17 month old waking at night

[Gigismom]

i don't know if this goes here or in "naps"...

anyhoo, my dd has always been a great sleeper.  she was sleeping through the night from 3.5 months on unless she was totally sick.  but for the last few nights she has been waking around 12:30/1 and crying.  i go in and try to comfort her.  sometimes she goes right back to sleep and sometimes she is awake for 1-2 hours crying, asking for "books", etc.  one night dh even had to drive her around in the car to get her back to sleep.  she isn't sick or anything i can see that might be contributing.

any suggestions?  she is still on 2 naps a day.  but she seems still tired enough during the day to take 2 naps.  but could this cause the night waking...too many naps?  should i try to move to 1 nap?

[Deb_in_oz]

what is her full day like - timing and length of naps and overnight sleep

[mthyne]

How long are her naps? And what times?  I would guess at this age she would be ready to cut down to one.  I know right after 1 year we cut dd down to just her afternoon nap.  It was right after lunch, and if she were really tired, it would last up to 3 hours!  But we always made sure she was up 3-4 hours before bedtime.
I'm sure if she's getting too much sleep during the day it would cause night wakings.  I know I can't sleep at night if I nap too long or too late in the day.
I definitely think you're on the right track!

[imsmum]

I'm thinking it's one nap readiness but let us know her schedule.  Anything else different in her life--new activities, visits, moves etc? 

[Gigismom]

her routine is :

7 or 7:30 wake
10-11:30 nap
3:30-4:30 nap
8:30 or 9 bed

like i said she still seems tired enough during the day to want the 2 naps.  so i have felt bed depriving her of those if she needs them.  we have had grandparents visiting all week, but usually that doesn't stop her from sleeping normally.

[imsmum]

My thought is that she is ready for one nap.  I think she is needing the 2 naps because she goes down pretty late at night compared with her morning wakeup time and it is probably the late afternoon nap that is pushing this.  The late going down at night even though she is getting the average total sleep may be causing the night waking.  I find with my dd that if she goes down too late relative to her morning wakeup time she will wake in the night--and usually in the first half of the night--just like your dd.    I think if you push her morning nap back and put your dd down to bed an hour earlier you should see some improvement with the night waking.

[Deb_in_oz]

is there a particular reason for the 8:30-9 bedtime or is it just how it panned out. i woudl definitely star pushing her towards one nap startingby moving it closer to 11:30 and then heading towards 12-1 window over time, then she will stay up for the afternoon and need a bedtime closer to 7-8pm.

at this age i think when they show some tired signs it could just be a sign that they need some wuiet activity and a snack to rvevitalize and get a second wind, then push through a bit more. you can either give an early lunch at 11 or so (that is what i do) or offer a snack then nap then "lunch"  (i know a lot of people do this).

even after being on 1 nap for 3 mo now Liv often still gets "tired" around 10 but i swear she eats a cracker or rice cake and then carries on with NO problem until 1pm now and then just goes straight to sleep for an average of 2 hours.  this is a child who until the switch was often doing less than 3 hrs A in the morning but having a huge afternoon A time. now it is reversed and it is fine. sometimes you just have to try and see how things work with a change - definitely plan for some activities during  her old nap time as instinct will tell her it is nap time, but if you make itpast that time and occupy her i bet she will get thorugh later than she is now.  avoid the car or stroller around old nap time until  she is transitioned if you attempt this.  HTH

[Gigismom]

thanks for the suggestions.  her bedtime is so late because we recently had to change our clocks 1 hour ahead.  so her old bedtime was 7:30/8 and after the switch it was then 8:30/9.  i just hadn't gotten around to switching her onto the new time yet.

so i tried one nap today.  we put her down at 12:30 and she woke shortly after 1:30.  so as you can imagine she is quite a joy to be around tonite.     i am going to keep her on one nap and just hope it lengthens over time.

[imsmum]

She was probably overtired-why don't you try pushing her am back 30 minutes and still offer her the pm cat nap if she is tired ie put her down at 3:45 for 45 minutes.  I'm pretty sure that's the method Tracy recommends in BW solves all your problems.