11.5 months old Sleep problem

[Charlyrose1]

Hi all,

Really hoping to get some advice asap. During the last few days my 11.5 month old boy has been waking and not settling back into his cot. I think he is teething but normally after milk and some nurofen, after about an hour he settles back down to sleep. I will rock him to sleep and pat him and he falls asleep and then i put him down in his cot with no problems..this would only take about an hour at the most. He is really heavy now and I am struggling to carry him and put him to sleep in the manner I described. Basically, I need help him to self soothe to sleep and need advice. These past days he has been more unsettled and I can't pace around the room with him, patting him to sleep for hours on end! For some reason, and I think it's something else other than teething he is just not settling and seems more aware when i leave the room and he is in his cot. Any advice, I am a bit desperate as last night was horrendous and we ended up having him in our bed. Thanks for reading.

[Skadiver13]

Hi Hun, what makes you think it's teeth? Has he ever settled to sleep independently? Could you post an EASY for the last few days?

[Charlyrose1]

Hi Skadiver13,

Thanks for the reply...I think it's his teeth as he is cutting a few at the side of the top 2 that have come through..he wakes with a cry that I recognise as a sign he is in some discomfort so assuming it's that! Yesterday went like this...

Wake: 7am
E: bottle & breakfast
S: 10:40
I then woke him up at midday to shorten the nap time to 1 hr as he has been sleeping for longer in the 1st morning nap..sometimes for 2.5 hours!
Wake: 12 and bottle and lunch
S: 3pm
Wake: 4:15
Bed at 8pm
He then woke this morning at 4am with the same kind of cry as if something was bothering him..I fed him 4 oz of milk and he settled in bed with us.

I plan to shorten the 2 naps to 45 mins each today ..what do you think?? he will go down for the first nap at 10:45 am this morning so his awake time will be 4 hours

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Up until 3 days ago he has been having equal nap times of about 1.5 hours and sleeping through the night even whenhe has been a bit poorly with a bad cold. I will say that cognitively he has come on within the last week or so and we have definitely seen a change. His motor skills have improved and he can recognise songs, swayin g to the music and pointing..maybe it ties in with a heightened awareness??

[Charlyrose1]

one more thing to mention actually...I always rock him to sleep with patting and humming and he ios getting so heavy I can't keep this up so he will need to learn to sleep without props pretty soon!

[Buntybear]

Hi,

He may be heading towards dropping his 2nd nap. I would keep one longer now and shorten the other one down otherwise he may get OT with 2 short naps.

I would also shorten how long you rock him right down now and get him into his cot much earlier. You can soothe/pat him in there to get him to sleep. Or just skip the rocking and get him in there after a nice cuddle.

Have you read up about Gradual Withdrawal? This would be best for you.

HTH