Can 12 month old have insomnia? Going CRAZY!!!!

[blebel]

Hi there,

My lo is 12 montsh old and for the last week, she has been waking at night - and - not falling back asleep!!!!!!!!  Different variations depending on the night, but here are a few examples:

-bed at 7pm, wakes at 3:20am with soiled diaper, and despite ALL efforts (including classic accidental parenting), does not fall back asleep for the rest of the night.

-bed at 7:30pm, wakes at 1:20am, try EVERYTHING to get her back to sleep including CIO for over an hour, and she doesn't fall back asleep until 4am.

-bed at 7:00pm, wakes at 9:50pm, once again, try all the tricks, and up until 1am.

On each of these occasions, because I'm going crazy, after a while I pull her into bed with me, and she literally tosses and turns, sits up, lies down, hits the wall, hits my face every minute or two.  I noticed last night she had a cold sweat.  I also tried giving her tylenol last night when she first woke up thinking maybe it's pain, but was still up 3 hours.

What the heck is going on?  I'm literally going CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

I started to think that maybe it's because she's ready for the 1 nap/day so I've been cutting out the 1 nap.  Here's what our EASY looks like now:

Wake: 5:30 - 6:00am
Sleep: 10am-noon
Night Sleep: 7pm

Keep in mind that she was doing the weird night waking when we were on this schedule:

Wake: 5:30-6am
Sleep: 9:45 - 10:30 (I woke her up after 45 min, or she would refuse pm nap)
Sleep: 2:00 - 2:45/3:00 (woke naturally after short nap)
Night Sleep: 7:30pm

I'm actually thinking about bringing her to the doctors on MOnday - but wanted to see if anyone out there has any idea at all what could be happening!!!

[MLK]

I actually think your baby is very overtired (OT), she is not getting much sleep overall in the day plus she has the nightwakings. I would actually put her to bed earlier if you are just doing the  1 nap - to go from 12pm to 7pm with no sleep is very hard at this age. I would try to put her down for her nap a little later (start with 10:15 am, then every 3-4 days try to stretch it a bit later until you can get to 11 am. Then after a month or two try to slowly get to 12pm) If she has a long nap, bed at 6pm. If not, then try for an afternoon catnap around 3 or 4pm for about 30 or 40 mins, with bedtime at 7 or 7:30pm.

[blebel]

HI there,

Thanks for your response.  It has definitely crossed my mind that she is OT, but this pattern started when she was still napping twice a day - waking from her last nap around 3pm and to bed by 7:30pm.

Any other ideas?  I actually feel anxiety at the thought of what tonight will bring

[~*Nicole*~]

When she was taking 2 naps, neither one of them was very long so she still wasn't getting the most restorative sleep possible. She probably needed to slowly tweak her schedule and head towards one nap. Maybe cutting the morning nap to 30 or even 20 minutes and trying to get the afternoon nap longer. And her bedtime was still a bit late. So overall she probably started to get OT (it's likely her molars might be cutting as well which may have prompted the NWs to begin with) and then she couldn't get caught up and you cut her to one nap trying to figure it out and made the OT worse. Does that make sense? If I were you I'd go back to 2 naps and try to have something like:


5:30/6-wake
9:30-nap for 30 mins. and wake her
1 or 1:30-nap and see how long it is...aiming for 1.5 to 2 hours if she'll do it
approx 4 to 4.5 hours from when she wakes to bedtime

If her last nap stays an hour or less I'd shorten her A time and bring bedtime forward. I think that doing 2 naps should get her more caught up.

If you suspect teeth, try giving meds about 20-30 minutes before naps and bedtime. See if that helps her sleep more soundly. Also check the temperature of her room as the season is changing, maybe she is too warm?