Ah. We just discovered that we've been applying the wrong method to Isolde's sleeping problems. She's a good sleeper (with a couple of periods of irregular sleep - ref my previous
posts) so she doesn't have a problem as such but she cries out in her sleep from time to time, usually in the first few hours of sleep.
Since she was born she has, with some exceptions, followed the average baby's sleep development from longer and longer night from 3-4 hours up to 9 hours now. Something she's been doing from the beginning though is to cry/scream after a few hours' of sleep (sometimes already after 45 min-1 hour). We don't know why she cries but have figured that she's dreaming or that she has a tummy ache (sometimes she burps). It's like she's still (sort of) asleep as she usually doesn't open her eyes. We've always dealt with it by picking her up and comforting her and usually she's gone back to sleep after everything from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.
In the last few days she's been crying more often - we think the reason may be teeth on the way or the new food regime or a normal growth or development spurt - and we've had two nights with very interrupted sleep for all three of us, with us picking her up every hour or so leading eventually to her waking up completely.
So we started googling sleep development, patterns and methods, and turns out that we've probably been too quick to pick her up. Consequently we've been disturbing her sleep. According to the "expertise" (that seems predominant) the advice is to wait a little and listen to what sort of cry it is: is it regular or irregular, is it becoming louder and louder? You only need to go in if it's regular and increasing. And if you go in, don't pick her up right away but first put a hand on her chest to let her know you're there; if that doesn't work, caress her cheek and head; and if that fails, pick her up. You can also shush-pat her bum and back ("buffa"). (These methods are equally useful for bed and sleeping routine at day or night and we've been using variants of them on Isolde since she was 2-3 months and she's pretty good at falling asleep by herself and also putting herself back to sleep if she wakes up (happy) in the middle of the night. We've concentrated on making her bed a place where she feels comfortable and secure, so she knows where she is and that she's safe when she wakes up either during a daytime nap or in the middle of the night.)
Thus last night we applied this to her crying bouts and we had instant success! She slept from 9 pm to 5 am again and then again until 6:15 when she decided it was morning. Hopefully it wasn't a one-time thing - might have to eat my words tomorrow! However so far tonight - it's almost midnight when I write this - it's working. Why we have rushed to her so quickly before is that she very seldom cries during the day when she's awake so we're not used to loud cries. But admittedly, these crying bouts have not been very long or serious. We've just assumed we had to help her through them. But turns out she can deal with it by herself and it's much better for her (and for us too of course) if her sleep doesn't get too interrupted.
P.S. I just realised I haven't replied to your comments in my previous sleep posts! Will do so soon!
-Via Isoldes padda
Location:Södertälje, Sweden
