11.5 month baby suddenly waking at night for two hours - killing me! Please help!

[No1MummytoOtto]

Hi,

My DS is almost one year and has never been the best sleeper, but at around ten months we were making real head way; he was sleeping through most nights 7pm to 6am. The last few weeks he has been waking at night and not being able to settle himself back to sleep (only very occasionally will I hear him stir and then nod off again).

He only wakes once a night but when he does he will be awake for 2 hours and really requires me to be in the room with him for most of that otherwise he starts to get distressed and I have never let him cry it out - don't think I could - and am not happy to start now. He usually wakes at around 3/4am but there have been nights when it has been earlier (pre midnight), and when he wakes I usually give him a good 10 to 20 minutes (he isn't crying just babbling away in his cot) before I go in, in the hope (ha ha!!) that he'll be able to settle himself back down. Settling him back to sleep involves cuddles on my lap, shushing, back rubbing, try the same with him lying in his cot and a bottle (we dropped night feeds a couple of months ago so I was unhappy about reintroducing a night bottle but it seems to help him settle down again) and eventually him lying in his cot on his side with my hand on his back, which I remove just as he's finally nodding off.

I don't think he's waking out of being too hot/cold or hungry and although he has been teething on and off, he isn't at the moment and I'm really worried that for whatever reason his body has got into a rhythm of waking like this and I don't know how to break the cycle. He naps once (2.5-3 hrs morning nap at 9:30) and occasionally twice (45 minute second nap in the afternoon) and when he does wake at night for 2 hrs he then sleeps until 8 ish. I have been trying to drop the second nap because his having it means doesn't go down to sleep until 8/8:30 pm.

This is really killing me and I would be so grateful to hear any advice from others who have experienced something like this and managed to come out the other side :) Thank you

[peanutMD]

I don't actually have any advice as we're sort of in the same boat.

My 6 month old went from waking once/twice a night for 10 minutes (birth-3 months) to hourly feeds (3-5 months) to now where she goes down at 7.30, feeds at 12, 2 and is wide awake for the day at 3.

She sleeps in or room as she will have to share a room with her brother who fires to school so can't move her until she sleeps through, have tried feeding/cosleeping/soothing her/crying it out but nothing works.


I'm getting to the stage where i'm struggling to cope during the day let alone at night and DP and I are constantly ratty with DS/DD/each other until bedtime when it stats all over again :(

I just want to make it stop!!

[TheFallenNinja]

Exactly the same here

[WeeLors]

Have a google of wonder weeks. There are very specific stages in babies development where there are major changes going on in the brain and it can really affect sleep for a wee while (a bit like if you've got something major on the next day and you can't sleep for thinking about it, can't quiet your brain). If I remember rightly there's one around 11mths so it could just be a developmental thing, once the wonder week has passed then sleep should right itself again (btw, wonder week refers to the week the new skills emerge, mood and sleep can be affected for a good few weeks beforehand).

I would say you just have to ride it out (I know, I'm not really helping here), it'll pass, hopefully soon.

[mummyxtwo]

My dd2 is 10.5mo and also doing the same. I have had to bring her into bed with me because she is still in our room and dh is a surgeon so needs his sleep and I haven't wanted to let her cry. Cuddling her in bed has hurt my back though, so last night that wasn't an option and apart from getting up occasionally to lay her back down flat (she kept standing up in her cot crying) and give her a gentle stroke, I largely let her CIO. She cried and shouted for maybe 20 minutes and then lay back down and went to sleep after a few whimpers. I felt dreadful that she had wanted Mummy and I hadn't come! Needs must though, and she had pretty much broken me with the sleep deprivation and then the bad back. Hoping she gets the message and tonight is better. She was previously a good sleeper. Have you tried cutting down your ds's morning nap time, and popping in to gently wake him after 90 minutes? 2.5-3 hours is a long time, and he may be waking in the middle of the night not feeling tired because he's had all that sleep in the day. Dd2 sleeps for between 45 mins and 1.5 hours in the morning, and then usually naps for maybe 45 mins in the afternoon. Hope it improves for you soon, I feel your pain and exhaustion! Passes you a

[GailTheGoldfish]

As mummyx2 says, I would be reducing his day sleep. It was around the age your DS is I had to stop DD napping past or after about 2pm as she just will not settle down to sleep until 9pm or later if she has had an afternoon nap. These days, if DD has a 1.5 hour nap from about 10 she will go to bed at 7 with no fuss and sleep well during the night, and get up about 6.30am. Why not try waking him after 1.5 hours from his morning nap and then letting him nap again for 40 mins or so in the afternoon if necesary and see what happens? But remember, everything's a phase and this one will end. Good luck!

[stormedmentor]

Put the nap forward to 11 and shorten it to 45 mins
DS did that and we moved it forward and shortened it along with me drinking strong