What happens in Wonder Weeks leap 7, and why is my baby standing in the crib at night?

This is the last of the three leaps that really hit sleep hard, and the most visible one: you find your child standing in the crib at night.

What changes in this leap

Leap 7 is about order and steps. The discovery that actions have a fixed order: first this, then that. You see more problem-solving, more targeted trying, less random grabbing.

Physically, there's lots of practice in these weeks with standing and the first steps.

Why standing is worse than rolling

With rolling, your baby gets stuck lying down. With standing, your baby gets up and doesn't know the way back, and that's a bigger problem: lowering down takes more strength than standing up, and it often only works weeks later.

That's why in this period you're standing next to the crib several times a night, while nothing is wrong during the day.

What you do in this leap

Practice lowering down, not standing. Standing up comes on its own. Sit next to the crib and show during the day how the knees bend and how you lower yourself holding the bars. That's the missing skill.

Otherwise the same applies here as in the leaps before: room to practice during the day, and as little fuss as possible at night. See milestones and poor sleep.

And look at the last wake window of the day. Around this age it's three to four hours, and going on too long is one of the direct causes of a restless night: wake windows from 8 to 12 months.

How you know you're in it

By the three C's: more crying, clinginess, crankiness. The full approach is in Wonder Weeks and sleep.

Before this came leap 6. After it, things tip: leap 8 clearly has less effect on sleep.