Is this normal? She starts flapping her arms and pulling her legs up and then throwing them down when she's tired. I've never seen this kind of behavior or heard about it so I'm wondering if I need to speak to the doctor about this. It's not like a seizure or anything, she just starts flailing around before she rolls onto her side and goes to sleep.
My son does the same thing. He is almost 8 months old and has done it since we was very little. It's his way of getting out that last bit of angst & settling down before he snoozes off.
Hi L., don't worry, that is her form of self-soothing. Some kids rock back and forth, some bang their heads, none of it is anything to worry about. Consider yourself lucky that she self-soothes at all.
K.
www.theindependentchild.com
Ever since my son was about 6 months old (he is now 10 months) he has done the same thing. He basically flails himself around the bed for anywhere from 5-30 minutes before he goes to sleep. I can tell he is tired because he often does it with his eyes close but he will literally ricochet around the bed. In between bouts of flailing he will lie on his stomach and rhythmically rock back and forth for 1-2 minutes before resuming his flailing. Evenutually he drifts off to sleep. I have asked the pediatrician about it and she seems to think it is just his way of burning off steam before sleeping. I also remember that when he was younger and I needed to rock him to sleep that it would take some pretty vigorous rocking, just lightly rocking wouldn't do it. I am actually kind of relieved to hear that my son is not the only one.
Hi L.,
Just as other moms have told you, very normal behavior. My now 8 month old still does this but less frequently because he's learned to soothe himself other ways. It sounds like this is working for your little girl because she fall asleep. She too will do it less and less.
It is obviously a part of her self-soothing. As long as crying is not involved, let her be. Sounds like she is just settling down. She has a first-time mom, which can be challenging for a baby. :0)
My daughter is almost 4 mo and she is doing it too. I BF her and get her to sleep only to put her down and have her roll around and fuss and kick. It is frustrating to me because she now wakes herself back up and i have to spend time patting her tummy or even feeding her again to get her back down.
I think a lot of it has to do with her discomfort at teething. She gets real fussy at night and I think this is just part of it. I have also noticed that she is sleeping much lighter for the first few hours and can wake easily. To bad for a while there she was going down hard at 7 and staying that way until i would wake he up for food at 11.
I think this is just part of it and we just have to roll with the punches. I figure it is only a short time that she will be like this since everything she is doing is very short lived. Just as I get the hang of it she changes.
Yea motherhood. I love the changes even if some of them are more difficult than others. Then again they make me sad as they leave because I know that she is growing up and I will never see it again. Strangely I even miss the gas monster that was after her in her first two months or so. My little girl is gowning up so fast before we know it our babies will be off to college :(
T.
My son does that to. He is now 1 years old and continues to do so. He especially does it in the car, so when he hits his climax I know he'll be asleep in minutes. I don't think there is nothing wrong with him, they probably just dislike sleeping. i know my son dislikes naps or sleeping at night, i guess it's their way of fighting it.
good luck,
ceci
Totally normal. My daughter did it, too - she just grew out of it.
it is totally normally! just part of them settling themselves down.
It is just her way of dealing with the feeling of falling asleep, You might try to wrap her but she is ok.
Babies don't know how to put themselves to sleep. That's why there's all those things we can do to trigger their relaxation reflex (rocking/swinging, white noise, breeze, sucking...). What your baby is doing is triggering her relaxation reflex, or self-soothing, and it's great that's she's figured out what works for herself. The things that they come up with usually look pretty funny since they aren't programmed with social filters yet. My son shakes his head "no" real hard, but usually he uses my boob so your lucky.
If she does it while she's screaming, she's just having a fit because she's tired and does not want to go to sleep. My alomst 8 month old does it. Don't worry.
my 5.5 month old has always had a little bit of arm flailing around but now it seems to have gotten worse and he pretty much hits himself over and over (involuntary) before bedtime -- plus, he's a binkie baby and when he does this the binkie comes out and then we're up a crick. Is this the same type of thing you think your kids are experiencing, or different?
