Sleep: When the wheels fall off!

So your baby is finally sleeping through the night or at least almost through the night and you are feeling quite proud of yourself and your little one. Life is returning to normal and you almost feel human. Then suddenly one night, you are woken at 12 again and the next night 11pm and 1am. What is going on? What happens when it’s all going well and suddenly the wheels fall off? Meg Faure looks at the typical ages when sleep goes to pot and you can expect to be pacing the midnight halls with your little one.

There are a multitude of reasons why a baby will randomly start waking again at night. Sometimes, your baby has a good reason for suddenly having disrupted sleep: she may be ill or on medication that is causing her to wake at night or she may be in a new sleep environment or on holiday. But there are reasons that are associated with specific ages and at these times you would do well to expect a little disruption to your well deserved sleep:

• The 4-6 month old – Your baby’s sleep has probably has been improving since those newborn days. Close to three months of age, you can expect your baby to be waking once or twice at night. Then just when you think you are getting there, the wheels fall off – she starts waking incrementally earlier and earlier. Your baby does this between four and six months of age because her nutritional needs are changing. Up to this age, milk will be satisfying and but at around this time your baby needs a little more to get her sleeping through the night. There are three possible solutions:
• Your baby needs nutritional support at night, so feed her when she cries if three or more hours have passed. Don’t be tempted to give her a pacifier her because it will impact on sleep later if habits develop
• Give your baby a top up feed of formula or expressed breast milk in the evening. Treat this as a cluster feed just before bedtime
• Start looking at introducing solids. Recent research shows that we do not necessarily have to push through to the 6 month age mark before looking at simple single grain and yellow veggies.
  

• The 7 month old – After 6 months of age a new obstacle presents itself: your baby now needs specific essential fatty acids for brain development. These nutritional essentials are found in the fats in proteins. So now is the time to introduce protein in the form of dairy, meat, beans and chicken to your baby’s diet.

• The 9 month old – Two potential hiccups arise at this age:
• Teething – if your baby is definitely teething at night – and make this decision during day light hours when you can actually see the tooth. If there is evidence of teething, use teething powders or pain killers as necessary. Remember though that we tend to blame teething far too quickly and the reality is that it is rarely teething that is the problem and if so only for two to four nights as the tooth erupts.
• Separation anxiety – as your baby develops object permanence, she may become insecure when you are not around. Spend time playing hide and seek and peek-a-boo games so she gets to know that you exists even if she can’t see you. The Baby Sense Taglet or similar security  blanky helps in this regard.
  

Sleep is the great enigma of the first year. By understanding your little’s one’s needs - you are on the way to a good night sleep.