Last night was a rather rough night for all of us sleep-wise. It all started when Peanut Butter Cup would fall asleep in my arms, but then would wake up and start crying every time I'd put him down in his crib. I tried rubbing his back, singing to him, turning on one of the baby toys attached to his crib. . .nothing that usually works was working last night. He would just cry and cry and hold up his arms for me to pick him up. After the first three failed attempts I started to wonder if maybe he is either going through a growth spurt or is begin to seriously teethe (I'm still not any more enlightened as to the cause for his fussiness as of this morning). In the hopes that something would work I decided to give him a couple of homeopathic teething tablets to see if they would help. . .interestingly enough, it was after that when he fell asleep and stayed asleep when I put him down again.
Except for one nearly three hour stretch, he did the same thing as the night before and woke up once each hour, which made for very little sleep for all of us. Because he's been waking up so frequently the past couple of nights we are really wondering if he is going through a growth spurt. Though he seems to be on the verge of separation anxiety currently -- does that manifest itself at night as well, or is that usually just something that occurs during the day when he is with new people? I'm not sure, so if anyone has any thoughts, please feel free to share. :-)
With the upcoming move I keep wondering how we are going to swing not having his crib for an unknown amount of time. Co-sleeping is out of the question for us (though nights like last night definitely make it tempting!). We were thinking of him possibly sleeping in his playpen because I know a lot of other couples have done that, but the problem is that he doesn't associate his playpen with sleep at all, and doesn't usually want to stay in it for very long. :-/ So, I'm a bit concerned about how that would work. Any ideas?
It could very well be teething, my little boy has slept through the night since he was 6 months old. However, when he teethes is when he starts getting up in the night.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of separation anxiety manifesting at night…especially if it's the same routine as you've always done. I would think teething is probably the culprit. How has he done the past few days?
ReplyDeleteDo you guys use a pack-n-play for his playpen, or do you have just a playpen? Because if it's not a pack-n-play, you could try that for the move for awhile. Maybe putting the same bumper you use for his crib around it somehow and attaching the same mobiles so it's familiar stuff that he's used to going to sleep with…that might help him figure out it's to sleep in and not play in, even though it's not exactly what he's been trained to expect. You could also see if you could figure out a way to rig it up higher, so he wouldn't be so close to the floor and it would be more like his crib than his playpen. Or, it wouldn't be ideal, but does he sleep well in his car seat? If you knew it would only be for a few weeks, that might work. But any longer than that that could be bad. :-) Whatever you do, stay strong on the no co-sleeping thing! That's not a good idea for baby or parents, and it's really hard to break once you start…
Thanks again for all of the food! We are well stocked now :-)