Is this normal for an 11 month old? - sleep related.

[Jem88]

My LO has always been a bad sleeper, but has always woken up sleepy and settled either straight away with her dummy or within 5mins with shh pat. But the past 4 days she's started waking up and being awake for upto an hour wanting to play/not settle. It started at 5am, then 4am, lastnight was 3.40am and tonight it was 1.40am, i did the usual and tried to resettle, she did fall asleep at 2.40am but was then awake 10mins later. I then brought her downstairs (proberly the wrong thing to do?) and she's currently been playing happily for the past 1.5hrs.

I've been on the babywhisperer forum and they seem to think it's because she's overtired, but i can't get my head around it - she hasn't done this since she was 4 months old and has proberly been OT for months - hence the not sttn!

She's actually at my mums tonight/ later on as she wanted her for the night, but monday night if she does the same, do i keep trying to resettle her in her cot for an hour + until she does goto sleep, or do i get her up and let her play? as she clearly doesn't want to sleep.

 

[Fabby]

What are her naps like? How long does she have and how long is she awake between them?

 

[Mrs RC]

Do you have any sort of daytime routine?

Personally I wouldn't get her up. Nighttime is sleep time.

 

[Jem88]

She's currently been having a short 30min AM nap and then a long 1-2hr PM nap. I was letting her have a 30min AM nap and then waking her after 1hr30min PM nap and then bedtime after 4hr awake time, but she was then waking 30-40mins after going to bed. I then got told to let her sleep 1-2hrs PM nap to catch up sleep and put her to bed a little earlier.

The earliest she'll goto bed after a 2hr PM nap is 3hr 40-50mins. <- we've currently been doing this for the past 2 nights and she's went to bed fine, slept 3-4hrs.

Yesterday our day went like:

21 jan.
8.10am - up.
12.00pm - nap - Awake time 3hr 50mins.
12.30pm - up. 30mins.
2.45pm - nap. Awake time 2hr15mins. (this is normally 3hr before she'll sleep)
4.15pm - up. 1hr30mins (yesterday she woke up herself)
7.50pm - bed. 3hr 40mins.

We stayed downstairs lastnight until 3.45am, she then went straight to sleep in her cot but woke 40mins later (overtired sign) she was then screaming so i brought her in with us, and she slept 5.30 - 7.30am.

I don't want to keep bringing LO in with us, but at the mo i'm too tired to keep standing there trying to resettle for an hour +

Mrs RC - That's what i think too, lastnight was just a last resort iykwim, i can understand her being OT and waking early and wanting to play at 4.30am but 1.30am??

Any help would be great.

 

[Mrs RC]

I've always found Lucas slept badly if naps took him past 3.15pm. I found baby whisperer awkward for toddler age myself and moved to a different, not to be named, routine.

At about a year Lucas had a am catnap 940-10 then
A long sleep 1230-3 and went to bed at 7.15.

What about tring a longer sleep about midday with a hort afternoon nap of 20 mins to get her to bedtime, I'd say with a long afternoon nap that might be throwing her off balance?

X

 

[Jem88]

Thanks Yeah i was thinking of doing a long AM nap and then a short 20-30min catnap to take her to bedtime and seeing if that makes a diff, as we've now been doing short AM and long PM for about 4-5 days and does seem to be making things worse. Lastweek when she was still having an hour long AM and 1hr 30min PM nap, she was still waking during the night but not awake for an hour +

She's actually at my mums for the night tonight and she never has a nap there, she just refused to sleep lol. So i was thinking of doing a long AM nap today before she goes so atleast if she does refuse her PM nap she won't be that OT. - I hope lol.x

 

[k4th]

My dd was waking in the night recently. I never got up with her - it's just not an option for us, I can't do it!! I love my bed and there is no way I'm playing instead of sleeping or trying to sleep. We do cosleep if she's having a really bad night.

It went against my instincts but the routine we follow suggested cutting the am nap down to just 15-20 minutes and keeping a full 2 hour LTN. Like I say I was very dubious but it has worked a treat!! No more night waking & she's shattered by lunchtime so has a good nap to see her through 4ish hours until bed.

Our sleep routine is:
7am up
9.45 settle for nap -wake between 10 & 5 past
12.30 settle for lunch - 2 hour nap
6.30 bath, bottle & in bed for 7pm

I get so worried about dd getting overtired, she sleeps really badly if she gets that way. I'm aiming to drop an nap soon & just have a big nap in the middle of the day so our routine is working towards that.

 

[Mrs RC]

My dd was waking in the night recently. I never got up with her - it's just not an option for us, I can't do it!! I love my bed and there is no way I'm playing instead of sleeping or trying to sleep. We do cosleep if she's having a really bad night.

It went against my instincts but the routine we follow suggested cutting the am nap down to just 15-20 minutes and keeping a full 2 hour LTN. Like I say I was very dubious but it has worked a treat!! No more night waking & she's shattered by lunchtime so has a good nap to see her through 4ish hours until bed.

Our sleep routine is:
7am up
9.45 settle for nap -wake between 10 & 5 past
12.30 settle for lunch - 2 hour nap
6.30 bath, bottle & in bed for 7pm

I get so worried about dd getting overtired, she sleeps really badly if she gets that way. I'm aiming to drop an nap soon & just have a big nap in the middle of the day so our routine is working towards that.

That's pretty much what we had at a year old too - I expect we follow the same routine!

 

[k4th]

My dd was waking in the night recently. I never got up with her - it's just not an option for us, I can't do it!! I love my bed and there is no way I'm playing instead of sleeping or trying to sleep. We do cosleep if she's having a really bad night.

It went against my instincts but the routine we follow suggested cutting the am nap down to just 15-20 minutes and keeping a full 2 hour LTN. Like I say I was very dubious but it has worked a treat!! No more night waking & she's shattered by lunchtime so has a good nap to see her through 4ish hours until bed.

Our sleep routine is:
7am up
9.45 settle for nap -wake between 10 & 5 past
12.30 settle for lunch - 2 hour nap
6.30 bath, bottle & in bed for 7pm

I get so worried about dd getting overtired, she sleeps really badly if she gets that way. I'm aiming to drop an nap soon & just have a big nap in the middle of the day so our routine is working towards that.

That's pretty much what we had at a year old too - I expect we follow the same routine!

Yes I think you're right. Shhhhhh lol!

 

[Jem88]

k4th - This is what i was trying to do, but maybe i shouldn't of capped the PM nap at 1.5hrs
but at the mo i can't really get a short and a long nap in a 12hr day, it always seems to go 13hr + as she won't goto sleep earlier than 3hr 40mins for her AM nap and earlier than 3hrs for PM and then the earliest for bedtime is 3hr 40.

She was sleeping fine until i started messing around and trying to cap and waking her from naps she wasn't sttn but she wasn't waking up and wanting to play lol. We've actually had her in our bed at somepoint everynight/day for the past 4 nights lol. - she's never been in our bed since she was tiny. - not a habit i want to get into as she moves around so much

 

[k4th]

If she's trying to go so long between naps I'd be very tempted to try just one big nap & maybe bring bedtime forward a little if needed. I noticed your first nap is 12 - if you let her nap as long as she likes how much sleep would she get? I'm thinking if she might sleep until 2.30 I'd bring bedtime to 6.30 & see if that makes any difference?

When we drop our morning nap I plan to do 12 onwards & then make her last until bedtime. I don't know how easy this is in practise though tbh - I'm putting it off as long as possible!! I like my 20 mins to get ready in the morning!!

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom was like this in the night from about 9 to 12 months - every night he'd been awake for up to 3 hours. He'd settle fine to sleep at 7pmish, sleep till about 1 then be awake till somewhere between 3 and 4am and then sleep till about 6am. We took turns to sit with him in the dark in his room and cuddle him till he went back to sleep. There was no point leaving him because he'd just get upset and you could see he was trying to go back to sleep but just wasn't sleepy and if we brought him into our bed, he'd want to play and the same if we took him downstairs.

I think partly his naps in the day weren't helping - he was having a good 3 hrs over the day with 1hr between 9 and 10am and then 2 hours from 1 to 3pm. He gradually got better when I cut his daytime sleep down to 2 hours total and didn't let him sleep past 3pm but I think it was also a phase that he grew out of too.

Maybe try and bring the afternoon nap forward a bit by making her morning sleep shorter or try and get her to go down earlier for the 1st nap?

 

[Jem88]

I actually tried just one nap about 2 weeks ago for about 3 days but i kept her up 5hrs instead of 4hrs and she did sleep alot better for the first 2 days but then 3rd it started to go down hill, so i then changed back to 2 naps but 1 short and 1 long but i've proberly caused her to become very OT

She's at my mums tonight for the night, i'll see how she sleeps and then tues i'll try with just 1 nap and an early bedtime