Hi!
In the past, DS(now 12.5months) has sometimes woken through the night and played in his crib...which I infamously called crib parties, lol!! Well, we arent laughing anymore, they are becoming more and more frequent and during the last 4 nights, he's been up "partying" 3 nights.
The first time I ever noticed him doing this was when he was 9 months and at the time, he'd had 4 hours day sleep, so I knew it was definitely a UT issue. He then did it again around the 11 month mark for a few nights here and there and at that time, it was definitely OT as we were starting the 2-1 transition and experimenting with the right routine (still looking for that by the way!!). Our 2-1 started going well when we did the long am/short pm combo, with the odd one nap day here and there...but I noticed that in the nights following that one day nap, we would get a "crib party" night. Although he's still young for just the one nap, he does well on those days...usually napping for 2.5 hrs and in a really good mood..I always do an early bedtime just to avoid OT and he appears ok with that...but then the NW shows up.
Lately, he had fighting the pm catnap really badly and so I switched to the short am/long pm and within a few days, we had a good thing going....30 min in the am, then 3 hours A (or even less) and a 1.5hr nap, then 3.5A to bedtime. We are getting 11 hour nights and no NW before midnight, which I know is a sure sign of OT. The only difference is that when he was on the longam/short pm, his total day sleep was about 2.5h (same as on the one nap days) and with this new routine, he's getting about 2 hours day sleep....I can't get him to nap any earlier in the am and napping any later in the pm will mess up bedtime, so I don't know how to get more day sleep out of him, although he doesn't appear grizzly and is quite happy, which is saying alot for a former "grumpy, touchy" baby!!
Anyways, all this to say that these NW's are driving me crazy...they usually last about 2 hours and seem to occur most frequently between the hours of 3-5am. He almost never cries and just plays and plays...clapping his hands, laughing, etc. or he'll just do the 7 mile stare at the wall. I know i'm really lucky that he doesn't cry and that I don't need to go in....I realize it could be way worst. Everyone tells me to just go back to sleep and let him be, but the BW in me tells me that these NW's are indicative of something being wrong with his routine/day sleep and so I just can't let it go.
I getting worried because these NW's are getting more and more frequent (yuck!) and i'm finally returning to work in 2 weeks (double yuck!!), so I'd like to figure this out before then. Thanks so much!!
Here's what our EASY looks like:
6:30-7am wake
11-11:30 nap 1
2:30-4pm nap 2
7:30pm bedtime
