17 Month Old Night Wakings

[flymom]

This is my first post on this site, so I hope I get it right!  Also, I am sorry in advance for the order of my thoughts...I am very tired 

I have a 17 month old DS who has never been a good sleeper.  He BF until 10 months and didn't sleep through the night for the first time until 8.5 months.  At about 5 months we started establishing a bedtime routine that we still abide by.  He eats dinner between 5:15 and 5:30, bath at 6:00, then story time and bed.  Going to bed is no problem.  He rarely cries and is able to either go right to sleep or entertain himself until he falls asleep.  He goes to bed early 6:30-7:00...a time that he chose, not us.  If he gets off this schedule, it is not pretty.  On the rare occasion that he sleeps straight through the night, he is prone to waking up between 5:00 and 5:30.  I know this is early, but I'm OK with it as long as he sleeps through.  He was sick almost the whole month of February, as were myself and DH.  He was a trooper, but his night waking and screwy sleep patterns have been worse ever since.  His night wakings can begin at 8:00 pm, 11:00 pm or 3:00 am  There is no pattern.  He wakes up crying(always).  I ususally go in pretty quickly to make sure he has his pacifier and blanket(our two must-have items).  I have tried everything from picking him up, rocking him, leaving him in his crib to cry it out, bringing him into bed with me (DH travels a lot so I am on my own quite a bit with DS).  Nothing seems to do the trick.  He sometimes wants a sippy cup of milk, which we usually reserve for first thing in the morning.  Mostly, he seems to just want to be up.  He fights going back to sleep so hard.  His awake periods can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. 

He is also in between 1-2 naps.  Some days two naps are no problem.  Sometimes we are able to stretch into 1 nap, but by the end of the day he is usually a mess.  Other times, he really seems to need a morning but if he takes one, the afternoon nap is impossible.  Ideally, on a two nap day, he would take a nap from 8:30-10:00 and another from 1:30 to 2:30 or 3:00.  Those are the best days and they seem to produce the best night's sleep.  If it is just a one nap day, it usually takes place after an early lunch around 11:00 and last for 1.5-2 hours. 

So, needless to say I am exhausted and at my whits end.  Any thoughts would be so appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your input,

Jenny

[Harrisonsmummy]

Hi, my sympathy to you - I could have written your post too, so I am probably not much use - except that my ds was a good sleeper, so it makes no difference in that dept!

I think they gradually get more sleep deprived over time - it accumulates. On the toddler board there are posts dealing with this, and it all seems to go hand in hand with this nap transition. The general rule seems to be that if they are having one nap, and are cranky at the end of the day - go for super early bedtimes, as it is the overtiredness that causes the wake-ups. Also on two nap days- can you limit the first nap to an hour so you can get a second nap in.

I also push the one nap as late as possible, so that ds is less overtired by bedtime on these days. But as I said no expert - but I am seeing some success, have eliminated night wakings for now, but am contending with 5.30am starts! lol!

Justine

[imsmum]

I too could have written your post a couple of months ago.  The big thing that helped us for the night wakings was pushing the nap back.  My lo is not overly sensitive to nap time in that she will take her nap even if it is later than when she first starts to get tired.  the MAJOR issue for her is the time between the nap and sleep time--no more than 5 hours from nap w/u to sleeptime or my lo will wake in the night.  She is a 7 asleep 5 awake lo too which likewise I can handle as long as she sleeps through.  Nap is at 12:30 for 1 1/2 hours.  So try to get a sense of what that window should be for your lo and work from there, slowly pushing the nap back to keep your 7 bedtime. On days with one nap I would put lo down early even if that meant she was asleep at 6:30.  Just keep pushing that nap back and keep the early bedtime and  you'll slowly see some improvement--this transition is brutal!