14 month old waking at random times at night

[nettiehay]

Please could someone tell me if it is possible I am going crazy? My 14mo DS wakes during the night at random times, but usually sometime after 4am. Although last night it was 1.15am! He is easily settled with a bottle and then gets himself back to sleep. He doesn't normally finish the bottle though. He then sleeps until anywhere between 6.30am and 7.30am (when I need to wake him to get ready to go to CM).

On weekends he usually wakes at the same time, sometimes later (8am). Last weekend he stayed with FIL and he slept to 10.30am . Is there something else I could be doing to get him to sleep through? I am dead on my feet at work, even though I'm probably only awake for about 5 minutes (enough time to give the bottle and stumble back to bed! ) Maybe it's me that has the problem and not him??
TIA

[ches]

Go to bed earlier. 5 minutes of being awake at night is not causing exhaustion.

[nettiehay]

thanks... i was pretty sure it was just me

I keep falling asleep on the sofa at night, so will ahve an earlier bed time i think

[Maria2007]

Not sure what to suggest...not even sure if this thread is still going! Anyway, it caught my eye because my 13 month old is also waking randomly after sleeping through very well for many months. I've also resorted to giving him some baby tea (something like chamomile) but that seems to have a negative effect, i.e. it's made him wake more often, apparently wanting the tea .

(Sorry, Ches, but saying 'go to bed earlier' is not very helpful. The idea is to think about suggestions that might actually work. Children respond well sometimes to changes parents make, you know...)

[ches]

Maria, a five minute disruption in a night's sleep is not enough to cause chronic sleep deficit. So would you rather I suggested all manner of things (increasingly cruel) to make the baby sleep through before he's ready (which isn't actually possible) or suggest the obvious solution of getting more sleep that is quite easy to implement?

Do you think, perhaps, that in 2.5 years of having a child who wakes >4 times a night I might've learned the hard way that there's no way to force a child to sleep through before he's ready and that you have to change YOURSELF to get the sleep you need to cope? And that it's easier to change the one person you have COMPLETE CONTROL over?

[Maria2007]

Well I disagree with almost everything you say (e.g. the idea that children are 'ready' to sleep through, and also the implication that there is this vague 'all manner of things (increasingly cruel) that parents do- basically, you mean sleep training don't you?) so I think we'd better leave it there & agree to disagree. I'm really sorry though to hear that for 2.5 years your child doesn't sleep & wakes that often, that must be truly horrible.

By the way. I don't believe we have COMPLETE CONTROL over ourselves, let alone anyone else. The fact that people try different things- including sleep training of various types- to help their children learn to sleep does not mean they think they have 'complete control'.