Is it unhealthy to be awake all night?

Middle of the night awake time - 7 month old?

• My (almost) 7 month old daughter has been driving us crazy for about 2 weeks now. She wakes between midnight and 1am every night and babbles, giggles, laughs, chats etc for a couple of hours. She's not crying or unsettled - she's just awake and talking, but she's really loud and we don't really sleep until she starts to get grizzly when she ready to go back to sleep and we are finally able to settle her. (Previous attempts prior to this are a failure!) The temp in her room is fairly consistent so she shouldn't be too hot or too cold. The room is dark so she doesn't have anything to look at or talk to. She has a dummy for sleeping, but that's not working either - she either talks with the dummy in her mouth or spits it out until she is tired a couple of hours later and we are able to settle her with it. She doesn't really seem hungry. I've fed her a couple of times as a possible solution and she drank all her bottle, but she just picks up where she left off in terms of talking. We didn't fed her last night and she didn't seem to care. We also tried reinstating the 10pm dream feed but she just pushed the awake time back until around 3am for the usual 2 hours! Her sleeping is fairly rubbish during the day - 30 minute catnaps but she was happy with that and when she was sleeping well at night, I didn't really care either. Now of course, she's less happy with the catnaps but nothing has changed there. She is tired at the end of each day and is fast asleep by 6.30pm (and has always gone to bed at this time) with no trouble and will sleep soundly until 6-7 hours later when it is awake and play time. She was sick a couple of weeks ago with a dodgy tummy which may have started waking her (although she was still happy, just dirty!) and maybe now it is a habit? Does someone have any ideas as we are completely exhausted and frustrated! Many thanks!

• Answer:

  I hate to say this but.... nope not really a whole lot you can do. My son is nine months old and does the same thing. He has NEVER slept through the night. I got a "womb bear" and that helped a little. You can find them at Wal Mart. They sound kinda creepy but it is because they sound like the inside of the womb. Maybe try exaughting her before bedtime. An hour or two before bedtime try "hardcore" playing with her. Get REALLY active. Anything that will get her moving and laughing. After that feed her as solid as a food as you are comfortable with and give her a warm bath. You might not get a full nights sleep but it might help a little. Maybe it is just the room she is in. Try moving her crib into the living room. My son woke up every 2 hours when he was in his bedroom but when I let him sleep in the living room he only gets up once or twice. Try that also. Maybe that might help too.