Still having NWs at 18 months.

[Erin M]

DS tends to settle better at BT if he's been physically active in the afternoon and if he's had social interaction with other kids (be careful of OS though  )

Definitely this ^^^^^^^^
I was thinking that earlier and forgot to write it.

[Jemma88]

Last night wasn't actually too bad, after she finally fell asleep at 8.00pm she slept 3hr 40mins, then woke 30mins, then another 30mins and asked for milk. She then slept 5hr 45mins but woke for the day at 6.40am when OH got up and opened the baby gate at the top of the stairs (we've actually been keeping this open until last night as she was in her cot so couldn't get out).

We've decided not to put the cot sides back up (before she climbed and fell out, i was hoping to keep them up as long as possible but I'd rather we have a few crappy nights with settling etc than her try and climb out again and hurt herself as she's quite tall for her age too).


After yesterdays 15min nap and long a before bed and now a short night I'm hoping she'll do a good 2hr nap today. I'm thinking of maybe putting her down at bed time after a 5hr A in the hope she'll fall asleep for 6.5hr A which is better than a 7.5hr if she's going to take another 1.5hr to settle so she can play about and hopefully wind down without making the day too long.

I guess the wake ups where she just moans/does a little cry out could be down to nightmares or just getting comfy? It's just the ones where she does cry and needs me to go in and lay her down (she's normally sitting up rubbing her eyes and crying) but they could be down to nightmares too? x

[becj86]

It's just the ones where she does cry and needs me to go in and lay her down (she's normally sitting up rubbing her eyes and crying) but they could be down to nightmares too? x

This is precisely the behaviour we have here too. Its puzzling, because sometimes I can feed him and he'll go back to sleep (APOP with teeth that's hung around ) and other times he will refuse to feed and will scream til DH comes and gives him a cuddle. I do wonder if some of these are just the scarier dreams He's pretty verbal, but not verbal enough to tell me that.

[Truly Blessed]

Morning Jemma,

Good Luck for today.

I'm thinking of maybe putting her down at bed time after a 5hr A in the hope she'll fall asleep for 6.5hr A which is better than a 7.5hr if she's going to take another 1.5hr to settle so she can play about and hopefully wind down without making the day too long.

I understan your thinking with this Hun ^ but in essence what you will probably be doing is putting her down UT which can lead to a longer time before sleep, so in this house I have never allowed any more than 15 mins to settle, otherwise how can you ever figure out what the right A time is you know  .

I really hope she takes a 2 hour nap and feels better.

x.

[Jemma88]

I guess you could be right about the A time. I'll put her down for 5hr 40mins and hope she doesn't take ages to settle. She was asking to go upstairs with her blanket at 11.00am and she settled within 10mins - hoping for a 2hr nap. x

[Truly Blessed]

Sounds promising 

x.

[Jemma88]

She's had 1hr 50min so far - waking in 10mins. I think she'll be fine in her bed without the side it's just getting her to sleep that's going to be the problem. My mum's ordered us a slim baby gate so hopefully will be getting that picked up on monday. Hoping she'll settle easier without me there to "talk" to and "try" to play games with, little monkey lol. Then we can work on her routine again. x

[Erin M]

Could be nightmares, could be mild discomfort from teeth or something like that.  Random thought from someone who hasn't read the whole thread but if this is something that's always been ongoing, have you ruled out food intolerances?

[Truly Blessed]

She's had 1hr 50min so far - waking in 10mins.

Great. Good luck with BT.

Random thought from someone who hasn't read the whole thread but if this is something that's always been ongoing, have you ruled out food intolerances?

Worth a thought.x.

[Jemma88]

I'd actually thought about  food intolerances a good few month ago but i don't think it's that.. The longest stretch of sleep she'd do from pretty much birth - 6 months was 3hrs, but she'd mostly wake every 2-3 sometimes 1hr which was a nightmare lol. But until i joined this site when she was 6 months her naps before that had been all over the place and she was only having 2x 45min naps as i didn't know about awake times etc. It was only when joined here i then managed to get her into a routine but she didn't really sleep through or start sleeping more than 5-6hrs until after she moved to 1 nap about 12-13 months.

I think it's all down to her sleep/naps but i just can't get it right - I do think her teeth played a big part of the wake ups until she was past 12 months too. The annoying thing is i know she can sleep through but it's only really the odd night. x

[Truly Blessed]

Ah Jemma, you know at the end of the day as adults, let alone babies, some of us are just not great sleepers and you should try and just congratulate yourself in all the effort you have put in to do the very best for her. Those of us who have good sleepers have many times when it all goes T**T* up! so no child is without their problems.

Having said all that it would be unlike any true BW to give up before she's STTN so let's crack on and see what happens 

x.

[Jemma88]

I honestly don't actually mind her waking up aslong as she does a decent stretch of sleep before waking for the day, I'm not trying/expecting her to sleep a full 11-12hrs without making a sound every night lol.

Tonight was abit of a disaster too, she was in bed for 7.00pm and OH was on bedtime duty - he did 45mins in her room then needed a smoke lol! We then decided to put the side of her cot that we'd taken off across the doorway like a baby gate while we stood out of sight on the landing at 8.00pm, and she played with her toys quite happy until 8.40pm then settled into bed and finally fell asleep at 9.00pm! Eekk.

But i'm hoping now we don't need to be in the room that she'll have a little play with toys then settle quicker tomorrow night. x

[becj86]

I wonder if I might be onto something - will have to wait til we've been through tonight to know for sure though...

I'm operating now on the assumption that there's a small amount of chronic OT lingering. I got DS up when he stirred during his nap yesterday and PD for bed earlier than we have for a while and he had a 12hr night instead of the 9.5-10hr nights we've been getting recently (still with a few wakings, but I suspect tonight might be better if we can get the nap right today).

His day yesterday looked like this:
6 - wake
11 - nap (fell asleep in the car)
12:45 - up (unhappy for a little while, then fine)
7 - asleep with no BT antics
woke at 7 this morning

The last few days have had 2.5-3hr naps and I've let him sleep because he was OT but he would then have a short night and need another long nap...

[Erin M]

It also seems like I've heard from other ladies on here that the switch out of the cot means you'll have some delayed BTs while she gets used to it -- so I would say Bec's probably right about the OT thought. 

[Jemma88]

I agree she's probably got OT in the last few days since the cot side came off.. Last night she slept fine 9.00pm - 1.50am a few little moans but i didn't class them as waking - she then rolled/fell out of bed onto the blow up mattress at 1.50am and woke up crying, she was then awake playing & faffing around again until 4.15am! and then up for the day at 7.15am.

We're getting the baby gate tomorrow and bed guard on tuesday so hopefully tuesday night she won't be- able to roll out and it wake her up. x