11 mo night waking - is his nap too long? Edited: HELP! :)

[ladymugg]

Hi there... my 11 mo DS has been pretty good since I weaned his night feed in January, although a few problems with teething meant he woke up in the night in pain.

Anyway he has started waking again around 3.30/4 am.  He is down to one nap a day but as this is quite a long nap (sometimes three hours) i'm wondering if this is the cause for the NW.  His EASY:

6 am WU
7 am breakfast
9 am bottle
11 am sleep until 1.30/2 pm
1.30/2 pm lunch
3 pm bottle
6 pm bottle/bath/bed routine
6.30 pm lights out

So I'm wondering if I should be maxing that sleep at say 2 hours?  He yawns a LOT, even after naps, but he is just a yawning kind of kid.  I moved to one nap a day a few weeks ago as instead of NW he was doing EW.  Last week I had to move his morning sleep back to 10.30 am (or earlier) but that seemed to perpetuate the EW so pushed hard to get him back to 11 am.  He refuses any catnap around 3/4 pm. 

He has a cough at the moment which isn't helping but I'm pretty sure it isn't the main cause of this issue.

Keen to hear your thoughts/ideas

[Buntybear]

Hi - Well my initial thought is that at 11 months I would not be capping if you are down to one nap already. As you are heading to the 1 year regression it could be that. What does he do when he wakes at that time?

[ladymugg]

Hi Buntybear - he definitely is alert but tired, but not happy.  ie: he is whinging/crying out a bit (not crying) and is unsettled.  Sometimes it has been teeth, sometimes the cough, but then it always seems like its "something" if you know what I mean.  We try to resettle but when it hits that one hour mark have occasionally been giving a small bottle as most other resettling techniques had failed by then.

I have had some success (although haven't tried for about 7-10 days) with wake-to-sleep, but that can be hit and miss.

[ladymugg]

Anyone got any ideas?

This morning was a 4.30am WU, chirping with the birds, happy and so alert. 

Still wondering if UT or OT from the long nap.  2.5hrs nap or yesterday nap was only 1.5hrs... should have tried catnap?  Should I go back to 2 naps?

The 12 month regression mentioned above, I'm not sure this happened with my older child.  What's the deal with this one, what happens and how does one get through it?

So much developmental frustration at the moment during the day.. screaming to be heard, trying to walk.

My poor little man

[Buntybear]

Hi you might be better off trying for a cat nap if he is having long NWs and EWs otherwise the OT will creep in.

Regressions are a nightmare. Olly had horrendous ones at each birthday. Not much to do but just hang on and it does get better x

[*Ali*]

Does he not have any dinner? Or did you just miss that off the routine?

Have you tried just giving a bottle as soon as he wakes in the night?

Would you say up to now he had been high, low or average sleep needs?

It could also be that he just needs gone to get used to the new routine.

[ladymugg]

Thanks to you both.

Yes he has dinner - woops  at about 5pm.

Tried giving bottle as soon as he wakes - in fact did that this morning and he was just ready to go for the day.  He has been I'd say average sleep needs, although he has moved onto fewer naps on the earlier side of the EASY routines by age (as posted on here).  eg: moved onto one nap a day at 10 months vs I think the age span is anywhere from maybe 10/11mo - 16mo?!

I might try a 3.30 pm catnap, capped at 45 mins.

Will see how that goes

Always appreciate your help.  Love trying to pay it forward to answer questions for other mamas but I think the time difference prevents me being overly helpful a lot of the time, as many questions have been answered by the time I see them

[Buntybear]

Well an alert 4.30am WU at 11 months, coupled with the developments in the daytime says to me that this is a phase and not a routine problem!

With Olly when he was dropping his nap then I had to APOP a CN to get him to bedtime although you haven't mentioned problems actually getting him to sleep? I would have to walk him in the buggy to get a 30 min nap out of him around 4.30pm. He always fought naps 

Always appreciate your help.  Love trying to pay it forward to answer questions for other mamas but I think the time difference prevents me being overly helpful a lot of the time, as many questions have been answered by the time I see them

Aw thanks - we would love your help! Don't worry if someone has already answered - the more the merrier and I am sure the there mums would appreciate your input, even if it is just hugs and BTDT!

[ladymugg]

Thank you - yeah this guy falls asleep well every time (luckily!).  This baby I started using Tracey's methods from about 4 weeks so hopefully they helped.  Maybe he's just a good sleeper!

Last night slept all the way to 6 am

I made him a bit warmer (its early Autumn here and I guess now sometimes the mornings are getting cooler) and that CN at 4 pm for 30 minutes as well.  He had a bit of a cold which he's over, so maybe you're right its a developmental thing and just a bad combo of ingredients