Waking up at night ... just turn 1 year

[arial]

Well, LO had been doing great for the past few months.  I cannot even remember when was the last time that he woke my husband and I from our sleep at night.  In the past three nights, he has been waking up and crying. I have had to go in there and settle him.  I do not seem to know what is going on.  I know that in the past month, there are several days in which he has had only one nap (has only happened 2 times) and the rest of the time, he has had his two naps as he has been for the past 3-4 months. I really cannot think of anything that has changed recently.  Routine, activities have all been the same. 

Now, he is going to start daycare in two days.  In daycare, they only give the kids one nap at around 1130AM.  I have spoken with daycare and they wanted me to extend his first A time so that he is closer to their nap.  I started this today so I am not sure that this is the factor that is causing his night waking.

This is my routine:
530 to 6 AM - waking up
630AM - Breakfast
930 Nap 1 - usually sleeps between 1 to 1 1/2 hours (although lately this nap has been all over the place, sometimes actually falls asleep at 1030 when he is trying to have a BM.  I have also noted that this nap is getting shorter - at times only 45 minutes)
1130AM - Lunch
1:30PM - Snack
230 - Nap 2 (usually sleeps between 1 hour to 2 hours)
7:30 In bed for the night.

Now daycare wants me to move his bedtime to 1130.  My mom let him stay up this morrning for as long as he could, but the poor thing only lasted until 1010AM.

Anyone has any idea why he is all of a sudden waking at night?  Thanks

[Layla]

Hi there..... this is a classic sign of 2-1 transition (there are so many of us going through it at the moment  ).

I would say that the NW are caused from overtiredness. Its really really hard to increase A time all in 1 go at 12months and I did the exact same thing... I was waiting for Isabella to get "used" to it, etc... but the NW just got worse and more frequent so I had to go back to 2 naps....

During the transition, its a case of 2 is too much and 1 is not enough. They almost need 1 and 1/2 naps... so ALOT of us (yes, I'm going through it all over again) have been cutting the morning nap to 45mins and offering the afternoon nap about 3.25-3.5hrs later and then bedtime about 3.5-4rs (max) later. My lo can handle 3.5hrs in the afternoon and 3.75hrs before bedtime so it might be a bit of playing around.

If you are finding that he is finding it really hard to stay awake till 11.30 then don't push it. I am sure that daycare can try and offer him 2 naps... there are always ways to work around it....

This is the routine I would aim for:
6am - wake for the day
9ish - morning nap (wake after 45mins)
1.30-2pm - afternoon nap
6.30ish - bedtime

I would have a chat to mum and tell her how important it is not to let him stay awake for as long as he wants/can becuase your lo might not show tired signs and infact could be very tired.....

If he is falling asleep at 10, then get mum to wake him up 30mins later and offer the pm nap 3or so hrs later....

If you absolutely have to keep him awake and he only manages 1 nap for the day, then bring bedtime forward... as early as 5.30 (if he's had like 5hrs A time in the afternoon). Making bedtime earlier should help with the NW....

Layla

[Pitkin2]

Hi

Layla has been helping me on another post and I thought you would benefit from this.

I experienced exactley the same thing, he started to refuse to sleep before 10.15 am and then was sleeping for 2 hours.   So like you, I thought I would begin to push this nap back.  At the same time he woke every night at 3 am for sometimes for one or one and a half hours!  Talking and then crying.   Layla advised me to ditch the one long nap as she said he was overtired when he went to bed and this was waking him up.

So now our routine is as follows

6 am wake
10.15 sleep for 45 mins ( I wake him up)
12.30 lunch
2.30 nap ( 1 hour sometimes 1hr 15 mins)
7 -7.15 pm bed

Night waking have stopped and he is now back to 6 am wake ups as he was waking at 5 am as well.

I would really suggest your nursery follows the 2 sleep routine.   I was in a complete muddle and tired and getting really upset as he had turned one and changed overnight.

This is working for us and it's nice to get my sleep back again!

Emma