Author Topic: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required  (Read 7176 times)

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Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #15 on: June 09, 2006, 05:06:43 am »
OH Help - Seriously.  Yesterday he got up at 4.30. Then I put him down at 8.30 for his nap and he slept until 10am.  Then at 2.30 I tried to put him  down again for a nap as he was tired out....at 4.30!!! yes 4.30pm he finally went to sleep.  He then didnt' go down until 7.30 last night and awoke at 4.30 this morning absolutely shattered, but despite trying to get him back to sleep until six no luck.  I am exhausted and cranky and so is Ewan.. Does anyone have ANY suggestions!?


Offline Harrisonsmummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #16 on: June 09, 2006, 07:24:34 am »
I would try 8.30am nap until 9.00am max.(or 30 mins). Then shoot for second nap of 1pm, earlier if he looks tired. Then an early bedtime. It sounds like the poor little fella is so knackered he "can't" sleep.

The early nap is no more than to tide him over with such an early wake-up and because he is now chronically sleep deprived!

Normally if DS wakes up at 5am for example I will still put him down for nap at 12.30pm - unless he has been under the weather, or we have had night-wakings etc. 

Offline finleyfoo

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #17 on: June 09, 2006, 14:18:47 pm »
Ewans Mommy - I am certainly no expert, but for what it is worth, my 12.5 month old is transitioning to one nap a day (he takes 1 nap at day care Mon-Fri from 11:30 to 1:30. However, at home, we were still putting him down for 2 naps (9:00ish and 1:30ish) but that is started to go to bust. He is starting to refuse the second nap and therefore is awake too long before bed time. And he started waking up early about 6 weeks ago (5:15, 5:30 or 5:45 in the morning) when before he was waking up at 6:00 to 6:30 am. His bedtime was 7:30 (in bed at 7:15, asleep by 7:30). I thought this was a very reasonable bed time.

So I started an experiment by putting him down to bed earlier, 6:30, asleep by 6:45. We are only 4 days into it. The first 2 nights, there was no change, he was still up early. But it also coincided with an ear infection. The last 2 mornings, we have seen some progress. The first morning he slept until 6:00 and this morning until 6:30. What I think is that my son is programmed to go to bed early and rise early. He is really tired by 5:30/6:00 pm and ready for bed. And he needs more than the 10 hours at night he was getting. I think he needs at least 11 hours, on top of the 2 hours he gets for a nap.

I'm wondering if you should just skip the morning nap altogether, go for an early afternoon nap, try an early bedtime and see if that works. It will probably take a few days to see any results.

We are going to keep at our experiment for at least a few weeks to a month to see if it improves his sleeping overall. It's not easy to get him down that early with our schedules. But what can you do? Good luck.

Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #18 on: June 09, 2006, 18:11:23 pm »
Thanks again everyone, it's good to feel like I have support out there!

Ewan awoke at 4.30 today after only 9 hours sleep...  He was worn out and cranky all morning and I finally put him down at 9am thinking he'd do his usual 1.5 - 2 hour sleep - but he woke up after 45 mins! At least, I thought, he'lll now have a decent nap after lunch - but NO he wouldn't go to sleep at all - I tried for an hour and a half and he would not go to sleep (I'd given him his milk and some teething pain relief just in case).. so he was awake from 10 this morning until six tonight when he went to sleep. This is ridiculous!   :'(

Just hoping he gets 11 hours tonight..


Offline imsmum

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #19 on: June 09, 2006, 19:16:48 pm »
I wonder if that early nap is reinforcing the early waking.  When my dd was still on three naps and ready to switch down to 2 that's what we were finding.  Since  he's refusing that second nap I think you have no choice but to start moving that early one back.  You can either do it by increments or just go for a late nap say around 11.  If he's having alot of night wakings etc.  I think I would make the jump to 11 and then do a super early bedtime.  I think you'll find that without that am nap the early bedtime won't result in an obscenely early (4:30!!!) wakeup.  Good Luck!

Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #20 on: June 10, 2006, 06:13:30 am »
Finley Foo & imsmum - thanks for the skipping the early nap idea - I keep thinking that myself and resolving to do it every day.  The problem is that it's only 7am now and he's already rubbing his eyes and yawning and crying.  He's already been up for two and a half hours and everytime I try and skip the early nap, by 9am I just give in because he's sooo tired.  I even tried taking him out and about to distract him but he was miserable..  I'll try today and put him down as late as possible but it's such a long morning when he's so miserable.

He's woken up exhausted this morning - I think it must be teething...

going to try and get him in bed around half five today and asleep for six ish....   you've all been great. I'll keep you posted.

I am soooo tired!


Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #21 on: June 10, 2006, 11:25:43 am »
Well, here's a little update - managed to keep Ewan up until 10.40am this morning!  and it's now 12.20 and he's still asleep so this is looking promising for a nice early bedtime without too much crankiness in the evening - and who knows perhaps a lie in until 5.30am in the morning! ;)

thanks again for your advice folks...


Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2006, 11:03:14 am »
OH NO!! Look I know that this topic is starting to drag on a bit now but I'm getting more desperate by the day. 

Ewan had one nap yesterday from 10.40 until 12.30 and then I finally got him to sleep for 6pm last night, but he awoke at 4am!  I tried until five to get him back to sleep but no luck.  He has been foul all morning and cranky and would have gone back to sleep at 8am this morning if I'd put him down but now I'm really not sure what I should do (go for one nap or two)? I am so worried about his lack of sleep and obvious crankiness about it.  I put him down today at 10.30 (aiming for one nap and early to bed again),  but he was really really tired by that point and I'm now wondering if it was bad to keep him up? 

Does anyone have a little one out there around Ewan'a age who actually seem to cope quite well on such little sleep?  He's 14 months and probably gets between 12 and 13 hours in 24 if I'm lucky. 

Anyway sorry to still be harping on about this but I'm confused.

Thanks


Offline Harrisonsmummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #23 on: June 12, 2006, 11:52:10 am »
I kept a sleep log for Harrison from about that age when he started to transition to one nap. He never slept more than 13 hours (total) and averaged 12.5 hours. In fact I can literally count on one hand the number of times he has slept for longer than 10.5 hours overnight!When we transitoned he dipped to 11.5 hours(total) and that caused night wakings - so I knew then that wasn't enough sleep, but now he sleeps no more than 12 hours.

Some just need less sleep, and if they seem ok with it then that's fine. If your lo wakes up chirpy at 4.30am after 10hrs sleep then he's ok I'm sure. If that's the case then you just have to try and tweak the routine to get an acceptable wake-up time. harrison goes to bed (asleep) by 7.30pm and I live with 5.30 to 6am wake-ups, but DH gets up at that time anyway so would disturb him regardless. I always think they're tired when they wake crying after night and naps, if they are chirpy then they've had enough.

hth

Justine

Offline imsmum

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #24 on: June 12, 2006, 15:06:50 pm »
Don't panic--sometimes the late to bed--I know too weird to think of 6pm as late but it is for them when they've been up for 5.5 hours after nap time --causes the early wakeup.  Just keep pushing the nap back in increments.  This is a rough transition, they typically have shortened sleep for a while until they can get into a good rhythm, so expect the early wakeups for a while yet! :(

Offline finleyfoo

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #25 on: June 12, 2006, 16:43:39 pm »
I second the fact that my son doesn't sleep at much as the "sleep books" say. He gets between 12-13 hours in a 24 hour period, sometimes even more like 11.5. It's tough I know. I'm convinced he really does need 13, but I struggle with how to get it for him. Right now, the early bedtime seems to be working well for us.

Ewans Mommy - have you tried just letting him sleep whenever and whatever he wants during the day (i.e., even if that means different times each day and multiple naps)? Or is that what got you in this situation to begin with? Some kids seem to really need structure (my son), others do better if they get to regulate their own sleep.

Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #26 on: June 12, 2006, 17:36:40 pm »
Hi Guys...

It's good to hear from others whose little ones get less sleep than the sleep books tell you.  Today we've had a better day.  He slept six until 4.50am which is nearly 11 hours (Yippeee) and then he took a 2 hr 20 minute nap from 10.30 until 12.50 (great).. so I'm feeling a bit more chirpy today and positive  :D  but I find sometimes it's two steps forward one step backwards so who knows what tomorrow will bring.


Finleyfoo - I think letting him sleep whenever he wanted so having one nap some days and two on others at different times with consequently different bedtimes has made the situation worse - he's a definate creature of habit so now we're going for the same bedtime and roughly the same naptime each day and see how we go.

Thanks Harrisonsmummy and imsmum it's good to know that typically they get a bit less sleep as they are transitioning to one nap!

Hoping for at least 11 hours tonight!!



Offline finleyfoo

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #27 on: June 12, 2006, 17:50:12 pm »
I hear you. Mine is a creature of habit too (so am I)!

Offline Ewan's Mummy

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #28 on: June 15, 2006, 12:02:45 pm »
Hi all, just thought I'd feedback on Ewan's sleeping as we're making progress and I wanted to say thanks to everyone who gave me advice. 

Switched to a consistent early bedtime (asleep for about 6pm) and a consistent one nap at around 10.45am (instead of fluctuating between one and two naps at different times which interferred with bedtime).  Last night Ewan slept from 6.15pm until 5.45am which is amazing I feel like I've had the worlds longest lie in!  (I know it'll be up and down though as we've been up at bang on 4am for the previous two mornings).  He's also doing a 2 - 2.5 hour nap, which is great.

So thanks again as the advice was really useful and it was good to hear that it's not just me who struggled with the one nap transition, but I think we've cracked it!!

 :D


Offline imsmum

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Re: 14 month old sleep troubles - help required
« Reply #29 on: June 15, 2006, 13:34:31 pm »
Wow--an 11.5 hour night sleep and a 2.5 houp nap--that's awesome!  Don't be upset if the night sleep and nap shorten somewhat after he has caught up on sleep.  The only other thing I wanted to mention was that  if you wanted to get a later wakeup you'll likely have to move both the bed time and nap time forward in 15 minute increments.  But if this schedule works for you--great!