Suddenly starts waking up at nights

[rogrogit]

My 9.5 m LO used to sleep all night long (12 hrs) since he was 2.5 m, has good naps during day time, eats well and is generally a great and calm kid. We had some nappping issues for about a mounth when he turned 4 m, but we mannged to solve them with the help of this great site.
During the past week we face a new problem: He started waking up at nights, at different hours (between 3:30 to 5:30), and stays up for about an hour, talks to himself (the same "oh! eh! da-da-da" he makes all day long  ). Since he doesn't cry at all, we don't know what to do. I entered his room once, and I think it was a mistake, since I told him: "You have to sleep now!" He was very happy to see me and started crying after I closed the door and he realised he's not being taken out from his bed.
So the next nights we just waited until he put himself back to sleep, which was realy tiring (between our rooms there's a very thin wall, so we cannot sleep if he makes noise).
I need to mention that he started crawling a mounth and a half ago and started sitting up about a mounth ago. Could it be what's waking him up?

Thanks a lot!

[Layla]

Hi there

Can you tell me what his daytime schedule looks like... sometimes too much daytime sleep causes them to wake up at night & be wide awake. Also he might not need 12hrs anymore... & could be dropping his sleep requirements.

Layla

[rogrogit]

Hi Layla and thank you for your quick respond!

Well, usualy he wakes up between 6:30 to 7:30, eats fruits and drinks his milk.
After that, it depends of how tired he looks: sometimes I put him to sleep 2 hours after he woke up and he goes to sleep for 1-2.5 hrs. It depends, I don't know on what, actually , guess sometimes he sleeps better at nights and somtimes he doesn't, so he wants to sleep more in the mornings.
He gets his lunch at 1:00 pm (vegies and/or chiken and milk). I put him to sleep again after about 4 hrs  passed from the time he woke up. If he slept more than 2 hrs in the morning, he sometimes don't want to sleep again. But anyway, I know to recognise the sighns whether he's tired. He eats again at 5.
One thing's for sure: He never-ever sleeps more than 3 hrs during the day. It usualy 1.5 in the morning and another hour at noon. He goes to bed at about 7-7:30 (after getting his milk). In between all that, we have a lot of activities, of course! (playing, singing, crawling, going to walks with the trolly, playgrounds etc.).
BTW, I saw in Tracy's book that babies supposed to sleep 3 hrs during daytime and 12 hrs at night until they turn 18 m!!! Anyhow, when we bath him (at aound 6:45) he always looks realy tired.

[Layla]

Well it could be related to his schedule. I would probably try more A time in the morning (he should be able to handle 3hrs) so that naps are more spaced out & he wont have to be awake for 4hrs during the day & is not so overtired by bedtime.

So something like this:
7am - wakes
10-11.30 - morning nap
3-4/4.30 - afternoon nap
7pm - bedtime (to be asleep by about 7.30pm)

I would also limit the morning nap to 1.5hrs as you don't want him to be taking a mega morning nap & then not sleep at all in the afternoon or for him to be making up in his morning nap what he is supposed to be sleeping at night.

With sleep requirements.... the book is just a guide & yes some are happy on 15hrs of sleep until 18months but in reality alot drop down to 13hrs by the time they are down to 1 nap (11hrs at night & 2hr nap). Isabella at 18months was doing 12hrs at night & 1hr during the day. Not until I cut her night sleep by 1hr did she start sleeping a little longer for her nap.

hth & let me know how go
Layla