Sitting up instead of sleeping

[mrsmew]

Moms of older/mobile babies, did your LOs really struggle with sleeping when they first learned how to sit up on their own/stand/walk/whatever?

Ellie just learned how to sit herself up within the past couple of weeks and now all naptime progress we had made has gone out the window. She was doing so well and now she'll only nap about once a day, sometimes for as short as 30-40 minutes. So she'll be up from 5:30 a.m. until 6-7:00 pm with only one short nap. If I try to get her to nap, she just sits in her crib and cries. Needless to say, she's tired.

I used to always say that was fine if she didn't nap well because she goes down easily at night and always STTN, but now she has started waking up several times at night, too. It seems like she moves around to adjust and ends up sitting up, and then gets mad and frustrated and can't get herself back to laying down. By then she's so pissed she's fully awake and needs help getting to sleep again. There have been a couple nights when it took 90 minutes to get her settled again.

Is there anything I can do to help her? She won't nap in a swing or stroller. I used to be able to lay down with her but even that doesn't work anymore because she just wants to roll around on the bed. She won't nap in the Moby (although she's at least calm in there), and will only nap sometimes in our Beco carrier IF I'm out walking around town (not in the house). Given that "Frankenstorm" is approaching this is not really a feasible solution right now, nor can I really walk around outside for hours every day to get her to sleep.

Other ideas? Or do I just have to wait it out? If your kiddo did this, how long did it take to pass? She just seems so tired.

[jennifer8080]

Nothing worked for us. Just waiting it out. Sitting up and crawling were the worst. Now that she's walking she tries walking across the bed a few times before giving up. It's exhausting.

[sara76]

Omg yes. For her sitting and standing came really close to each other and it was just so much for her to handle. One of my worst days I can remember was when she was completely exhausted but every time I put her down she popped right back up, but she was stuck up there. All I could think of was a jack in the box.
So I sat there and argued with her. For an hour or two I sat in her room for her nap even though she never slept. Every time she stood up I would lay her back down to show her how to do it and that she could do it herself. Over and over. It only took a week or so and she could get herself back down. It was the hardest sleep regression we went through though. Hang in there! She never became a great napper but the nighttime wake ups and freak outs stopped. Until 2 nights ago. Now I don't know what in the world she's doing screaming at midnight. I'm not used to this. For the past 2 nights I've let her get up and play and after an hour she's ready to go back down, but I know that would be terrible if I was working full time, and I know it's a terrible habit to get into so I'm really really hoping it passes soon like everything else.

[amellis2]

Sleep regression is usually tied to some type of developmental milestone and I think the only thing you can do it what PP said, "Wait it out."

[jen812]

Oct 27, 2012 17:01:51 GMT -5 amellis2 said:

Sleep regression is usually tied to some type of developmental milestone and I think the only thing you can do it what PP said, "Wait it out."

We're having this problem too right now as D is rolling over & not liking it once he gets there. It's starting to get better.

[mrsmew]

Oct 27, 2012 21:54:02 GMT -5 jen812 said:

Oct 27, 2012 17:01:51 GMT -5 amellis2 said:

Sleep regression is usually tied to some type of developmental milestone and I think the only thing you can do it what PP said, "Wait it out."

We're having this problem too right now as D is rolling over & not liking it once he gets there. It's starting to get better.

We went through that with the rolling, too. Eventually Ellie just decided it wasn't so awful and was able to fall asleep, and now she actually prefers to sleep on her stomach. Hopefully D figures it out soon, I know that was rough!

[jen812]

Oct 28, 2012 7:28:46 GMT -5 mrsmew said:

Oct 27, 2012 21:54:02 GMT -5 jen812 said:

We're having this problem too right now as D is rolling over & not liking it once he gets there. It's starting to get better.

We went through that with the rolling, too. Eventually Ellie just decided it wasn't so awful and was able to fall asleep, and now she actually prefers to sleep on her stomach. Hopefully D figures it out soon, I know that was rough!

It's funny you described it like that. Last night, D started yelling about being on his stomach. I was watching him on the monitor as I was trying to get DH up (it was his turn). In a fog, DH said he didn't hear him. I looked back at the monitor, D settled down & was sleeping on his stomach.