10 mo night waking for 1.5 hours

[mohara1967]

Hi-long time 'lurker'-this site is a godsend and has been so much help!

However-am having problems with my little girls night wakings.......she is 10 mo this weekend and has started to wake at night-she can be awake for anything from 1 to 2 hours and we are at our wits end.  She normally sleeps till about 1.30am and then wakes, she won't settle with a quick cuddle, she now wants us to stay right beside her until she is asleep.  So about three weeks ago, we patted her back and calmed her and stayed with her until she feel asleep, thinking it might be a trust issue/SA........we did this for 13 nights and then decided that it was time to try something else !  We then realised that sometimes when we were out and about at the weekend, she would only have short naps in the car or in her pram (maybe 25-35 mins each), and that on these nights she would sleep right through, or at least until 5am (at which point a quick cuddle WOULD suffice to get her back to sleep till 7am wake up time).  So we have been deliberately trying to ration her daytime sleep (thinking she was up 2 hours at night, but compensating by sleeping 3 hours in the day, over two naps).  We have been doing this for ten days now, waking her from naps at various times between 40 and 50 mins.  We have had SOME success, she has slept right through till 7am THREE TIMES (yippee!) but for the last three nights has been waking at 3.45am, and you guessed it, up for an hour and a half !
I need some advice-I feel terrible waking her from naps (esp since it took so long to get her to sleep well during the day) but at least with this method, she is SOMETIMES sleeping through the night ?!!  Any help would be really appreciated !  She had been ill with the flu in amongst this too.................!

Routine is like this :

7am         Wake and 9oz bottle
8am         Cereal
10.30am   Nap (now just 45 mins to 11.15am)

12           Lunch of meat+veg casserole and fruit for dessert
2pm         9oz bottle
3.15pm     Nap (again limited to say 45 mins)

5pm         Dinner of veggies + yoghurt for dessert
7pm         Bath and storytime
7.30pm     9oz bottle and bed


Any help would be much appreciated-sorry for the long post !

[jennandsophie]

My sense is that she is building up OT from such little day sleep and long periods of A time.  At 10 months, most LOs still sleep about 2-3hrs during the day.  A times vary, but generally about 3 - 3.5hrs. 

While at first, the short catnaps in the day might have caused her to STTN because she was so exhausted, eventually, the OT does catch up and can lead to the night waking.  I would perhaps try to give her one short nap in the morning (45min - 1hr) and one longer nap in the afternoon (1.5 - 2hrs). 

[mohara1967]

Thanks so much for your help.........was just hoping that it was maybe too much daytime sleep that was causing the night wakings, and rationing this would help........seems I just need to experiment with her sleep times like you suggest and hope for the best.......will keep you posted !

[{{{Angela}}}]

I totally agree with Jennifer.    Just to give you an idea, my 12 month old gets up at 7am, and has two naps from about 10:20-11:00am and 2:20-4pm and goes to bed around 7:45-8pm.

Good luck!