10 month old sleeping disturbances - sleeping patterns changing?

[lunarx]

(writing this as i listen to ds in his cot, awake, with a toy)

he's 10 months old and over the past month, he has woken a few times in the middle of the night, not always in pain, just wide awake and wanting to play. we've not been able to easily settle him so we get up with him.

is this common in babies this age? to wake when they once slept thru the night? last night when he was up, he wanted nothing more than to get on the floor to crawl and stand up.

i should also say that this isnt an every night occurance, but about once or twice a week.
he has also become more difficult to settle in the evening, we have a routine of bath and bottle, but a lot of nights that doesn't seem to do the trick, he acts tired (rubbing eyes, yawning...etc.) but when put in his cot, he's wide awake, standing up and then cries (or whines loudly.)

i don't know if there are other things we can do at night to help him sleep better all thru the night (or if the waking is just part of this stage in his development.)

i'm up for any suggestions, as this 'new' part of his once very routine sleep patterns is wearing me out quickly.

(also should say that he usually naps 4 hours a day on average, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.) (sorry for how scattered this post is, my nerves are a -.bit.- frayed and dh is holding ds!)

thanks=)

[hunkermunker]

Lunarx, I think that maybe 4 hours is a bit much sleep during the day - could you try letting him have three hours and seeing if he's more tired at bedtime? How many naps does he have?

When he does wake at night, don't get up with him - you're reinforcing the message that he can get up and play at night.

Would also say that when they're learning a new motor skill, they often practice it in the night - DS used to sleep crawl! He's get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth till he reached the end of the cot and banged his head...!

[lunarx]

on an average day, he has 1 nap in the morning and 1 in the afternoon,- we tried the last 2 days not letting him nap in the afternoon by being out during his afternoon nap time and he still refused/refuses to sleep.

unfortunately, the house we live in borders others and his crying would bother and wake other neighbours up. so, its a catch 22 situation, i dont want to get up with him, then its listening to him cry and scream and carry on...

[hunkermunker]

Can you try skipping the morning nap rather than the afternoon one? Or waking him up from them so you limit his sleep during the day?

[weesaidie]

I would try limiting the naps rather than dropping them altogether. I found it very difficult to wake up dd when she was happily napping but if it helps you sleep at night??

Recently my dd who has always gone to bed without a fuss has started whinging and it is really frustrating, why the sudden change!?

I try to tell myself that everything with wee ones is usually 'a phase,' nothing lasts! I try not to tell myself that when we are in a good phase though!

Good luck.

[lunarx]

thanks for the responses as always ladies
today i am going to try and limit his daytime naps and wake him up (with a quick way to distract him, as he hates being woken up!) and see (& hope!!) if that makes a difference tonight when bedtime rolls around.


weesaidie> how old is your dd?

[weesaidie]

My dd is 12 months now. I had a problem when she was about 9/10 months as I did cc to get her to sleep through. It only took a couple of nights but then she started waking up far earlier than she did before!

She used to get up for a feed between 4.30 and 6.30 and then go back to sleep until between 8 and 8.30. Once 'sleeping through' she began waking up between 6 and 6.30! I could not believe it, she wasn't hungry just ready to get up and play!

At the moment it is all over the place, usually around 7ish. She is teething so the routine is a bit messed up.

What I find difficult is that we sleep in the same room so I get woken up with every little noise... I am tempted to get a sofabed!

Hope all goes well today lunarx, it is horrible waking them up from naps I know!

[lunarx]

well, i dont want to get too excited about it, but yesterday i only let ds nap for 2 hours (split into 2 naps) and he went to bed by 8pm and slept til 8.30am this morning, am trying that approach again today!
luckily he wasnt too bad being woken up, i just wake him up gently and then hold him, change him and start playing, he soon forgets he was woken up =D

[Celou]

Dd is going though the same phase I think, she'll be
10months on the 12th of May. A couple of nights ago, we put her to bed at 7pm as normal and she stayed awake playing til 8.45pm!!! And the day after til 8.00pm. So I reduced her morning nap from 1h/1h15 to 30 min, then she slept 2 whole hours between 12 noon and 2pm and that's it. She was asleep by 6.50pm and woke up at 7.15am!!! I am not allowing more than 2 hours and a half napping during daytime now, but I have to say, I do hate waking her up, normally she's quite happy but today she absolutely screamed. Mind you she was alright 5 minutes later!

[lunarx]

sounds like cutting down your daughters naptime is working for you too, celou :D i hope it continues to. ds was NOT happy being woken from his afternoon nap and cried a lot, but now he's happily making sounds at the uplighter in his room (its new and he's just noticed it)
hope it continues to work for you=)

[Celou]

Yeah, still working (mind you I bet it won't work tonight now I said that!), she goes down at 6.50pm/7.00pm and wakes up at 6.50am/7.20am. When she wakes up around 7.20am I only allow her 2 hours nap in the aft, and when she wakes up at 6.50/7.00am I let her sleep 2 and a half hours.
I'm sure their development plays a big part in them waking up as well. The other night she was winging at about 5.00am, and I went to see after about 10 minutes, and poor thing she was sitting up with her thumb in her mouth, probably trying to fall asleep as she couldn't lie back down again (she hasn't worked out how to do that in her cot yet, and she's a bit restricted with her grobag.), poor thing, such a sweet picture though. I put her back in a lying down position and she fell asleep til 7.20am! And so did I!!

[lunarx]

good to hear! cutting back ds's naptime has helped SO much. he's now in bed by 7pm, sleeps thru til about 7.30am.. hopefully she'll work out soon how to lay back down in her grobag (we use one too)