3 month old thrashing around in sleep

[MrsHedgehog]

My LO used to be a good sleeper, waking only once a night to feed then going straight back to sleep. The past week or so however her sleep has really got worse. She'll sleep fine for the first part of the night then wake for a feed around 3 or 4 am. After that she sleeps really restlessly, moving her head from side to side and thrashing her arms and legs about. It seems like she's still asleep though as she has her eyes closed. I've tried nursing her, burping her, changing her nappy, adding/taking away blankets but nothing seems to help. She hates being swaddled so that's not an option. We're co-sleeping so while this is going on I don't get any sleep My main worry though is that LO isn't getting the sleep she needs. Anyone had experience of anything similar?

 

[ainsleyx2006]

My LO is 12 weeks oldand for past few nights I have noticed this also. She has always been a fab sleeper going down at 8.0 and sleepin through until any time between 4.30-7 then back down to approx 9-10am. Now she is waking around 1am-2am and although she is not awake she is really fidgity (arms and legs waving about everywhere) i usually manage to settle her and she will sleep til 4ish when I give feed she goes back down until morning but seems very rerstless.I noticed this when LO started putting hands to mouth and wonder if theres some sort of link.would like to hear other replies

 

[hb1]

teething? Been co-sleeping after big wake up as ollie has been ill and he has recently started teething again - his 8th front tooth and 2 molars -oh joy! And he has been restless recently also.

When we swaddled ollie (also a midnight mover) we had to (I say we - really it was just me) swaddle him after he was asleep- while awake he would not tolerate it - we used a woombie - so was easy to do while he was asleep.....

 

[Periwinkle]

My 12 week old has just started thrashing in her sleep too. Tonight it's been all night. I really don't know what tO do as we cosleep as I simply cannot get her to sleep elsewhere. I'm not able to sleep through this at all and I'm worried about being too tired to drive or look after her safely

My husband's now got up to try and sleep her in the sling, but he's working tomorrow so that's not ideal either.

I hope someOne comes along with a miracle cure.

 

[pillarbox_red]

My LO went through this a week or 2 ago for a few nights, not sure why but it stopped and then he started sleeping through

 

[MrsHedgehog]

The past few nights have been a bit better. Still can't work out why she's doing this though.

 

[Periwinkle]

I read somewhere that they are practising what they've learnt to do with their bodies in their sleep.

I really hope it doesn't last..

 

[Babdi]

I am having the exact same problem. My 14 week old baby doesn't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time then becomes very frustrated, thrashing and crying in his sleep. I have tried a dummy, as I thought maybe he had the feed to sleep association, so was waking up every sleep cycle looking for food, this worked amazing for two nights but now back at square one and the dummy does not calm his thrashing or cryig. Have tried going back to swaddling ( I stopped when my baby was 12 weeks) but that doesn't seem to be working too. I am out of ideas and family are saying he is spoilt. Any other suggestions welcome - he is ebf.

 

[hulahoop09]

My LO is the same we co sleep and she seriously head butts me like 5 times in a row and will throw her arms around and punch me in the eyes etc


xx

 

[Natalie21]

My LO exactly the same last week the arms n legs flying everywhere. She kicked me in the face this morning. Dunno what it is and she is not sleeping at night an hour at a time

 

[MrsHedgehog]

Had another rough night of wriggling last night. Even when I eventually gave in and let her sleep on me she was still turning her head from side to side. On the up side she had a good long nap this morning after being put down AWAKE!!!! Just wish I knew what was causing the restless sleep at night. If anyone finds a solution please let me know x x

 

[sweetpea8]

The practising in her sleep thing makes sense. My lo is really enjoying lifting her feet up at the moment, trying to grab her toes and then kicking them down which thinking about it is what she's doing at night but just in her sleeping bag. Flaming noisy though!!

 

[Jazzbird]

Bump!

Did any of you figure out what this was or how long it lasts? My 8 week old just started this behaviour around the same time she stopped sleeping at all during the day. I'm exhausted and worried. It was like a scene from the exorcist!

 

[Linnypops]

Mine is same ATM. I know her head thrashing is a self soothing mechanism. She does it as soon as I out her to bed and falls asleep. I'm blaming a growth spurt on the restlessness all night

 

[MrsHedgehog]

I'm the OP and my LO is now 3 years old. I'm afraid to say that this was the start of big sleep problems for us and we never managed to figure out what was going on. From 3 months on she woke regularly and now at 3 years old is still a restless sleeper and wakes at least once most nights. I hope that it's just a short phase for you!

 

[Rachie004]

We went through this phase but it passed really quickly.

We have a co-sleeper cot so I found if I was laid next to him, popping my arm around him and just offering some light resistance to his arms as if I was a human swaddle seemed to help. I think he started doing really long stretches of sleep after this phase.

 

[Perplexed]

My dd did this at around the same age. It worried DH and I but she was fine and it has stopped since. at this point though she's started rolling around in her sleep like bigger people do and it doesn't seem to disturb her.

 

[baileybubs]

I have just posted a similar thread about this as my 11 week old has started doing it. I don't remember my dd ever having a phase like this but she was a heavier sleeper than ds seems to be. In the early days when my ds used to have the newborn grunting he would also wake himself doing that. I think that's what's hardest about this new writhing and kicking, if it didn't bother him I might be able to ignore it but he ends up waking himself up screaming and crying every 1-2 hours for the last 5-6 days now! I was wondering if it was wind but I notice my ds has also just started sucking his hands so maybe it comes with awareness of their limbs and what they can do with them! I just hope it's a phase that settles soon.
Anyone any other tips on how to relax them so they don't get so distressed though? I'm also afraid he'll wake dd too with his cries!