18 month old not settling in evening or waking at night

[mumoftwo]

Hi there

I also have an 18 month old who is not sleeping well at the moment.  Until the last week his day went like this:

6.30 - 7am awake
7.30am milk and breakfast
9.30am snack
10.30-12 nap (gets tiered really early am)
12.30 lunch
3.30pm snack
4.30-5pm dinner
7pm bedtime

Over the last week he goes to bed at 7pm, sometimes he doesn't settle well and sometimes he only sleeps for 45mins-an hour then is often wide awake again until 9.30-10.30pm.  If he doesn't wake up in the evening then he is up during the night and sometimes wide awake for an hour or so.    It's so exhausting

He has gone through some unsettled stages in the past where he won't go to bed at night but this is strange.

Any ideas?  You're always such a kind and helpful lot! 

[Layla]

Hi there....

I think your 18mo is overtired due to the timing of the nap. If they are on 1 nap (which most 18mo's are), it is best taken in the middle of the day, approx 5.5hrs after wake up and to go to bed about 5.5hrs later.... at the moment he is awake 7hrs in the pm and thats waaaay too long for an 18mo. My lo can't really handle anything more than 6.5hrs and she is past 2yrs....

So, you need to do your best to keep him awake till 12ish (12.30 the latest) and let him take his nap then. This might be a little hard for a few days cause his body clock is used to sleeping in the morning so I would suggest take him out of the house to the park or do something stimulating.... come 11ish, have lunch and then spend about 30mins wind down to relax him into the sleep state... read books, etc...


Let me know how you go
Layla

[mumoftwo]

Ahh bless ya Layla!

Have been reading through some other peoples threads and it seems that a lot of toddlers have sleep problems at this age!

I was looking at everyone elses routines and I reckon that you're right, his nap is too early and I have been putting him down even earlier too recently as he seems tierd.

My initial reaction was to cut his lunch time sleep down more which must be making the problem even worse OMG!!!   poor child!

Will start giving him lunch earlier as you suggested.  It's a bit of a problem as he has just started nursery two afternoons a week starting at 1pm but will see if he can start later.

Thanks for your help.  Will let you know what happens.

[Layla]

If you are not able to change the timing at the nursery, don't worry too much about that. Let him have the early nap as you are at the moment but make sure he's in bed 30mins earlier for the night. I think if his routine is a little different 2 out of 7 days it shouldn't cause too much of a problem. I have to occasionally get Isabella to take 11-1 nap if we have plans for the afternoon and because she is well rested, it doens't seem to cause any problems.....

[mumoftwo]

Thanks for that Layla.  It was making my brain hurt trying to work out how to fit sleep and lunch in with going to nursery!

Terrible night again last night, he was up for at least an hour in the night!  And I didn't#y finish work until 10pm and I'm back here again for 6am! But today's another day, will start him on new nap time & early bed time to try and get him caught up on his sleep. Will get back to you tommorrow. 

Thanks for your support.  It's great to have someone to work it all through.

Trudie 

[mumoftwo]

Hi Layla

Edward still waking at night.  Had a three hour nap yesterday 10.45am (couldn't keep him up any later as SO tiered) till 2pm.  He went to bed at 6pm as SO tiered but he woke again at 12.20am.  My husband says that it has been exactly the same time every night.  Do I need to do wake to sleep?  If so do I do it at 11.20pm?

Today he had another 3hr nap (11.30 till 2.30pm) but couldn't get him to sleep until 8pm.  Should I leave him to have such a long nap as he is so tiered from waking at night or should I wake after 1.5 or 2 hours?

Hopefully tomorrow he will be more on track with his nap and bed time 

Thanks again
Trudie

[Layla]

Try to limit the nap to 2-2.5hrs the most and then in bed 5-5.5 hrs later. It will take about a week to get his little internal clock used to the new nap times. I have not ever done w2s at night or in the morning, only for naps. If he wakes at night, I would say go in and do wi/wo or pd.

[mumoftwo]

update ...

Things seem to be going better.  Although Edward didn't go to bed until 8pm 2 nights ago he slept through until 5.45am.

Yesterday his nap was 11am till 12.30 (because of nursery) and I put him to bed at 6pm and he slept though till 6.45am.  So it must have been his early nap and overtieredness that was the problem.  Now I'm making sure that he goes down for a nap at 11am at the earliest and goes to bed 5.5 hours after waking from his nap.

Fingers crossed that it will continue. 

Thanks again for your help

[Layla]

Good to hear things are going well. With time, try pushing the nap to midday but 6pm-6:45is GREAT!!! At least he is catching up on some sleep....

 

[JNate]

With Nate we've actually pushed his bedtime later and its worked. He has a 10 hour sleep pattern which is pretty normal. Once he caught up on missed sleep he didn't need to go to bed as early. By pushing bed time later he seems to be more ready for bed and doesn't have the long nightly wakeups.....just a thought!