Why does baby wake within hour of bedtime every night

[Ecoden]

For about a month now baby (4.5 mo) wakes up 30-60 minutes after we put her down. It doesn't matter if I put her to bed or of her dad puts her to bed, she always wakes back up. Most of the time she's pretty easy to put back to sleep but we're just walking on egg shells each night waiting for her to wake back up! Anybody know what causes this?

 

[Button#]

It could be any or no reason. You'll drive yourself mad trying to work it out. You could try going back in just before she would normally wake and try soothing her through it so she doesn't actually wake up and hopefully she might stop doing it.

 

[lucy2013]

My baby did this for what felt like ages! I think it was on and off for a few weeks (could guarantee she'd always wake up when we had friends round!).

She did stop it eventually. We just kept up with it being nighttime - dark, very little interaction, didn't pick her up if necessary etc.

I think my lg struggled to transiton between sleep cycles for a long time. We had 30 min naps up until at least 8 months I think!

Hopefully it'll soon pass.

 

[Ecoden]

I totally feel like I'm sleep obsessing. It's so hard not to though with her sleeping so poorly. She seriously woke up every hour between 7:30pm and 11pm last night. Her naps have always been bad but she's been doing like 20 min naps today. I just always feel like there's something I can do that I'm not doing.

 

[Literati_Love]

Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. She is likely waking up at the end of a sleep cycle and wants to recreate the conditions she went to sleep with. I hope it passes for you...but some are stubborn and will continue this until they fall asleep on their own (mine still hasn't so hourly wake-ups it is).

 

[Button#]

I was the same with my first, he was also a bad sleeper. The best thing I ever did was to stop trying to work out what I could do to make him sleep. I stopped counting how much sleep I'd had and just took each night as it came. I also tried to get out the house each day as that made the tiredness more bearable. It will pass one day and then you'll actually miss night time feeds and cuddles.

 

[Literati_Love]

Thanks. When did your first eventually start sleeping better, and did you do anything different before that happened?

 

[Button#]

16 months he started sttn a couple of times a week. I didn't do anything different but he had dropped his night feed. At 21 months he started sttn consistently. Again I don't think I changed anything in particular but I think the worst of his teething was done by then.