16mo Sleep Regression

[Mjh045000]

Our daughter was on EASY from the day she got home from the hospital and has been sleeping through the night since 4-5 weeks.  About six weeks ago (14 1/2 months), she started (1) not sleeping through the night and waking up 4-5 times a night or (2) waking up at 5AM like clockwork.  She no longer naps well at home (only about an hour) but will take great naps at day care (2 hours).  We cannot think of anything major that happened around 14 1/2 months.  About three weeks ago, she was sick.  We feel like we have tried everything to get her to sleep.  It is as if she has forgotten how to put herself back to sleep when she wakes.  We have been making sure we don't rush in when she wakes up and only go in when she is standing up and doing a real cry.  If she were consistently only waking up at 5AM, we would try to the wake to sleep method.  However, as she is doing both waking up during the night or waking up at 5AM, we have not.  Please, help.

[jessmum46]

Has she only recently (as in last 1-2 months) dropped to one nap?  Could you post her full routine for us?  It may well be the wakings are related to over tiredness, particularly if she isn't napping well.  Do you pull bedtime earlier on bad nap days? 

[Scottishmummy]

Is there a developmental leap around this age? I only ask because in the last few days my 14mo's sleep has gone crazy- short nap and refusing sleep at BT then waking early. Nothing has changed for us so I'm wondering if it is developmental or maybe teeth?

[jessmum46]

I think 16-18m is more typical for the big leap/regression, though I did find that 12-15 months bit quite hazy at times too with teeth and 2-1.  To be honest sometimes I give up looking for reasons and hope it's just a phase!!

[Mjh045000]

Thank you to everyone's responses so far.  If this is a phase, it's been going on now for almost 2 months, and we're at our wit's end.  We are so frustrated.  Below is her schedule that is kept at daycare that we're able to mimic pretty closely on the weekends.  However, where she is able to sleep for two hours at daycare for nap time, she is only able to get about an hour at home on the weekends.

6:30 - breakfast (however - due to her continued waking up, this is often now closer to 5AM/5:30)
7:30 - arrives at daycare
9:00 - snack
12:15-2:30 - nap time
2:45 - snack
4:45 - snack
5:15 - go home
6:15 - bath
7:00 - brush teeth, change diaper, read books with one book good night book always read last
7:20 - sleep

[jessmum46]

I would say on that basis she is probably overtired, and I would bring her bedtime much earlier, especially if she is waking early (classic sign of OT).  She is having a really quite big morning A time for her age (potentially up to 7h?), and then another 5-6h post nap which just adds up to too much awake time really - if you think that average sleep needs at this age is 13.5-14h per 24.  Is there no way to resettle her in the early mornings or when she wakes after an hour at weekends?  The other thing I could suggest is that if she wakes super-early you deliberately head out in the car around 9.30am and let her have a 15-20 mins catnap which may get her through to her usual lunchtime nap without being so exhausted, and you may therefore get a more rested and longer sleep from her.

What do you think? 

[Mjh045000]

Thanks for the response.  We try to resettle her whenever we can, but it hasn't really been working as of late.  On the weekends, she will quite often get a catnap in when we're in the car going to/from somewhere.  Unfortunately, we cannot do this on the weekdays as we're at work.  How much sleep she has been getting during the day doesn't seem to be helping.  I don't think she is tired enough to go down any earlier, but we will try it.  It can't hurt at this point!  Any other suggestions?

[Scottishmummy]

I agree that OT might be playing a part in the NWs and EWs.

My 14mo's sleep settled again. I think teeth were playing a part in short naps and EW but then OT built up too and we got frequent NWs. Her routine is similar to your LOs,  so on short nap days we did earlier BT (one night in bed at 6, she shouted a bit but was asleep by 6.30 and slept until 6 the next day).  I also did nap slightly earlier (12 instead of 12.30) & let her sleep as long as she needed.

HTH and sleep improves soon
Xx