gassy baby).  The wakeups were at random times in the night, but there was always a period about 5 or 6 hrs after his dreamfeed.  

What we ended up doing was (1) elevating the top of his crib mattress so he slept on a slight incline -- he could not scoot uphill -- and then after dreamfeed replaced him there; (2) DH (night owl) check and reposition if needed right before he went to bed; (3) quit solids until 6 mos (had been on cereal); (4) gas drops in bedtime bottle and dreamfeed bottle.  DS would slide down but usually not all the way to the bottom until wakeup time or close to it.  He was sleeping through or maybe one wakeup (until we started solids again  ).

Hope this helps a little.  Good luck with whatever it is!

[potlaura]

hi it is like you read my mind just posted something similar Tom is driving me mad with moving at night time i dont know how to solve the problem he is so active in the daytime i think his brain must go into overdrive at night too any suggestions welcomed for me too

[caydensmama]

Thanks ladies! 

Sarahboh - I do still have the bumper on the crib.  After I saw what she was doing I knew I couldn't take it off.  It's bad enough that she wakes up crying because she's scooted too far, I can't imagine what she would sound like if the bumper wasn't there!

Paulsmama - That's interesting about your DS and his night wakes.  DD is eating her DF around 10:45/11:00pm and 4:00am is 5 hours after that, so maybe it is gas?  DD hasn't been an overly gassy baby, but I'll try anything now!  I gave her tummy drops and tylenol when she woke up last night so I'll have to give her more tonight and see how she does.  Mind sharing how you elevated the crib mattress?  And how much of the gas drops do you put in DS's bottles?  DD drinks about 6.5 - 7 oz at 6:45pm and 4.5 - 5 oz at her DF.

potlaura - Hopefully some of the answers I get will help you as well.  Please let me know what others have told you and letsl keep each other posted.  Good luck to you!!!

~Tricia

[Cory'stiredmommy]

For the scooting problem... we put rolled up (folded)  receiving blankets underneath his crib sheet. They act like speed bumps and this really worked for us. Cory was scooting up to the top right hand corner of the crib and getting stuck there with his head wedged in the corner. The problem immediately went away!
Maybe it may work for you!:-)

[Paulsmama]

Hi Tricia,
We had one of those old-fashioned cribs with 4 height settings so I could just pop up one end to the next higher setting.  With the new cribs I think you can get a wedge that goes under the mattress.  It might be a good investment since elevating the mattress helps with congestion when they have colds as well.
We found that putting the simethecone drops in his bottle helped because by the time he woke up, well, he was already awake.  You can see them work breaking down any bubbles in the bottle. Also switching to liquid concentrate/RTF formula helped (but expensive!) since the powder we were using was hard to mix without getting lots of bubbles.  There were dosing instructions on the drops based on weight.
That speed bump idea that someone else posted about sounds like a good idea too!