Shhhhhh…. Mommy will be SUPER sad if I jinx it, but I’ve been sleeping *much* better recently!

I had gotten into a routine of going to bed at about 8:00pm and then getting up for the day at around 6:00am, with one or two wake-ups in between. Believe it or not, that had been a MAJOR improvement over getting up 3 or 4 times a night and *still* insisting that morning time started at 4:00am. I also was getting pretty good at going to bed “drowsy but awake.’ Just as Mommy was getting used to a little more rest, my sleep schedule went haywire (and there was NO putting me down unless I was deep in a REM cycle!) – which sent her off to Google; is there such a thing as the 8-9 month wakeful? Turns out, there is!

Apparently, babies my age should be getting 11.5 to 15 hours a sleep a day. Let’s just say 15 hours is ridiculous – Mommy would be *super* happy if I consistently hit the lower end of that range. (There were some days recently that I didn’t even hit EIGHT.) What really made Mommy upset, though, was that it seemed like I forgot how to sleep all of a sudden! What a relief to find out that it’s normal!

Babies who were great sleepers may suddenly start waking up at night or have difficulty falling asleep between 6 and 12 months of age. Why? Sleep disturbances often go hand-in-hand with reaching major milestones in cognitive and motor development and with separation anxiety.

At 6 to 9 months, your baby may be learning to sit up, crawl, or possibly even cruise or walk — quite a list of achievements! Not surprisingly, he may not want to stop practicing his new skills at bedtime and may get so excited that he’ll wake up to try sitting up just one more time.

Separation anxiety could also be the cause of your baby’s wake-up calls. Waking up and finding you not there may cause some distress. But he’ll probably calm down as soon as you enter the room and greet him.

– Baby Center