Why so long?

[brightside]

DS seems to wake quite a lot lately. We had a few ear infections and teething etc which were the cause of some of the wakings but he's fully better now and still regularly wakes once a night. We did get into some AP but have been doing PU/PD and now he hardly stands up at all. The trouble is that he takes SOOO long to go back to sleep. Anything from 1-2 hours (never less than 1hour). He tries but then gets frustrated and starts to moan. Sometimes, he even starts smiling and trying to have a laugh.
He is 11 months
He has a lovey which is adores and gets a lot of comfort from.
We don't go in until the crying escalates, then we stay until he goes to sleep doing PD if necessary.
If he starts to smile and play, we walk out of the room but then he starts to cry.
Sometimes I know he wakes out of ovetiredness etc (from teething or because he doesn't sleep well at daycare) but there are also nights when there seems to be no earthly reason why he wakes and occasionally he even sleeps through!

Why does it take so long for him to go back to sleep? Anyone else have this problem? He's been doing these long wakes for a long time now. 

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi Cath,

I'm thinking separation anxiety. Does he show any signs during the day?

[Kimberly®]

what are his naps like? have you tried a single nap yet? maybe he needs to transistion to one nap.

[Peek-a-boo]

How long has this been going on?

I recently read (and loved) Ferber's book--not the controlled crying part--he just had some great info about sleep cycles, causes of wakings, etc.

He says that if a baby wakes consistently for a long stretch at night (as you describe)  and is generally happy if allowed to do as he wishes, but simply won't go back to sleep for awhile, it is probably what Ferber calls the "too much time in bed problem."  Babies are pretty flexible about rearranging their chunks of sleep.  Some babies who need more A time and less sleep start shortening naps or waking early in the morning; others just create a little A time for themselves in the middle of the night.  It may be that.  I like the pp suggestion that perhaps it's time to move to one nap. 

Bethany

[brightside]

Thanks for your responses. I did wonder about the 1 nap thing but can't see how we will ever get there if he is so tired.

For the last few nights he has actually slept through  but is now waking at 5.30 so there is no way he can get to lunch time without a nap.

Am just going have to increase A time I think.