Groan

Last night featured many of the hallmarks of classic new-baby sleep deprivation: a loud and unhappy baby; befuddled parents whispering together about possible explanations and solutions; varied attempts at nursing, swaddling, co-sleeping, rocking, and shushing; parents eventually taking turns sleeping and staying up with the baby; even an exhausted parent sleeping in an armchair in the baby's room. (That was Craig. Thanks, honey.)

One difference from the classic sleep deprivation scenario, however: during most of last night's activity, the baby was sleeping.

It was eerie, in fact. Laurel would lie peacefully awake in her bassinet by my bed, or in my arms, and her eyes would drift close. As soon as they did, she began groaning. This happened over and over, for hours and hours. The only way to soothe her was to wake her up.

Her slumbering moaning and groaning doesn't happen every night, thank goodness, but it has been recurring for a few weeks now. I even mentioned it to the doctor at her six-month well-baby exam, back on July 13th. The doctor said Laurel was perfectly healthy (no hidden ear infections, for instance) and that he suspected either teething or nightmares.

She groans "Aaaaah. Aaaaah. Aaaaah," over and over, often with a rhythm to it. Last night she kept us up for three or four hours with multiple groaning episodes that lasted 15 or 20 minutes straight. She seems distressed, but it's not clear in what way. She isn't extremely loud, she doesn't sound terrified, and she isn't making a sharp cry of pain. And she isn't awake.

I hope tonight is different. Well, unfortunately at least one thing will be different: Craig isn't home, so managing this situation will be entirely up to me. I think tonight I will experiment with leaving Laurel in her crib in her own room, where she is presently sleeping. Up until now, when Craig and I were ready for bed we have carried Laurel, still asleep, from her crib in her room to her bassinet in our room. It is worth a try to see if Laurel and I both sleep better with her in another room. After all, if she's groaning in her sleep, do I really need to be awake to hear it? (Maybe.)

Heck, if I really wanted to get some sleep, I could set the baby monitor to "voice activated" instead of having it continuously transmit every sound that is made in Laurel's room. That way the monitor would only turn on to broadcast her cries when they became relatively loud, and I think the groans might not be loud enough to trigger it. We'll see. That might be too big of a step for me.

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Any ideas, my readers? Laurel never moans and groans during her daytime naps, nor usually during her first few hours of night-time sleep. Tylenol doesn't seem to make a consistent difference, although I continue to give it to her in case teething is the problem. She is still swaddled for sleep, and I know she would like to get her hands free so she can suck her thumb, but she doesn't seem to be straining against her bounds during the groaning episodes. Once an episode begins, if she's wakened she usually resumes groaning as soon as she falls back asleep, and she can keep it up for hours, which makes it seem unlikely that it is bad dreams. She's not looking for food or emotional reassurance. She's not arching her back in pain. It's a mystery. Help!

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Edited that night to add:

Well, as of 12:30 a.m., my plan isn't working so well.

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Edited 8/26/09 to add:

By the way, since my lovely readers are still giving me advice on this, I think I should point out that a night or two later we discovered the problem: she was unhappy being swaddled. I originally didn't think that was the issue because she wasn't fighting her way out of the blanket, but as soon as I stopped swaddling her, she resumed sleeping through the night. My theory is that the slumbering groans were her subconscious longings to suck her thumb. I guess at six months of age she was getting too old to swaddle, anyway.