Intermittent night waking (17 month old)

[Gecko2014]

Hi,
I've posted about this issue before, I think around the 12 month mark, but my DS2 continues to have intermittent night waking episodes (approx. once each week to each fortnight). This issue with these wakings is that he is awake for hours before we can get him back to sleep. It used to be 2 hours fairly consistently but has pushed out to 3 now that he is older. We have tried a range of different methods to get him to sleep (including the strict ones and the no-nos) and it seems that what 'works', is just the passage of time until he is ready to go to sleep again. No matter what we try, he goes to sleep when he is ready. Most of the time he is awake and happy as long as he is with us. At least half the time he is giggling and trying to play. As soon as we give him his sleep cues and leave him to self settle, he winds up and can't settle himself (that is, until he is ready... when he settles himself like normal). We don't go in right away when he makes a noise and many nights we hear him wake and resettle without a NW. It just seems that, once he wakes....he's not the least bit interested in sleeping again.

I've tried looking for patterns in the routine that trigger these NWs and I don't see any. They happen on nights that he was OT as well as nights where he had more sleep than normal. But both of these days can happen without any NW as well. For the last month we have capped day sleep at 2h-2:15 just to be safe. See routine below.

So... .any suggestions as to what triggers these NWs? Why is up for so long EVERY time? Or what we can do to try and get him settled more quickly after a NW?

General routine is:
E - awake around 5:30/6 (because it is summer here, it is usually later in winter). BF in bed with me then up for breakfast
A - A time ranges 4.5-5.5 most days
S - nap is between 11 and 12 depending on if we got an EW and how early it was. Lunch and bottle before the nap. Nap is generally 1.5h
E - snack on or around waking
A - A time is usually 5-6hrs, a bit earlier if he has a long or later nap
E - dinner at 5/5:30 followed by bath
S - BT is 630. He is usually asleep between 630 and 700.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

His routine looks really good so I am thinking it may just be down to development. If it is only happening once every week or two I cannot imagine any routine tweak is needed as it would be a more frequent occurance. Does he end up getting upset after being awake and happy? What do you do at that point if so?

[Gecko2014]

Hi,
He gets upset if we leave him (i.e. put him into bed and leave as thought it were the start of bed time) but is fine laying in his bed if we stay in the room patting or sitting with him. He's not sleeping, but happy. He's really unhappy if we leave and for longer than just a normal sleep time protest. Once he's up for a while and with us, he eventually gets unhappy and thats when we 'put him to bed' normally and it works with a little norm grizzle and off to sleep on his own. Most of the time any way, some nights are different.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

And it doesn't happen with any predictability?  Anything during the day on those days that might be overstimulating?

[Gecko2014]

The only predictability is if he had a really long day nap. On those nights its more likely to happen (but might not). I have capped naps at 2hours for a while now but we still see the NWs. And 2h naps are fairly rare. I think he's LSN.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hmm with it happening so infrequently (has not gotten worse has it?) I would probably ride it out for a bit with an eye to capping the nap more if it becomes a regular thing. LSN can be tricky at this point when balancing the nap vs overnight sleep!

[Gecko2014]

Not getting worse. Pretty much constant for the past 4+ months. Some weeks is seems worse but then the following week its back to the normal pattern. Going on holiday or any scenario where we need to share a room with the kids is complete disaster (with lots of prolonged wakes) but then back to normal when we get home. I'm baffled by what causes it and how to manage it, I must say.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I think with the fact that it only happens every week or so you will probably not come up with a reason for it - any of the things that I would normally consider - teething, illness, routine issues - would probably cause way more disruptions than that. Sucks when there is no rhyme or reason to what they do!