12 Unexpected reasons why your baby may be waking after going down to bed

Babies wake for very many reasons. The usual on the list remain such as baby’s room being too hot/too cold, illness, teething, hunger and developmental. But once we get past those there are a few that are often missed or not thought about a whole lot.

1. Light from the street streaming into your baby’s room:
I once worked with a mum, and in her six-month-old little boy’s room, a bright street light shone straight through the gap of his blinds, directly into his eye line. She was hesitant to black out the window because she thought he should be able to sleep anywhere, through anything, which is unrealistic and not fair on the baby. Eventually, she did change her mind – sleep deprivation will do that to you! Use good blackout blinds to solve this problem.

2.Light streaming in from under and around edges of your baby’s door from rest of house:
I use a spongy black tape to seal the gaps between the door and door frame in my little girl’s room and use a rolled up blanket at the foot of the door to stop any light from downstairs and the passage coming through her door.

3.Bothersome noise: Eg noisy neighbours, loud music or tv playing within hearing distance of baby’s room. Noise such as cars, trains and planes can also wake a baby, so if you live near a busy road, tube, rail line or flight path, bear it in mind that this can disturb your baby and play white noise to counter balance and mask inside/outside sounds.

4.Disturbing noise: Such as a dripping drain, the ticking of your boiler or heating system or the on/off of your water pump as you open and close a tap. The intrusive noise of your dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer. Our washing machine and tumble dryer are kept in the garage, and my little girl’s room is directly above it. I can’t do the laundry while she sleeps because it wakes her up every time, I have to find other times in the day to do it where it doesn’t disturb her sleep.

5.Baby’s missing you: Babies thrive when they are loved, cared for and nurtured. They crave human connection and contact, and it’s only normal that your baby still looks for your connection and attention at night, especially if you spend time away from them during the day and they want to reconnect.

6.Baby’s room is not in alignment with Feng Shui principals promoting optimum sleep: May sound ‘woo-woo’ to some, but trust me, this works, and the energy of your baby’s room is vital in ensuring good sleep. Get in touch with Feng Shui Specialist and Author Denise O’Dwyer here.

7.Baby is overtired from the day or going to bed too late: Once a baby becomes overtired, it is much harder for them to fall asleep, enter into a deep sleep and stay asleep. Follow your baby’s sleep cues and get baby to sleep on time before they reach the overtired mark.

8.Baby is going to bed too early and taking bedtime as a nap: Some babies no matter how tired they are don’t do well having an early bedtime, (6:30 pm) they prefer to go to bed later (8 pm). If putting them down too early, they wake an hour or 2 later ready to play. It’s best to fit in a late afternoon nap for these babies and put them to bed later rather than trying to stretch them all the way through the late afternoon and put them to bed early.

9.Bedding/clothing or sleeping bag annoying baby: Cut off all pyjama tags and check for any rough corners, smooth over the mattress to make sure no small bits fell onto it over the day such as crumbs that snuck into your baby’s nappy and made their way onto their bed at nap time. Invest in some gorgeous bedding and sleeping bags. My favourite are from Bubbaroo. There is nothing more glorious than comfortable bedding, this applies to your baby too.

10.Wet nappy: Double check your little one’s nappy is on comfortably. I like Pampers Pull-Ups, they are great because you can be certain you haven’t made his/her nappy too tight or left it too loose. Also, they are easy to double up preventing leaking nappies which can also wake a baby up.

11.Smell: Have you ever been into your baby’s room at night and thought, ‘Wow, I must change that bin tomorrow and air this room out!)? Imagine your room smelled like that all night long? I recommend investing in an air purifier; they are worth their weight in gold.

12. WI-FI is interfering with your child’s sleep: Place baby monitor as far away as possible from your baby, if possible switch WI-FI off at night. Make sure WI-FI routers are not in the bedroom. Or above, below or in the next adjacent rooms. This also applies to boosters. Switch iPads (or any other devices) playing white noise etc. in your baby’s room to flight mode. Limit children to maximum 1 hour per day screen time and keep tablet minimum 20mm away from their bodies. Consider shielding your little one’s room from RF and MW radiation. David B Sosa of VivaZing is your man for this one.

To find out how I can help get your little one sleeping well, book a free call with me here or visit happybabyandme.com

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You can also download my free eBook, ‘7 Reasons why your baby may not be sleeping’ here.