13 answers

Help with 7 Month Old Sleep "Situation"

My 7 month old daughter has developed a new "habit." She goes down to bed about the same time every night without incident. We put her down with a pacifier after she has nursed and is still awake. She usually falls asleep within 5 minutes. Between 45 minutes and an hour and 15 minutes of falling asleep, she wakes up sobbing, tears and all and seems "rattled." It comes out of nowhere (like no thrashing and whimpering leading up to it). She's a little hard to settle down (refuses more food and the paci, and there aren't any signs of gas), but after about 5 minutes, she calms down, goes back to bed and sleeps through the night without incident. I wondered if it was maybe because the paci fell out, but putting it back in doesn't seem to settle her and she does sleep through the rest of the night without it once it falls out. Any thoughts on what could be causing this or how to stop it? I feel so sad for her because it's pretty much the most upset she gets all day.

What can I do next?

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I don't know if this will make it any easier, but my son did that too (around 10 months). He never would take a pacifier so I don't know what his problem was. It stopped after about 2 weeks though.

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Look into night terrors or ask your pediatrician about them. That's what it sounds like to me. My son experienced his first at about 14 months and my nephew was about 18 months. They are uncommon but are typically genetic. This is not the same as nightmares.

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Hi C.. My LO will do this sometimes - even during nap time if she is overstimulated. Like last night we had company so she did it a few times before she finally went down.
Did you join a new play group? introduce a new toy? get a new DVD? change her wind down routine at all? just some things to consider. I hope it helps!

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My son did the same thing but never used a pacifier. It has to do with sleep cycles, according to my doctor. It takes about 45 to 90 minutes for the baby to go from a light sleep to deep sleep and some babies have a hard to transitioning. I let my son cry it out for about three nights and it broke him of the habit.
Good luck.

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It may just be him "checking in" with you to make sure your're still around. Around 6 months of age babies can start having "separation anxiety." Just a thought.

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Hi C.,
My daughter had bouts of waking up at night screaming and crying like she was in pain. Nothing would calm her down, but about 10 minutes later she would settle back in and go to sleep for the rest of the night. I almost brought her to the hospital one night because I really thought that she was in such pain, she was almost hyperventalating. So, I did some research and found out that babies can have "Night Terrors" and unlike nightmares, they can't be woken up from them. It appears that they are awake (eyes open), but they are still in deep sleep. I guess that it is common and they grow out of it. It happened to my daugher only a handful of times, but (knock on wood) it hasn't reoccurred in over 2 months.
I hope this helps. Good luck!

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It could be night terrors, which are common. Talk to your pedi.
It is usually more common in two year olds this article says but can happen at any age. Here is a link that might be helpful. http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm

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I wounder how really awake she is when you put her in the crib after nursing. Maybe she is more asleep and then when she stirs awake after a sleep cycle or 2 (45 min) she is supprised she is not in your arms and gets scared.

We have been a big fan of the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

I also suggest looking up "night terrors" I don't know what age they can start at.

-S.

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Check that she's not getting any new teeth in, this always seemed to happen with us right around a new cutting.

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