11 month old Night Wakings

[reddlox]

My 11 months old has been sleeping well since 7 months.  In the last 3 weeks her sleep has gone down the drain with waking at night and not going back to sleep.  She used to wake around 5 or 5:30, nurse and then go back to sleep till 7am, which was great by me.  Now, she's waking around 2 am, standing in her crib and not wanting to go back to sleep.  I'll go into her room, lay her down, cover her with the blanket and walk out.  She'll be quiet for 10-15 minutes and then start crying again.  She doesn't calm herself down if I wait.  This will go on for hours!  After an hour and a half I usually resort to nursing her because I"m desperate to go back to sleep.  It usually works, but not always.  We've also tried having DH go in to resettle her and it doesn't make a difference.  If I pick her up she calms immediately.  As the crying sessions continue, she gets more and more upset, to the point where she won't have the 10 minute quiet period before crying, she'll just cry as soon as I lie her down. 

She is definitely going through some milestones right now, having learned to stand, cruise, new words and finger walking.  She also has teeth moving but they don't look close to coming through. I've tried giving her Tylenol and it doesn't seem to do anything.  The best I can tell it's like she's waking up and her brain is so busy processing the new stuff that she won't let herself go back to sleep.  Is this just a stage that we need to weather through?  Is there anything I can do to help her to go back to sleep?

Here's our usual schedule:

7:00 am wake up
8:00 nurse
9:00 solids
10:30 - 11:45 nap
12:00 nurse then solids
3:00-4:00 nap
4:00 nurse
6:00 solids
6:45 bath and stories
7:15 nurse
7:30 sleeping in crib
(normally) 5-5:30 am night feed

THanks for your input. 

[mmom]

Hi.   I think she can use a bit more A time.  After an almost 2 hour nap, she is only doing 3 hours and I bet she could do more.  You are probably in the 2-1 http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163278.0 and just need a tweak. I see one of your naps is longer.  Is that intentional?  At this point I would think a good nap + a 45 minute nap would be ideal.  You can either push the morning A a bit and keep the longer nap with a shorter 2nd nap or you can cut the morning nap and keep a longer 2nd nap.  What do you think?

[reddlox]

Her longest nap is 1.25 hours, so I didn't think that was too long.  I can count on one hand the number of times she's slept more than 1.5 hours!  She's not consistent with one nap longer or shorter.  On average it's usually one about an hour and a quarter, and one closer to an hour.  I'm just happy when she takes an hour because from 3-9 months she'd only take 1/2-45 minutes and be a grump!  I'll try a little more awake time.  Today she had 4 hours between with an hour and a quarter this morning.  You think I shouldn't let her sleep longer than 45min?

As for cutting the morning nap, I think that'd be tough.  She's always VERY ready for a nap by morning nap time.  With her if I had to cut one, it would be easier to cut the afternoon.

BTW, thanks for responding.  I hope my response doesn't sound defensive, just trying to address your points.

[mmom]

You obviously know your LO best.  At this age, things shift though.  In the routine you posted, that first nap is almost 2 hours, which is a great nap.  I am not saying to cut that nap if you want to keep a long morning nap.  But you will have to push out the morning A and then the 2nd A.  Your LO is on a very low side of A time for her age.  Many LOs are doing 3 hours at 7 months.

[reddlox]

I don't see how 10:30 - 11:45 is almost 2 hours?

[mmom]

I am sorry.  I was typing with 2 kids at my feet.  It is not.

Have you tried Motrin at night, as it last longer?

What about tweaking to get a longer nap in there? 

[reddlox]

For some reason the last two nights have been back to normal.  Bedtime at 7:30, up at 5 for a feed and back to bed until 7:15.  I think she was just dealing with learning so much and we processing at night time.  I'm comfortable with her two naps of around an hour.  She's really never been a long daytime napper no matter what I've tried, so I guess this is just how she functions.  Thanks for your suggestions.  When she shows more signs of needing to convert to 1 nap I'll come back to the link you posted. She's waking up happy from her sleeps and going down easily when it's time to nap or go to bed so I think that means she's getting what she needs.