Baby Milestones That May Affect Sleep

You know what one of the best parts about baby milestones is? They almost always seem to happen as soon as you’ve got your little one’s sleep schedule going smoothly! (I’m typing this with sarcasm, obviously.) Baby milestones are so exciting and important, but when they happen, you’ll probably notice their sleep gets disrupted for a bit.

Sleep regressions happen when your little one hits a new growth milestone or learns a new skill, and that’s because they need that extra wake-time to master their new skills (i.e., their ‘growing pains’ are keeping them up). And they sometimes have a difficult time ‘shutting off’ that desire to learn and practice those skills – even in their sleep! 

So, if your little has started to backtrack in their sleep progression – whether it’s skipping or waking from naps too early or waking up throughout the night and not getting back to sleep on their own – it may be because of one of these new milestones. Read on to figure out how to support your little’s through them.

Milestones to Look Out For

Most milestones are going to affect your little’s sleep in one way or another, these six are ones to definitely pay attention to...

Rolling

Your little will typically start to roll between 4-5 months. This is a blessing and a curse when it comes to sleep. With this new skill, initially she might wake up and think it’s tummy time, but once she realizes it’s quite nice, she’ll go back to “sleeping like a baby.” 

First tooth

Teething can definitely affect sleep – especially naps. When my kids were teething, I would give them infant/children’s Tylenol 30 minutes before their sleep period. It helped take the edge off when the teeth were coming in, and that edge (their pain and discomfort) only lasts a day or two. When you see that your little’s gums are red and swollen, that’s when they’re feeling the soreness; as soon as you see their tooth, things should get back to normal. (Remember to check with your pediatrician first before you give your little any medication!)

Babbling

The repetition of consonant-vowel patterns – what we consider babbling – typically occurs between 6-9 months (yes, this is a big gap). At this age, you’ll start to hear your baby string together sounds like bababa, dadada, nanana…then comes the baby jargon (and the most adorable videos!). When your little wakes up in the middle of the night, they might start having some late-night conversations with themselves, which will wake them up even more and make it a bit more challenging to just drift back off to sleep. If your baby is just yammering it up, enjoy the cute conversation they’re having – and take another video from the monitor. They will fall back asleep, and in time, their middle of night self-conversations will go away. 

Separation anxiety (and learning object permanence)

Around 9-12 month, your little is going to learn object permanence, which is when they start to understand that something or someone still exists even though they are not in sight. Object permanence and separation anxiety go hand in hand. So when your little wakes up in the middle of the night, instead of soothing themselves back to sleep, they may realize you are not around and fuss, wanting to be near you. To help with this, during the day practice leaving the room where you are with your little one (of course making sure they can’t get into any “trouble”) and make a statement that you're leaving. For instance, “I’m going to grab my coffee I left in my bathroom.” Then leave the room and come back with a cup. When your little one gets upset, acknowledge that they didn’t like when you left the room. Give them a little hug and let them know you’re always there. Playing peek-a-boo is another one that helps with this.  

Standing

Around 8-10 months, your little is going to pull themself up to stand, which is great...unless they still haven’t mastered the skill of sitting back down. When your little wakes up at night, they may pull themselves up to stand in their crib and then need your help to get back down to go back to sleep. If they’re waking up and crying, your first instinct is to lay them back down, but that’s just going to mean you’ll have to repeatedly lay them down over and over and over. This is definitely a skill you want to practice during the day so it’s not an issue at night!

Dropping a nap

Whenever you drop a nap you’re going to notice a few bumps in your little’s sleep schedule. This happens because your little one probably needs practice staying up a little longer than they’re used to. Whether they’re dropping the third catnap of the day, or the morning nap when going down to one nap, an early bedtime is often needed. Don’t keep bedtime the same as it was with all naps there. As your little one gets older and get more practice staying up longer, they will start to be able to stay up until bedtime and then start sleeping through the night again too. 

Quick Tips

For the most part, sleep regressions due to baby milestones will smooth themselves out, but here are three quick tips to help your little get back to sleeping even faster.

Stay consistent

When your little is learning or experiencing something new it’s best to keep other things (like their sleep schedule and bedtime routine!) as familiar as possible. It’ll help them know that it’s time for sleep and get them right back on track when they’re done learning their new skills.

Practice, practice, practice!

The more you help your little practice their new skills during their awake times, the quicker they’ll master them and everyone can get back to sleep. 

Have patience

I promise you, any sleep disruption that happens because of a milestone will work itself out. However, if it’s been more than a couple weeks and your little is still having trouble sleeping through the night (especially if they were great sleepers before learning their new skill), it may be because of something else – and getting them on track with sleep training can make a world of difference!

If sleep is or all of a sudden becomes a struggle and you need help setting up an appropriate sleep schedule for your little, we can help! Schedule a free 15-minute call here.