Baby's Sleep: 7 to 8 Months

by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., author of Sleep: The Brazelton Way

By 6 months, babies are often already sleeping for 12 hours a night, waking only briefly a few times. Most are still napping morning and afternoon for an hour or two. But in the coming months, this progress may be thrown off by other new developments.

Creeping

The next peak of night waking is likely to occur along with two new developmental spurts. One is the motor skill of creeping—which opens up the baby's world. At first, she creeps backward and one can see by her frustrated, disappointed-looking face that she already has her own ideas about "getting there." She wants to go forward, to reach farther than her arms will reach. A whole new world seems almost available. With creeping, with an ability to master her body, sitting and turning from one side to another, turning over, a baby's world takes on new meaning. "I can get there and I want to." This will be her big interest even in the middle of the night as soon as she bobs up at the end of a cycle of light (or even deep) sleep. She will want to repeat the moves that she's been practicing all day. Of course her sleep is bound to be interrupted.

New Awareness

The second spurt is in her widening awareness of the world. She is beginning to vocalize as part of her reaching out for important people: "mama" when she's in trouble and "dada" when she wants to play. But she is also approaching the very important stage of stranger awareness. As she becomes aware of differences among people, she will show her new ability to differentiate her mother from her mother's sister, her father from her father's brother. This fine awareness accompanies a spurt in cognitive development. Being left by an important person will be even more frightening than before. Being alone or in the dark at night takes on new meaning.

When she rouses to light sleep at 10 P.M., 2 A.M., or 5 A.M., she will turn over, or scrabble her way into an uncomfortable corner of the bed. She will recognize the frustration of being alone in the dark as something to protest. Once again, she is likely to revert to awakening every 3 to 4 hours at night. Parents will feel that they've lost the game of "teaching her to sleep through." They will go to her, "Why are you waking up? Are you hungry all over again? Are you getting more teeth? Did something scare you?" Naturally, the confused parent will get her up to comfort her and to feed her. Just as naturally, the cycle of unwanted waking is reinforced.

After a few repetitions at night, the parent will begin to realize that this is no longer an isolated event—"We're at it again. What do we do now? Should we let her cry it out? She's too big and too smart to pat her down to sleep again like we did when she was little."

Excerpted from:

Excerpted from Sleep: The Brazelton Way © 2003 by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Joshua D. Sparrow, M.D. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Perseus.

To order this book click here or call 1-800-253-6476.