13 month old still not sleeping through the night

[laurencopenhaver]

So I should really try to just cold turkey cut the early am feed?  Say it's 5:40 like this morning,  would he really go back to sleep if he's hungry?  Plus it's always random which makes me think hunger, and I don't know if he's getting enough during the day, does it seem like enough food to you is my main question?  I know all babies needs are different, but does it seem normal or way below?

[laurencopenhaver]

Yeah I agree, I've decided to just cut it cold turkey.  My husband laughed and said okay, I'll see you when I get home from work (incinuating I'd be there all night).  But last night he didn't actually wake to feed, he slept extremely fitfully, crying out 3-4 times for about a minute or so, but didn't wake wake until 6:30.  Bedtime was 7:45, is that enough sleep?  He had 2 good naps yesterday; 1 hr am, and 1 hr 20 min. pm, and went to bed 3 hr 45 min after waking from nap, so I though he'd sleep great, but slept worse than usual.  Crying out once is normal for him, but that's even when he get's up to eat.  Last night was the 3rd night out of 4 that I didn't actually have to get up and give him milk.  Maybe, hopefully, it'll become habit.  I posted on the food, and she said that he's definitely getting enough to eat, so that makes me feel better about cutting his night feed out.  I guess as you say he wasn't but getting an ounce anyway.

Say he goes to bed at 7:45-8:15, which is what he's been doing, and he wakes around 6:15-6:30, do I spend the next hour trying to get him back to sleep or do I just get him up?  Since he's been taking the 2 naps for the last couple weeks, he's been going to bed later.  But it seems no matter when he goes to bed, he's always up by 6:30-7:00.  Is that enough nightime sleep, if he's getting 10.5 at night and 2-2.5 during the day?

[laurencopenhaver]

Yeah I know it's not going to be pleasant when he wakes, but hopefully since I haven't done any naps or bedtime w/ the sippy, than it won't be as bad.  I'm glad now that I moved sippy's to not RIGHT before sleep time.  Maybe he'll be a little used to it and it won't be as bad as I'm anticipating.

What if it's over an hour and he's still screaming?  Does that mean he's truly hungry, or how long do I just let him scream for?

[laurencopenhaver]

no, I run a home daycare now so I want the night wakings to stop.  I think he'll have a more balanced day and it'll be easier to transition to the one nap when necessary.  So I just hope he doesn't wake at 3 am and scream until 7 am.  I hope he runs out of steam before that.  And if he falls asleep at 6:30...wake him when?

Meal times aren't as big an issue w/ the damanding of milk.  If I don't wait till he's absolutely starving, he'll eat the food first as long as the cup of milk isn't sitting right there, but if he sees it he wants it.  Now I just need to find more things he'll eat.  Any reccomendations on books for baby finger foods/meals?

Can't wait for tonight!

[laurencopenhaver]

Well, this morning was fun as I thought it would be.  he woke at 5 and cried until 7.  But it wasn't all out screaming bloody murder, it was more like mommy why won't you pick me up and frustration.  But then I though since he wasn't as bad as he was that he'd go back to sleep sooner.  he fell asleep at 7, woke up at 7:30 happy as ever, laughing, and is fine now.  At a good bf at 8:15, and now playing.  So at least now I know he wasn't hungry.  It doesn't bother me to hear him cry as long as I know he's not hungry.  That was my biggest issue.  I couldn't handle the thought of depriving him of a need.  But when he got up, he didn't even ask to eat, I just fed him at 8:15 and luckily he was hungry I guess.  I hope tomorrow is better cause I definitely can't deal w/ him crying for 2 hours every morning.  How long usually does a habit this entrenched take to break...a week, 2 weeks?  If he wasn't all out screaming, I didn't think it would take that long since we don't do bottles before going to sleep anymore, and never have for the am nap.  But I guess once you get used to a certain thing at a certain time it's hard.  I just felt sorry for him cause he was so tired but woudn't go to sleep, and when he tried (got quiet, shut his eyes), he popped them right open and sat up to make sure i was still there, and got scared if he couldn't see me.  This normal?

[laurencopenhaver]

Well another sleepless morning.  He starts in about 5:00, 1/2 asleep but whining/cry out/moaning, then finally about 6:15 I went in.  Same thing, wouldn't fall back asleep. Got him up at 7.  When do I put him back to sleep?  He's technically been up since bout 5, and would already be taking a nap, but I just got him up.

[laurencopenhaver]

He was asleep at 8:30 and back up at 9.  I just put him down again at 12:40.  The past 4-5 days he's down to taking 1 hr naps, am and pm.  He WAS taking 2 good 1-1.5 hr naps, now they seem to be exactly 1 hr.  Any ideas on that? 

[laurencopenhaver]

Last night was pretty good, he didn't sleep well during the day, woke up crying twice, so I fugured bad night, but it's always reversed.  The less sleep he gets during the day the better he sleeps at night and vice versa.  He fell asleep at 6:50 and slept until, well about 6:15 started making noises off and on and got up at 7.  It's been an every other day thing, waking up early am.  Last night was the 5th night and he'll sleep through one night like last night, then the night before he woke at 5:45 and had to just get him up at 7 cause he wouldn't go back to sleep.  He IS eating better now that I've stopped that early am water feed.  This morning he even had 3/4 of a granola/fruit bar for snack at 9:30 cause he was hungry, w/ some water.  And he's been getting a pm snack around 3 and still eating good lunch and dinner.

[laurencopenhaver]

He didn't wake again last night to feed, but still slept quite fitfully.  Is it normal for them to wake 3-4 times crying out for a couple seconds?  He only had a short 45 min. pm nap, woke up at 3:45, and put to bed at 6:45, didn't fall asleep till 7:15; rolled around babbling and talking.  Too late?  I figured if he was more tired he would have fallen asleep, I didn't think I put him to bed too late.  Although he was real tired when he woke from 2nd nap.

I run a home daycare and in a few weeks I'm going to have an infant coming.  It will be really hard and I wanted to really start the transition to 1 nap.  Can I do that by gradually extending the am nap by 15 min over 3 day increments?  That's what I read on here.  But what does that do to the pm nap?  A lot of times his pm nap is only 45 min anyway so it might not matter.  He's always taken a longer am nap than pm, and he can go a lot longer in the afternoon that he can morning.  Yesterday he had a 1 hr 15 min morning nap, and 4 hrs later only napped for 45 min, which indicates not enough awake time usually.  Right now he wakes around 7 and like yesterday he was asleep by 9:45, could have been a little earlier too.  Say his morning nap comes to be 10-11:30 here in the next few days, is it alright to put down around 3:30 for 45 min or so?  Or is that considered the catnap which will screw them up at night?  How late is too late to start the pm nap.

[laurencopenhaver]

No the 4 hours after the 1 hr 15 wasn't enough, I could tell by how he was acting, and he just babbled in his crib for 15 min or so before trying to go to sleep.  If he's tired enough he'll roll over and start moaning/self-soothing right away.  And 45 w/ him means not enough awake time, 30 means too long.  I've tried the short am nap thing and it doesn't seem to work for him.  He's too tired in the morning and he just cries and is cranky the rest of the day if the am is any shorter than 45.  And he won't nap good in afternoon, that's just how he's always been.  I was just wondering when it's considered "too late" to start the pm nap.  I know like you said before a late catnap can cause sleep disturbances, but when is that considered?  Is going down at 3:30 for a 45-1 hr nap too late?

[laurencopenhaver]

I will watch for overtired and if he does refuse pm nap, then I know it's definitely time to work more on transitioning to one.

He slept better last night, cried out a couple times but not so much awake time and moaning in the early am, and slept till 7:15  Is eating better and actually trying more things.  I got him to eat 3 new things all in one day.

Still no idea on when it's too late to start pm nap?  And when it's considered "catnap?"  If I give the 45 min. nap around 3:30, up by 4:15, he'd still be in bed by 7:45-8.

[laurencopenhaver]

He refused the pm nap yesterday, and only napped for 45 min am, and of course, slept better than he ever has! 4th night in a row now. Went to sleep at 6:20 and slept until 7:30 this morning, barely stirring once I think and nothing early am till 7:30.  Plus it thundered and lightning harder than it has in years here from 1:30 until 6:00 this morning.  I think one of our barns got struck cause it was so loud and he never even flinched.  Since he didn't wake until 7:30 I put him down around 10:30, and must have been too much for him cause he only slept for 35 min.  So now, 3 hrs later, I've had him in bed for 10-15 min now and so far, not going to sleep.  I'm sure he's going to start refusing the naps again and now all the work on night training will be down the drain cause he'll be so stinkin overtired.  Uggh!

I've heard it takes 2 weeks of doing the one nap thing consecutively to see what the results are going to be, is that true?  If he's going to continue to refuse the pm nap, I'm going to have to give am nap later and later.  He's never refused the am nap, just the pm.  He's also never taken a longer pm nap either.  He loves his longer am nap and is fine w/ shorter pm nap.  But when he refuses like this, it's hard cause, like this morning, he had 13 hrs 10 min of nighttime sleep un-interrupted and 3 hrs upon waking for nap was too much. (Although he did only get a 45 min. nap total in yesterday, that may be why).  It's hard to aim for the one nap when 3 hrs is too much.  Should I just try to keep pushing it back 15 min every 3 days?  And only after a couple weeks will I really see what the results are going to be?  I'm hoping that now that we seem to be on track w/ not waking early am for sippy, that I'll be able to tell if it's working.  Cause before if he would wake I couldn't tell if it was ot or not cause he was used to waking at that time anyway. I know your suggestion is the short am nap thing, but any thoughts on this since this is how my little stinker works?

[binxyboo]

Hi!

When I first transitioned Riley to one nap, he was about 14 months, he would go down for nap at 11:30, hopefully sleep for 2-3 hours, and then have an early bedtime. For a while, he would wake one hour into his nap, but I could almost always extend the nap (a little snuggle and he would go back down again). Often on weekends, he would still have a catnap in the mornings until he outgrew it. When he did this, if I couldn't get him asleep for his pm nap by 3pm, I just kept him up and did a super early bedtime instead.

So, you are doing daycare now? How many children do you take care of? Tough work, rewarding but tough!

[laurencopenhaver]

my daycare is good, I have 3 other little guys,  it's worth every minute to be able to stay home w/ him.

He's not doing so well anymore.  For about a week now he won't nap for longer than 30-45 min and won't go back to sleep, always wakes crying.  it happened rightt about the time i took away the sippy at night.  he was doing great at night, slept 12-13 hrs straight w/out me having to give the sippy or even get up w/ him.  And now he won' nap,  I can't take much more of this.  Whenever one thing goes right, something else goes wrong.  He was taking 2 great 1-1.5 hr naps a day.  i don't think it's teeth, they're not red or swolen.  he's also changed personality too.  He's very destructive, throws fits all the time, and yells constantly.  Quite the brat sometimes.  What is going on!!!  Since i have my daycare I can' spend an hour trying to get him back to sleep upstairs cause i have to be w/ the other kids.  And before we tried to transition to one and didn't work.  He, unlike every single other baby I know of, won't sleep for that 2-3 hours.  I'm lucky if he'll sleep for 1.5 hrs.  Usually it's an hour, until recently.  But before when i tried, i only tried it for proba bly less than a week.  But by 10:00 he's so tired that he just wines, and now is sometimes refusing the pm nap too.  Since naps are such disaster anyway should i just cut to one for a couple weeks and see what happens.  Cause he's not geting more than 1-1 hr 15 min of nap time in the day anyway.  bedtime now has been b/t 6-6:30, and waking around 7;15-7;30.  i need help BinxyBoo, what do i do?!!!

[laurencopenhaver]

Alright I've decided I'm done.  I've been on this website for over a year now, done absolutely everything all of you and the book have said, tried everything, and he still doesn't sleep through the night, still won't nap.  I can't take it anymore, especially since I've put my heart and soul into doing this for 14 months now and no results, especially since every single one of my friends does everything against the book and their babies slept through the night at 3 months and take 3 hr naps.  He took 1-1.5 hr naps for 2 months out of his life and now it's back to the way it was.  I have an infant in my daycare now so I can't spend an hour up there like I've been doing, so it's pointless to try.  If anyone has one last suggestions, please by all means, for I've done everything else.  But I'm finally calling it quits.  Thanks for all who've tried, but I don't think I can do it anymore.