1 year old previously slept through now waking for over an hour at night

[Sarahw123]

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

I'm wondering if anyone can help us as we are exhausted!  My little boy is about to turn 1 next week.  He was previously a great sleeper, sleeping through the night from about 11 weeks with a dream feed which we dropped at about 7 months with no real issues.  He was always something of an early waker (6/630) but would often be happy in his cot until I got him up at 7am.

However for the last 6 weeks he has started waking up in the night.  The timing doesn't seem to be consistent, anywhere from 2am to 5am, and sometimes he will go straight back to sleep but more often he is awake for anywhere up to about 1.5 hours.  I went back to work about 10 weeks ago (could this be related?) so it's pretty tiring!

Having tried lots of different things, we often end up feeding him and he will take a full feed - sometimes he will then go back to sleep straight away, but other times he still stays awake as if it is morning.  Sometimes we given him a bottle of water thinking he is thirsty and he will drink loads of that, but again it doesn't always help him go back to sleep...  I think we've got ourselves in a bit of a mess, as he always was such a good sleeper I don't feel like we've got many tools to help him go back to sleep as he's always self-settled etc.

When he does go back to sleep he can then sleep pretty late, so we have recently tried to cut this off and have a standard wake up time of 7am no matter how much he has been up in the night.  Our routine looks a bit like this if we wake him at 7:

Wake: 7am
Eat: 730 (breakfast, as milk has probably been had at 4am or similar!)
Sleep: 9:30 for 45 minutes
Eat: 11:30 (lunch)
Sleep: 12:30 for 1.5 or 2.25 hours)
Eat: 15:00 Milk
Eat: 1730 (dinner)
Bedtime: 19:00 bath normally asleep by 1930.

What I find confusing is that there doesn't seem to be any consistency in the times of the wakings, or the length, and they don't seem to depend on how well he has napped in the day (at nursery, which he has just started, he might only nap for 45 minutes at lunchtime for example, or yesterday we were travelling all day and he only had 2*45 minute naps, but was awake for 1.5 hours from 4am).

Anyone got any advice please, from a very tired Mummy who needs to function at work in the coming weeks!

Thanks,

Sarah

[michaeljacknnugg]

We've had a similar situation and kind of rode it out really. That probably doesn't help, does it?

I'd be inclined to move his first nap later, if it were me. That's a really short A time for his age.

[Sarahw123]

Hi MJ&N, thanks - I think we were trying to ride it out but it seems to have been going on for quite some time now and I'm worrying that we're getting into too much of a habit.

With his morning nap, we used to do it later and for a lot longer, and then his second nap would be a lot later.  But I guess we were thinking we were heading towards one nap that needed to be at lunchtime, as he has started nursery, so that was our thinking - plus he's always really tired in the morning because he's been awake in the night.  Bit of a vicious circle I guess - so definitely something we will try thanks. 

[Scottishmummy]

Hi there!

You have my sympathy, my DD also started waking at early o'clock just as I was going back to work!  There is a developmental leap and separation anxiety at this age which both disrupt sleep.

We also did a feed to get her back to sleep but, honestly, I think that made the problem worse as she started waking for the feed and picked it up like having NFs again.  Eventually when I got really tired I just refused to feed her. I stayed with her and comforted her crying and it was hard for that night but she did eventually go back to sleep. We did the same the next night but tried WI/WO rather than staying in her room. After a couple of nights it worked and she slept through again.

I also agree with pp that you might also need a routine tweak as NW & EW could be from UT as part of the 2-1. Instead of moving 1st nap later, other option is to cut it shorter. My DS was always tired by 9.30 so we kept nap then but gradually shortened it e.g. To 30 mins, then later only 15mins before he eventually dropped it.You may find 2nd nap then moves a little earlier but some LOs keep it at same time. Trial and error!