13 mo old night waking

[valb]

My son is 13 mos old.  he started night waking at around 8 mos old.  I thought he was just teething.  It has continued.  His schedule is
7-8  bottle
9-10 eat
11  nap
1-2 lunch
3 snack
5 supper
7:30 bed

He then usually wakes at least once. Usually around 1 or 2.  He has had a white noise machine with him since he was born.  We have trains that run by our house.  Anyway,  as a baby he never used a binkie,  I was away more when he got older and accidentally started giving it to him.  The ONLY time he gets it is when he is in his bed.  I have tried putting him to sleep without it and eventually he will.  At night when he wakes up he is usually screaming, sometimes he will fall back to sleep right away.  If he doesn't I go in, lay him down, put his blankets back over him, and give him his binkie, then I walk out and he is good for the rest of the night.  I have tried feeding him more, doing more with him during the day, and different  nap times.  Nothing is working.  Is his binkie causing all of this.  He alrady has 8 teeth, and his molars are looking close, but this has been going on for a while.  Have I just done accidental parenting?

[Layla]

Hi & welcome

I think he may be waking up at night from overtiredness. How long ago did he go down to 1 nap? Usually when on 1 nap they should be going down about 5-5.5hrs later (for nap & bedtime). Some babies at this age can only manage 4.5hrs before nap & before bedtime... he is at the moment awake 6.5hrs before bed & this is too long for his age.

Couple of things you could do.... you could try to push the nap until its close to 11.30/12pm (that is, if he wakes at 7am) so that the nap ends at around 1.30/2pm & he can go to bed at 7pm... OR... you could try 2 naps again. If you do 2 naps you will have better luck with him taking the afternoon nap if the morning nap is shortened... so something like this:

7am - wakes
10.30-11am - morning nap (small 30min catnap just enough to refresh him until the afternoon nap)
2-3.30 - afternoon nap (theoretically this one should be longer)
7.30 - bedtime

If you see though that he is fighting you on the afternoon nap & if he's been on 1 nap for a while, it could be that he has outgrown 2naps... in which case I would try pushing it closer to noon so that the A time before bed is shorter.

The paci/dummy.... well its up to you if you want to give it but it could just as well be that he is used to it. I don't know what your long-term plans are for the dummy (if you want to wean or keep it) but if you now think its a problem & he settles ONLY once its given to him, it could be a prop. I would try to change the routine a little bit & if the night wakings continue then perhaps the dummy is an issue as well.

Let me know what you think
Layla

[valb]

He has been on one nap for approx 3 weeks.  I will try putting him down for a nap later.  I was worried if he didn't get enough A time before bed that he wouldn't go down.  As for the paci I am going to keep trying to wean him off it.  He confuses me.  Yesterday we were busy,
7:30 woke up, bottle
10:00 breakfast
11:00 nap
12:30 woke up ( internet installer was here ) then snack
we then drove out to families
3:00 large snack
drove home
6:00 supper
7:30 bottle and bed

He just woke up  it's 7:40  he didn't wake all night.  It it just a fluke?
Very confused, I try to find a pattern from the days that he does sleep through the night but I can't

[Layla]

I think its a fluke..... the A time before bed is too long & my 18mo would get very overtired & would start waking at night as well if I did 6.5hrs A time straight for 3 weeks

[valb]

Thanks for the advice.  I am going to give it a try.  At this point I will do anything.  When he was 2 weeks old I started him on EASY.  He slept through the night immediately.  It gets frustrating to go backwards from that.  I have to keep reminding myself though that changes won't happen over night.  Thanks again.