13 month old short naps and early waking?

[kittentits]

My 13 month old is currently surviving on two naps of roughly half an hour a time, and about 11 hours sleep (with several wake ups) at night. He is grouchy most of the time and it's becoming a problem!

Up until 3 weeks ago the situation was very different, he was fed to sleep for every nap and bed time. Slept in our arms for naps, transferred from boob to cot at bedtime with frequent wakings until I went up, after which point we coslept with him waking to feed five or six times a night. We then moved house, he went straight into his own room,and we stopped night feeds. This was much easier than I expected, it appeared that cosleeping was disturbing him because he now wakes less frequently and will be settled back to sleep with pats on the tummy. So, definite progress. His morning waking is getting earlier, we are at around half five most mornings now. Naps are terrible, I wouldn't mind at all if that was all he needed but he clearly needs more. He wakes up crying and is upset until he's distracted by something (usually food). Then he remains grouchy and irritable until he next nap, when he will again have half an hour almost to the second then wake up crying again.

I have tried settling him back to sleep rather than getting him up but it doesn't work, he just gets himself more and more worked up. I've also tried waking him just before he'd be due to wake up then settling him back, but this doesn't work either.

For the first few days after we moved he was napping for at least an hour at a time and was much happier, I don't know why he has changed. He doesn't seem to be teething but I suppose it's an option...

Anyone got any wise words for me?

[glowfrog]

Hi there

Am in a slightly similar situation, with a 12 month old who doesn't nap well and only really sleeps in my arms or near me!

With naps, have you tried the pram? Sometimes that works with mine. Just push it back and forth if you don't want to go out.

[kittentits]

He will sleep in the pram only if we are outside, and it takes a lot of walking! School run is about an hour and if I'm lucky he will sleep on the second half of it on the way back.

Oh and we can't let him sleep after about 4pm or he won't go to bed at bedtime! Argh!

[SittingDuck2]

How frustrating: my DD (10 months) also only has short half hour naps so I go with a 3 naps a day routine as 2 just wouldn't be enough. Are you able to add another nap to his routine? Or maybe he's ready to drop down to one nap if he's sleeping better at night. Perhaps you could also increase playing time in his room/cot (with you there) to entrench positive feelings about the room which is still new to him and he'll be more conscious of this in the daytime.

[mrsmugoo]

If probably try to get him on one long nap a day after lunch - you will need to work quite hard at keeping entertained in the morning (e.g park / soft play).

11 hours sleep at night is fine, not all do 12.