active 10mo wanting to stand in cot all night!!

[Eva2014]

Hi all,

Help is needed - my 10mo used to be an excellent sleeper. Sleeping through the night from 6 weeks old. Since December we got ourselves into  sticky situation - she had a cold so we were letting us sleep in our bed a lot. Since then we have managed to get her to understand that she sleeps in her cot (she was screaming as soon as we put her in her cot but now she's getting better). We were having to pat her to sleep but now we have got to position where we can put her to sleep with music (from her singing seahorse) and just rest our hand on her.

Now, the issue is her waking up! She'll generally wake up 3 times a night. she will stand up in her cot and then cry for us. All we will need to do is lie her down and put her seahorse now. she will usually fall asleep straight away. But why is she needing us to put her to sleep? its like she's forgotten how to self sooth. Should we be using the wake to sleep method?

Here is her schedule:

7-8am - WU
8am - breakfast
10am - milk
11 - 12 - nap
1pm - lunch
2pm - milk
4-5- nap
6pm - dinner
7-8pm - bath, milk and bed

Thank you!

[katie80]

Well, if you're having to hold your hand on her and play the seahorse at all sleep times, it could be that those have become a prop for her.  I'd start to remove your hand and presence when you are putting her down for sleeps.  You also might want to think about not turning on the seahorse during the middle of the night and try to just settle her by laying her down and saying your sleepy phrase.  With my DS1, I actually had to change from laying him down to sitting by his crib and having him lie down on his own, as each time I went to him I'd give him a little cuddle before laying him down.  It turned out that he liked that cuddle and kept waking!

It may also be that the hr nap from 4-5 is starting to interfere with his night sleep.  You could push the morning nap out to 11:30 and hopefully get a fuller one, then cut the pm nap to only 30min.  You're likely in the beginning stages of the 2-1 nap transition... From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)