When we put Violet down for the night, her new thing is to pick up both of her legs and slam them down onto the mattress. She’ll do this again and again until she falls asleep. When she stirs in the night, she’ll do it some more...Slam! Slam!...until she falls back to sleep. During nap time – same story. Linda worries that this is her being ornery; Violet expressing her displeasure at the notion of “time for bed”, but she does it on the nights when she is truly upset at bedtime and she does it on the nights when she goes down easy. So, I’m not sure what the behavior is all about. But I’m curious, and I have to wonder, even if it was her being crabby, what can we do to discourage it? Hog tie her at bedtime?
151 days old
I'd say just let her do it.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I read that may help:
1. When babies learn they can do something new, they want to "practice" as much as possible. Sometimes it interferes with their sleep, because if they wake up in the middle of the night, they practice instead of going back to sleep. (Macie's big practice thing was screeching. Leg slamming is MUCH BETTER!)
2. When babies learn they can control something and/or make noise, they keep doing it until they get bored. I'd give it another week. It'll probably pass!
Also, she knows it gets your attention. What's better than mom or dad's attention? Nothing!
ReplyDeleteAmy - thanks for the advice! It doesn't seem to interfere with her sleep, so we've been letting her do it. And a little searching on the web showed me that it's a common behavior. Something disturbing I found, though, is that some kids slam their heads (!) down instead of their feet. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteMy mom always tells the story of my older sister doing the same thing as a baby after she had casts placed on both legs to correct for her "pigeon toes". My sister doesn't do it any more; so that's good news!
ReplyDeleteDid she slam her legs down when they were in the casts?!
ReplyDeleteShe sure did! As you would imagine, my mom said it was quite loud (and an abdominal workout!)
ReplyDeleteShe was in casts from age 3 months to 9 months. I was gleaning the details from my mom this evening. She had to cut the casts off every few weeks, give her a "real" bath, and then go to the hospital for a new set of casts. Can you imagine that fun?