[fennho]

hi mommis

Recently my 6mth old gal has learned the wonderful skill of somewhat falling back to sleep on her own. I'd still nurse her to sleep at night but I tried Pantley's no-cry sleep solution and it work smewhat...for several nights now, after nursing her when she wakes up at night, she'd go back to sleep even after I put her back down into her cot (she used to protest/cry/fuss if she's not completely out). There was even once I peeped at her (her cot is right next to my bed) that she had slept when I put her back in, but mins later, she woke herself up by thumping too hard on her bed, she was wide awake but slowly put herself back to sleep in abt a minute. Its all well rite? The worrying part is the way she doedoes it, she keeps swinging her head from left to right many many times in a fairly quick motion! I hv two bolster oj each side of her, so she just keep turning her head against both. I hv heard tat VERY young babies do this when they try to sleep I'm not so sure if its normal for a baby her age!! Its pretty alarming to see her keep shaking her head left and right that way (its pretty fast!)..I'm worried sick! Can someone tell me this is normal or should I bring her to have her checked?
Thanks all.

[mscheerful]

normal normal normal. If she is sleeping well and nothing else happening, normal. why she did that I do not know. I always tell my son that probably i will ask him when he gets older for some of the things that he had done when he was baby :). wait till they can sit up and stand, you will ask many more questions like it is normal for them to sit up half way sleep, standing up when the whole world is sleeping, screaming out of sudden when teething, refusing food, milk and oh, when they are sick, mine mine mine....the list goes on and on..... i told myself that when he has any changes that mean he is growing to another phase of his development as a whole person. Just this morning he woke up at 5.30 yelling us to get him my hubby and I thought was was wrong but he was actually hungry but he never did this for a LONG TIME (Sleep through since 16 weeks (b/feeding). Now that he is older (16 months), he can sign and point so well to communicate so we can roughly know what he wants.

Stay free from worry to enjoy motherhood ! :))

[snagito]

It's normal! My two and half year old STILL does this to put himself to sleep so don't worry!

[adahc]

Great news for you!!! How did you do that?

[cool-gaga]

When my little one started doing that I took her to the pedi thinking she got ear infection. But now I'm convinced she does that to settle herself back to sleep. Wow - I didn't realise other babies do the same thing too!

[carang]

both of my kids did it, too

[fennho]

thank god!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL for your responses. I was so scared! On one hand I shud be happy she settles herself, on the other hand she seems to be shaking, no, call that thrashing her head about so vigorously that got me really worried. I DID hear from some frens that they read its normal for young babies to do this when they r trying to sleep...I jus tot they'd outgrow it, so when my 6th mth old gal is still doing it, I freak cos I was worried of head trauma, abnormality etc.

Ms cheerful, carang
how long did this phase last for your kids? Till wat age do they stop shaking their head about?

Adach
I jus tried to follow some tips from the No Cry Sleep Solution book by Elizabeth pantley. Cos I am totally against letting young babies cry it out, or rather I simply couldn't stomach lettting my gal cry! Will pm u if ur interested to share...hey thanks for sharing ur feeding schedules, got ur pm! Will try to reply! :)

[carang]

as a matter of fact, it became one of the first games i played with my son...

we were visiting canada and lying on the bed in my dad's house. my boy started doing it and he just kept on... i started to laugh at him. he stopped and looked at me... then i did it... then he started to laugh, a really big belly laugh! we played on like that, taking turns for about 15 minutes before he got bored...

as my children got older (walking age ~ 10.5 months for both of them) they discovered that if they shake their heads, they can make themselves dizzy... they have made that into a game they play with each other now...

as for doing it to fall asleep, i think they stopped by a year or so... can't really remember as it wasn't anything i ever worried about, sorry.