Advice on night wakings and not falling back to sleep

[Kyles Mum]

Hello,

My LO is 17 months and he use to be a great sleeper until a month ago - well since he started not taking his dummy anymore - which I'm suspecting is due to teething has he only has 7 teeth.  At the moment he seems to go down to bed ok at 7pm this is his daily routine:

wake up:  between 6.00am - 7.00am
breakfast:  8.15-8.30am
Nap:  12.30pm for 1-2 hours
dinner:  16.30pm
Bath: 18.00pm
Bottle: 18.45pm
Bed:  19.00pm

Last night for example he went down at 7.30pm and then woke up at 12.00pm shouting in his cot not crying but shouting loud we then went it and he was roll around kicking his legs moaning wanting us to pick him up we tried that we tried staying with him he still rolled around - gave in at 1.00am and give him a bottle he finished in mins and then stayed awake kicking and shouting until 2.00am was then asleep in his cot until 6.30am.

Most nights he wakes up once in the night but can take anything up to two hours to get back to sleep - any advice on what I'm doing wrong I'm feeling like a failure at the moment - I don't feel strong enough to do controlled crying and when shouts I feel bad that he's going to wake the whole street up :-)

Thanks Angie xxx

[mari]

Well, to start with, don't worry about Controlled Crying.  Nobody here will advise you to do that!  there are much gentler ways to teach your son to sleep.
Can you tell me how does he fall asleep for naps and bedtime?

you say that he sleeps in the day for 1-2 hours, how consistent is this, does he often only have 1 hour nap?

Mari

[Kyles Mum]

Hi Mari,

For Naps he's really good I can just lay him in his cot and he will go to sleep it appears nightime is the worst at the moment - a few weeks ago he would fall alssep when I gave him his last bottle and then go in his cot no problems he would occasionally wake up in the night but not as much now.

He naps everday for 1-2 hours either late morning or just after lunch depending on what time he gets up.  Last night I put him in his cot at 7.15pm and he just kept crying for me to take him out I didn't want to give him mixed messages so I kept going in every 1-15 mins and giving his a hug but not taking him out of the cot and tucking him back in as soon as I would go out he would start again - I tried at the end staying in the room with him that eventually worked 30-40 mins later, he feel asleep finally at 9.15pm and slept all the way to 5.30am.

Did I do the right thing I felt bad not to pick him up but I felt I would'nt be helping him in the long run - I didn't leave him too long to cry.

Thanks,
Angie xx

[mari]

Try your best to keep his nap consistent.  If you put him to nap around 5 hours after he wakes then hopefully he won't be too tired to napa nd he will have a nice long one.  Then put him to bed around 5.5 hours after waking fom his nap.  You were ok to stay with him,  if he is crying then don't lift him from his cot, just reassure that you are there and he is just going to sleep.  Ensure that he isn't falling to sleep on his milk.
As time goes by try to move a little further away from the cot, when you fell that he is able to let you move a little closer to the door then perhaps you can start Walk In Walk out.
Mari