thread: Crying and crawling in her sleep?

  1. #1
    2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.

    May 2007
    Brisbane
    5,310

    Question Crying and crawling in her sleep?

    Jazz is 14.5 months, and her sleep has and is still quite good, but she's started crying and crawling in her sleep (not at the same time though).

    She cries... or well its more like whinging really... while she's asleep. And sometimes she gets up and crawls around while she's asleep. It's a real pain as when she crawls she wakes herself by hitting the bars on her cot. And when she cries one of us gets up to check on her, and she's laying in her cot asleep. it's not just quiet whingey noises, its really loud full-on, a bit like a tired or a pain whinge... Even though she is asleep, I am not sure whether to leave her or try to calm her down. If I pat her, rock hre etc, she usually wakes up (UNLESS we're cosleeping and she'll calm down by snuggling in close to us).

    We've taken to co-sleeping again, one of us bunkers down with her a mattress on the lounge room floor (I'm too worried about her crawling off our bed!). This seems to help, as she whinges/cries less when she can curl right up next to us, she also can't run into cot bars and often she'll crawl back onto the mattress and go back to sleep.

    Has anyone had this happen in their little ones? To co-sleeping isn't a huge deal, except the mattress isn't comfy and whoever sleeps with her ends up with a fairly terrible nights sleep. As much as I'd love to take our bed down and just put our normal mattress on the floor, its just not feasible.

    Lasdt night Shel was up with her, Jazz woke at 10pm, went back to sleep at about 11ish, but cried every hours or so in her sleep. She wasn't awake until 5am, but Shel spent most of the night making sure she was actually asleep. I had a similar night with Jazz on Tuesday night. It's realy been since she got back from holiday that it has become such a huge thing. Before she'd only do it sometimes, maybe twice a week she's cry in her sleep and actually be asleep. Now its multiple times a night...?

    Is it normal for babies to cry/whinge in their sleep. As I said, its not the usual quiet whinge she has done, its pretty full-on. To the point where I would put money on that she is standing up in her cot ready to break into a tantrum, only to walk in and find she's laying down asleep and fairly content otherwise. Could it be nightmares?

    And is the crawling normal (I suspect it is?) and what can we do? There's not much we can do I guess, cot bumpers would stop her hurting herself but I doubt it would stop her from waking herself up...?

  2. #2
    Registered User

    May 2008
    where the V8's roar
    1,855

    you would think at this age that they would be pass all this wouldn't you I wonder if she is going through a development growth or is teething DS seems to be really restless when he is going through them and will actually wake up if I try and comfort him too much I have learnt to just let him go and guide him so he doesn't hurt himself. For instance while he doesn't do the full on blown crying thing he will toss and turn and end up sleeping at my feet (we also co-sleep from the first wakeup) He does whinge but not full on cry.

    DS also does the crawling thing and hit's his head on the cot, I really have to make sure his feet touch the end of the cot so he doesn't wake so early. Can you put your bed against a wall? the reason I ask this is we have a king single that DS and I share, it is up against the wall and I have stuffed one of those body pillows down the side with a normal pillow so with his thrashing there is no way he is going to get jammed in there. I also have another pillow up against the bed head so he can't bump his head and about your DD's age we introduced a really soft normal sized pillow you can get from BigW (I think they are called 'first pillow's or something)

    not everynight is like it but we seem to have runs....

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Jun 2008
    in the eye of a toddler tornado
    2,450

    Beth is doing this too ATM, not sure what it's about. We have taken her cot mattress out and put it on the floor, so she doesn't hit the cot bars, although sometimes she goes off the side of the mattress or is sitting up when I get to her. Since we put the mattress on the floor she is down to one wake up most nights. But the last few days she has been crying in her sleep too, even in the car when I can see she is out like a light. Think it might be teething, she has the ones next to the eye teeth coming through, have you checked Jazz for new chompers?

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Mar 2008
    North Northcote
    8,065

    DD did and does this still.

    i have put it in the 'completely normal' basket...

    at times i even find her fully asleep, complaining and STANDING UP.

    all it takes from our side is usually a rearrange in the bed (so for example, i pull her back to the middle of the bed...cause she has crawled all whacko over the place) and put her sheets back up.

    for the crying thing, i do the same, and sometimes i gently say her name and put a soft but firm pressure on her back/belly and leave.

    for the most part we now ignore it and find that once that dream cycle has ended she is back to the land of zzzzzzzzzz.

    HTH babe

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Jan 2009
    hiding under my desk!
    1,432

    i once read some where this is very typical when they have a developmental change(walking usually),
    i too would put it the one of those things basket.
    DS(4y) has recently just started talking in his sleep and i know he gets that from me but it is weird that it has happened just suddenly