14mo long night waking

[claudiaklipp]

Hi everyone!  Long time reader of these forums here, now with a question of my own!  My little girl is 14mo, down to one 1.5-2h nap, eating well, 5.5-6h A time, STTN since 7mo fairly consistently.  Twice in the past week she has had a very long NW.  First night she was awake 11:30pm-3:30am, second night awake 12:30am-3am.  During most of the NW she is pretty upset, crying a lot, freaking out if we leave the room, occasionally seeming not that tired and making noises to herself.  The first night we tried everything we could think of: Tylenol, water, change diaper, cool down the room, sleep sack on, sleep sack off... eventually my husband had to lie on the floor by her crib and she eventually just passed out.  I don't think it's teething, and although she has had a slight cold in the last week (runny nose, congested) I don't feel that is the cause.

Her A times are already on the high end at 6h, and we are waking her up from her nap at 2:30 so she is sufficiently tired for BT at 8pm.  She usually falls asleep by herself with no problem.  Does it sound like she's UT at BT?  Is it separation anxiety playing up?  With such a long NW I feel something must be majorly wrong.

Please let me know if you see something I don't.

Thanks to everyone who runs these forums!

[jessmum46]

I would think discomfort actually, UT seems unlikely and if the routine had been working in general then maybe she is LSN (low sleep needs) and not particularly OT, though I do think that's worth considering too.  Usually LOs would have one long A time and one slightly shorter so a total of nearly 12h A is quite a lot and would make her pretty LSN for this age.  Does she have her molars/canines?  I've never found tylenol (paracetamol) that great for teeth, perhaps try some Advil/ibuprofen instead next time and see if that's any better?

[claudiaklipp]

Thank you Katherine for your quick reply.

What you've said is interesting, as I have long suspected that she is a LSN baby.  She dropped to one nap quite early and has routinely slept 10-10.5h at night for many months.  One longer and one shorter A time does not seem to work for her, as she is often simply not tired enough at 8pm to fall asleep.  We've realized she has to be awake by 2:30 if we want to maintain a BT around 8pm.  She's usually awake around 6:30am.  I assume this is an appropriate schedule for her, as it has worked for us.  Any advice for a LSN baby?!

She does not have her molars or canines.  Tylenol has worked in the past for teething issues at night, although not for these two long night wakings recently, which makes me think it's something else.  I will try ibuprofen next time however, and see if that works.  The only other things I can think of are her cold is bothering her or possibly the summer heat.   Her tummy is normal and she doesn't appear to have an ear infection.  I can only hope this is short-lived!

[jessmum46]

Mummy's instinct is usually good, if she is normally well-rested and happy on a 10-10.5h night plus a 1.5-2h nap then she could genuinely be on the lower side of sleep needs.  Things to be aware of are watching for her nights shortening as you will likely need to cap her nap to preserve night sleep, less than 10h on a regular basis and most LOs will struggle.  She will also likely drop her nap quite early but you may be able to eek it out by keeping a short CN for a while or alternating nap and no nap days.  There are a couple of mummies here with very LSN babies so if you do run into particular routine issues I'm sure they would be willing to help out. "LSN baby" in the thread title will often attract their attention!

The other thing for long night wakings would be something developmental if teeth really don't seem to be a problem, there are some big leaps in language and understanding around this age and sometimes it seem like their brains just can't shut off.  Best thing to do in that case is stick to normal routine and just ride it out x

[claudiaklipp]

Thanks Katherine!  Appreciate your thoughts.

[jessmum46]

Keep us posted xx