# Extreme Hyperactivity and Sleep-Resistance instead of bedtime in 8 month old



## MsZelda

Help! My 8 mo dd, who has never been a great sleeper, seems to be going through something quite extraordinary. For the last couple of weeks, despite our consistent bedtime routine, she has been extremely hyperactive starting at about 6pm and lasting, some nights, until around 11pm! She has always woken up regularly throughout the night (sometimes every 1-2 hours), but now she can't even fall asleep for her first shift. Instead, she gets CRAZY energetic: kicking, squealing, flailing about, sometimes happy & laughing, sometimes grouchy and whiny. Nursing to sleep doesn't work anymore; she finishes her feed and then kicks and squeals and wants to rock / arch her back. We've been walking her around outside for hours or trying to nurse her down every hour until she finally flakes, usually way after we are totally exhausted.

Have any of you experienced this crazy hyperactivity? My gut tells me it's developmental, but I don't know how to help her sleep. She is teething (endlessly), fighting off a cold, and prob. on the verge of crawling. Will this pass? How can I help ease this transition?

Our bedtime routine is:
6ish jumping in jumper, floor time, activity
dinner, quiet kitchen time
floor time, quiet toys
7ish diaper change, soft music
quiet books, soft music
lie down to nurse, white noise of ocean sounds
7-8ish - used to be fall asleep, but no more!

(she always wakes up a lot, to nurse and then back to sleep - we cosleep)

Any and all suggestions will be very appreciated.


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## littlelentils

i know how you are feeling. my 19 month old has always been great at sleeping through the night but getting her to sleep is a nightmare! she gets super hyper at bedtime and she climbs me like a monkey nursing for 2 hours before she finally falls asleep at 10ish.

i read the no cry sleep solution and it said that babies/infants/toddlers tend to get a second wind of energy IF they arent asleep before the first sleepy cues. the second wind usually lasts two hours i think. for my daughter her first sleepy cues are 8 but with this time change it is near impossible to get her in bed. the sun is still out at that time!

bumping this for other responses....


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## mckennasmomma

A couple things jump to mind:
-crawling! This made my dd really crazy for a couple weeks
-solids...with the introduction of solids, can you relate her energy levels with a new food? often reactions are behavioral in nature.
-"as soon as you've got it figured out, they go and change it on you". seriously, everything is a phase with babies and nurturing her through this very difficult phase is often the best you can do


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## Megan73

I'd try an earlier bedtime.
My 10-month-old gets like this if we go out for dinner or something and don't start his last nursing at his usual time of 7 p.m.


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## MsZelda

another night ... another fight
still fighting sleep - kicking, bucking, staring wide-eyed at me while nursing.
poor lil thing cannot sleep


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## almadianna

this is normal. my now 10 month old went through al awful regression at 8-9 months and i remmeber my first doing it too. it is a real serious growing time for them. it does end... but it isnt fun.


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## MsZelda

so .. what is your opinion on the best way to get through this time? We've been trying to keep up our usual tricks (bring her up to nurse her down every hour, take her for long walks in the carrier) ... but it is getting frustrating because nothing works for more than a few minutes. Last night my husband returned at 9:30 pm after an hour walk in the rain with a sleeping DD whose eyes opened the second she got in the house!
I'm tempted just to keep her up with us and stop bothering to get her down until it's late and we're ready to crash too, but I'm afraid of setting a bad pattern by keeping her up in the LR late at night.
what do you think?
k


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## almadianna

i actually do exactly that. i let my kids stay up until they are tired and fall asleep. not all kids really need a ton of hours of sleep... neither of mine do. last night they fell asleep at 10:30, other times it is 9, or 9:30. i dont see how this is a bad pattern...


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## meemee

that's the time i discovered my dd needed an outside play time or social stimulation to fall asleep. from 8 to 10 month we were in asia visiting my mom and people constantly visited till my dd went to sleep at her natural time - 10 - 11 pm. she just fell asleep. never had a problem.

once i came back home even at midnight she was struggling. totally hyper. i still recall that one day when exhausted me had a brainwave. instead of lying in bed with a child singing and playing with her toes or trying to crawl off the bed i took her outside to the stairs. seh continuously climbed stairs for an hour. aaaah saved my life. from then on i started either the park or the library. at 10 months she would spend a couple fo hours crawlign up 4 floors of steps up and down at least twice. and then go home to do the bedtime and sleep.

today at 6 she still needs outside play in the evening.


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