Sudden Night Wakings in 1year old

[tbaymom]

Hi - I hope this question hasn't been answered in other posts - I'm short on time (and energy) at the moment so forgive me for not reading previous posts...

My problem is this. For the last 5 or 6 nights my DD (1 year old last week) has been waking at about 12:30am. (I will post routine below). Prior to this she had been sleeping thru the night very well (except for the occasional teething, etc.). She wakes up screaming like someone is pinching her and continues on until DH or I go into her room (previously there were a few times where she would wake up in the middle of the night - with much less noise - and sort of "talk" herself back to sleep). Anyway she screams until we go in and pick her up...then she calms down a bit. Once she is calm I put her back in her bed and she screams again. This goes on for about an hour.

Other info:
-She has just started to walk
-She's not teething
-I have been trying to let her cry for a bit (~5min) before each time I go in - as she was a very good self-soother before
-She has recently stopped taking an afternoon nap (she sleeps ~1.5-2 hrs in the late a.m.)

I'm not sure what to try or what the cause might be...any suggestions? similar experiences??

Here is her schedule FYI

~7:30 wake
8:15 breakfast (solids)
playtime until nap ~10 am
10 am bottle
10-11:30 or 12:00 nap (and NO problems going down here...she doesn't object to being put in her crib or anything and sleeps very well)
12:00 lunch (solids)
12-3:30 playtime
3:30 bottle & "quiet time" - we read books or just snuggle - this used to be when she took her nap
5:00 dinner (solids)
7:00 bath, bottle & bedtime. (She rarely had trouble falling asleep - sometimes when she is still excited and wants to play...)
Then she sleeps fine until about midnight.

Possible causes??
-Overtired - should I be "forcing" an afternoon nap still?
-Separation Anxiety (this doens't seem to be a problem when she's awake?


Any thoughts are appreciated :-)
Sondra

[M and N's Mom]

Hi!  My DS is almost the same age and we're having the nap issues too.  My thought would be that 12:00-7:00 bedtime is creating great overtiredness.

Why don't you visit the 2-1 Nap thread under the nap board.  What we are starting to try is a VERY short am catnap in order to get a longer pm nap.  Can't tell you how successful it is as we just started today  but lots of other moms over there are helpful.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Just going to pop your thread over to toddler sleeping since LO is now a year!!

[Layla]

Hi Sondra - sounds like she is trying to let you know she's getting ready to drop to 1 nap  . I would either push the morning nap until it gets closer to 12ish & try and offer a catnap in the early evening to get her through till bedtime OR you can cut her morning nap down to 1hr so that she is tired enough to take an afternoon one. This was the method that worked best for us since my lo would never take a catnap in the evening. If 1hr is still too long and she is still fighting her afternoon nap, I would cut it down even more to 45mins, then 30mins, until it is vertually non-existant. On the days where she has not napped well (like refused her pm nap) I would go for super-early bedtime, like 6pm the latest. Don't be afraid to put her down this early as the longer you keep her awake in the evening, the more overtired she will get and the nightwakings will continue. I used to have my lo in bed like at 5pm on some days.

Some days will work better with 1 nap - so if she's not going down in the morning then offer her 1/2 lunch before nap (not right before of course) and the other 1/2 when she wakes up.

Here's a link to the thread M and Ns Mom was talking about : - https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=59266.0;topicseen

Good luck and let us know how it goes
Layla

[imsmum]

Would definitely agree with pp's that it's the 2-1 switch causing the problem.  & hours of awake time is way too long, and she is overtired at bedtime.  There's lots of different ways of trying to do the switch but they for the most part involve either offerring a short nap early in the morning and a longer one early afternoon, or a long nap late morning and a catnap late afternoon.  If your dd is like mine, and won't do 2 naps you have to move the bedtime super early--no later than 5 hours after nap wakeup, even if that means a 6 pm bedtime.  The idea is to slowly push the nap until about 12:30, and a bedtime of about 7.     

[Gippie]

Agree with the others, AM nap is too early.  We had to do the catnap and big nap for a week as we slowly pushed the catnap back and it became the afternoon nap where it is now - 11:30-2pm. 

DD's schedule

6am - wake
11:30-2 nap
7bed

The times are perfect for her and for us....and it took a while to get to a good place.   We had about 2 months of MW's, EW's and whatnot.   As the name supggests - it is a TRANSITION!!!!

Good luck, we are here for support
Stacey

[holdenlouis]

Totally agree! We also are in transition to 1 nap and had the NW due to being overtired at bedtime. Join us at the 2to1 switch. We put to bed early if he doesn't take a good afternoon nap. Also my lo wouldn't do an am catnap- finally got him to get one in the car. Yesterday and today only had quiet time in the am and did 1.5 hr nap both days. It is trial and error, somedays he needs the catnap some not. Overtiredness is a vicious cycle. My lo would be up crying inconsolably for 1.5-2hrs. a night

Lisa