Monday, November 16, 2009

good news and bad news

First, the bad: Crying baby at 3am last night. Nooo!

The good (for me): M responded to my 3am elbowing and got up with him. She successfully settled him back down with none of the multi-hour antics he and I went through the night before.

I have a theory. Now that he pulls himself up to standing at every opportunity, I think he's doing this every time he floats toward consciousness, whether he's ready to wake up or not. In the past, he'd probably lay there for a minute and drift back off to sleep, but not anymore.

He has NEVER alerted us that he was awake by crying before. He always seemed to wake up slowly and we'd hear him in his room, babbling contentedly, then go in to find him smiling and happy. Lately, all naps and nighttime sleeps have ended with us hearing loud, unhappy cries and going into find a groggy, grumpy baby standing in his crib. His eyes are barely open half the time. It's like he doesn't really want to be awake yet but his body got him up anyway. When this happens in the middle of the night, he's especially pissed to be awake. Can't say I don't share your frustration, kiddo!

So, will the novelty of pulling up wear off? How do we convince him not to do this in the middle of the night? What a strange (and inconvenient) side-effect of his new-found skill!

3 comments:

N said...

Take this with a grain of salt, since I don't yet have a kid of my own to speak of, but have you tried a swaddle? I know they make them for bigger babies (and kids), and perhaps doing that so that he literally CAN'T pull himself up, just for a few nights/naps, might help break him of the habit?

Alison said...

Totally normal. The novelty will wear off. But at this point, his mind in going 100 mph, even when he is sleeping - and he is practicing his new skllz. :P Once standing gets boring, he'll stop. In the meantime it just stinks. Hang in there!

Anonymous said...

We're having similar issues with our up-to-now-good sleeper. Won't sleep swaddled; can't sleep unswaddled. I feel for you and hope he gets back to his usual sleeping self soon. Being up half the bloody night isn't fun.