Not sleeping through - 14.5mths

[i-wei]

Aidan is 14.5mths old.  He started sleeping through the night at 3mths but bliss was short lived and ended when he was 6mths.  Since then he only occasionally sleeps through (say once every 2wks).  A good night is when he cries once and just needs me to go in to give him a few pats on the back.  A bad night is when he cries up to 4 times and needs rocking. 

Here is our routine

9am - wake and milk
10:30am - breakfast
1:15pm - nap for 1.5hrs
3:00pm - lunch
7:00pm - tea
8:30pm - bedtime routine
9:00pm - milk and bed

He very rarely sleeps until 9am as when we go in to him at 9am he is always wide eyed.  Mostly he'll start fussing sometimes as early as 7am but mostly after 8am.  He'll fuss on and off so I'm not really sure if he actually falls back asleep or if he just lays there awake as unless he's really crying we don't go to him in the morning.  He's put down awake 98% of the time and will settle himself without much fuss and without needing me to go to him. 

We discovered recently that when we give him calpol for his teeth he will sleep through the night.  Also, he's just gotten over a cold but the 3 nights we gave him his cough medicine (Tixylix cough and cold) he slept through as well.

On a good night he is really just fussing but we go to him as we're scared he's going to wake right up and will need more than just a few pats on the back.  On a bad night he will scream REALLY loudly.  There's no warning.  Just a ear piercing scream that makes you jump out of your bed (and skin)!  I must admit that we could probably leave him be when he is just fussing but when he's screaming, I really don't feel like he's doing it just for the attention or comfort.  Do you know what I mean?  But I suppose all mums must think this way right? 

As with bedtime, he'll go down awake for his nap and will settle himself without any fuss.  He'll usually wake himself after 1.5hrs.  Sometimes he might sleep for 2hrs but only say once every 10days or so.

We did do PU/PD some time ago and it has definitely improved things as we were bringing him into bed with us, taking him downstairs to watch TV etc before that but we never really solved the problem 100%.  Is it too much to ask?  I mean we're really happy we've gotten this far but sometimes the broken nights do start taking their toll. 

Any thoughts and insights will be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Ivy

[Mum to cool dude]

Hello Ivy,

A couple of thoughts strike me after reading your post:

- I would try and put your DS to bed progressively earlier. I am trying to do the same with my son at the moment because when we did sleep through the night in summer he went down pretty much every day at 8 pm and woke up at 7 am. Ignoring development milestones, teething, etc., I am starting to believe that our current bed time of 8.30 - 9 pm doesn't help with night wakings

- When he's fussing and clearly not in need of you I would leave him to it because I would think that it is his way of resettling himself back to sleep and if you do step in you may actually be waking him up fully. Of course, if he clearly cries out for you, he needs you


I think you're doing OK otherwise, the naps are good, Aidan can soothe himself and you are not doing accidental parenting. Sorry I can't be more helpful, we're still struggling with the same issue over here !