1 year old learned to fall asleep on own, but still waking at night!

[mcshrimpsmom]

Hi, I'm  new to this, but I hope someone can help. My dd just turned a year, and we have been working really hard on her learning to self soothe, and being able to fall asleep on her own. Our routine is bath, story, nurse, rock in rocking chair w/lullabuy. Then she is put down drowsy but awake, and normally takes about 15 min. to settle and go to sleep. I do have to stay in the room until she is fully asleep( although she can't see me because it is very dark and I don't stand near her crib) because if I open the door to leave, she will cry. If this happens, I go in and lay her back down and try again. She has been going to sleep on her own for about 3 weeks now and she still sometimes wakes up crying. When I go to her, she is usually sitting up or standing or can't find her paci. Generally, I just either replace the paci, or lay her back down, and she usually will go back to sleep. I know she knows how to lay herself back down because I have seen her do it. Also, the paci is not really a problem most of the time she remains asleep when it falls out, or she can replace it herself. When will she stop waking, and am I doing something wrong?

[imsmum]

It may not be related but ccan we have her schedule?  And how long has she been having the night wakings?

[Florencia]

How many times at night does this happen? and, does this happen everyday? how long do the night wakings last?

If you're solving them easily (say at most 15 mins) i think you're handling it ok. As part of each sleep training period, some outbursts are to be expected such as regressions, random night wakings etc.

Make sure there's no pattern in them so we can rule out other possible reasons.

HTH!

[mcshrimpsmom]

Hi, thank you for the replies. Here is dd's routine: wake up at 7, eat cereal w/fruit for breakfast,play till 9, then nap till about 11. Then lunch, and play till next nap at 2pm till 3:30 or 4. She has a snack when she wakes up, then play till 5:30-6:00 and have dinner. At 7:30
we have our nighttime routine of bath, story, nurse, and song in rocking chair. Then I put her down drowsy but awake, and she usually takes about 15-20 mins. to settle herself down to sleep.
When she wakes from her naps,and in the morning, she is usually very happy, not crabby, so I think she is getting enough rest.

She has actually been waking several times since she was 6 months, but since she has learned to fall asleep on her own, she now only wakes maybe once or twice. Sometimes she will go all the way from 8:30pm to 5:00am. Then I nurse her and she goes back to sleep to 7.
Sorry so long!

[Florencia]

So, I don't see a particular reason for her night waking, perhaps it is just part of the sleep training process she's in and will vanish if you remain consistant with the training.

However, I see she spends a 4+ hour stretch of awake time just before bedtime, as oposed to the 2 and 3 hour stretch she has for day sleep. Perhaps she's going to bed a bit overtired so you might want to try one of this suggestions if you think that's the hint:

1. Try and lenghten her morning awake time in 15 mins increments (that is putting her to bed at 915 for first nap and at 215 for second nap) this will buy you a good half hour for the evening. If you keep bedtime at 730 even if she takes 30 mins to go down, she'll be having around 3.5 to 4 hours of awake time then and hence, avoiding overtiredness.

2. Keep her naptimes as they are and bring bedtime forward from 30 to 45 mins making sure she's asleep by 730 at most.

This measure will help you prevent overtiredness and hopefully stop the nightwakings in case you think that's the reason they're happening.

HTH!