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But he used to sleep all night!

The return of the night-waking baby

Teresa Pitman,

Originally published in Today's Parent July 2011

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Marcia Cunningham says her 13-month-old daughter, Ellie, was a great sleeper from the day she was born. "She was sleeping six hours at night from very early on."

But around five months, all that changed. "Suddenly, she started waking up repeatedly," Cunningham recalls. "She nursed all night long every night for a week — and then her first tooth appeared."

This switching of sleep patterns is common, says Wendy Hall, associate professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia. "Research shows that about 43 percent of babies who were sleeping through the night begin waking up again later." Actually, she adds, it's more complicated than that. All babies wake up in the night — averaging between two to seven times each night. Some put themselves back to sleep, while others need their parents' help. Ellie's need for extra comfort was caused by teething and, once that was past, she started sleeping for longer stretches. But that only lasted until a cold began waking her up at night.

John Marshall, now 18 months old, is another child who has sometimes slept all night and other times woken frequently. At two or three months, says his mother, Merete, "he would go to sleep around eight or nine and sleep for a nice five-hour stretch, then wake up for a quick nurse and cuddle, and back to sleep again."

Then at eight months, he started crawling. "He was very excited by this development," recalls Marshall. "He behaved like someone who had drunk too much coffee — nervous and jumpy at bedtime, and he would jolt awake all night," Marshall recalls.

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