17 month old night wakings

[beckys88]

my 17 month old has the same routine every night. has a bath about 6.30 and goes to bed around 7-8 and goes to bed in his own room but will wake every night without fail crying. sometimes he will go straight back to sleep but other nights he might have crying fits and wake countless times. No matter how much sleep he has had he always wake about 4.30am! he usually naps once in the day for around 1.5hrs.
(i posted this the other night in a different forum)

Last night what a nightmare!!!!  He went to bed no problem straight to sleep, by 10 o clock he was sitting up in his bed crying, i went it and laid him back down, he was ok. again at midnight screaming this time, my partner goes in and lays him back down only this time he throws a tantrum and screams louder and louder making himself cough. finally got him back to sleep after i think a hour of screaming as soon as you leave the bed. slept until 4.30am when he refused to lay back down and was wide awake. couldnt get him back to sleep after this.

[Hedgehog17]

Hi,

Does he have all of his teeth yet? If not then teething pain could definitely be a factor!

How long (and when) does he nap during the day?

[*Becky*]

could you post your  routine in EAS format please.

[beckys88]

he has still a few teeth to come through but no sign or teething. He has never slept through the night since he was a few months old. but its gradually getting worse now.

today:
wake up - 4.30am
nap - 10.30 - 12
lunch- 12.30

usually has 2 naps a day one in the morning and one after lunch although only had one today. i do try and stop one of these naps but like this morning he just fell asleep on the floor lol

[*Becky*]

he sounds very OT. Do you get up at 4.30am or do you get him back to sleep?
I really think you will need to go back to 2 naps for now and try to stick to a 12 hour day/13 hours absolute max.

[clairebear79]

I think Becky is right he may be OT. However, this OT has to be coming from somewhere & I am curious as to what's causing it.

usually has 2 naps a day one in the morning and one after lunch although only had one today. i do try and stop one of these naps but like this morning he just fell asleep on the floor lol

You say he usually has 2 naps - is this most of the time?  How long have you been trying to stop one of the naps for?  Did the waking at night coincide with this?

Can you also post what his typical 2 nap day looks like in E,A,S format?  I'm just wondering if this may need a tweak rather than trying to jump cold turkey to 1 nap.

On a 1 nap day what time would you put him to bed at night?  The same as on a 2 nap day? 

Looking at the 1 nap day you posted above, he's doing a 6hr A time to his nap at 10.30am, napping for 1.5hrs & then I assume from your original post he's going to bed at 7-8pm?  The trouble is, with the wakeup time you've got, the A time to nap is too long, BUT the nap is also too early in the day starting at 10.30am.  If he is going to bed between 7-8pm this means he is doing a really long A time to BT after a fairly short nap of 1.5hrs.  When little ones drop to 1 nap, it is usually the morning nap that is dropped & instead they take a single nap across lunchtime.  This will gradually shift to after lunch once they adjust to the new routine.  This helps prevent overtiredness at bedtime.  At the moment his days are just far too long for him to cope on just one nap hun.  So Becky is right that he may fare better on 2 naps, at least for a few days to help him get caught up. 

xx