How do i help my 1year old sleep through the night?

[HGrace]

Hi there, my husband and I adopted a little boy about 3 months ago. He is now 1 year old. We knew he woke a lot in the night when he came to us and were hoping it would improve over time. However, he often wakes 6 times in the night and last night woke just about every hour. To be fair to the little chap,he is teething lots of molars at the mo but we all just need more sleep! What strategies can we try which will continue to help / will not damage attachments? Have any of you had the same issue with an adopted baby and cracked it? X

Adopted or not quite common, some baby's are just like this , then all of a sudden peace and quite, our baby woke every hour , then just stopped.
Have too look at other things, noise, light, best time too put too bed, how active they are , like attention, are day time nap's too long, is baby interacting letting of energy during the day. has enough time on their own (day time)too explore and play . are they ready for their own room. some do not like dangly things above cot, or music, types of bedding and bed clothing may irritate them, all is trial and error.
Would not worry sure all will soon settle.

What worked for me...

cut down daytime nap and co-slept. He woke slightly less and I didn't wake up often when he did - he just checked I was there and went back to sleep.

That might not be what you want to hear though!

Hi HGrace,
You mentioned on another thread that his nappy is sometimes wet through at night:
Three ideas related to that:
Doing a wee in his sleep is probably waking him up. Cut back on offering too much to drink at bedtime. If he's taking a bottle offer it half an hour before bed so he's got time to wee and have a change before sleep.

Try moving up a nappy size. Nappies these days are extremely absorbent and really if the child's in the right size/ absorbency they won't generally feel 'wet'- I hope that helps regarding questions in your other thread. Nappy size isn't age related but more size / weight of child related eg. My very tiny AC at 17 months is in the size nappy my Bc's had at about 6 months!

And lastly, it's a nappy related idea again I'm afraid- when's he's waking up, only change him if it's completely necessary. Changing babies, especially one year olds, tends to break / wake them from their sleep cycle.

I also agree with the previous poster regarding daytime naps. This doesn't necessarily have to mean less sleep in the day, just cut down the number of naps to one long 'super nap'( eg. Happy hour for mummy when it's cup if tea and soap opera time!) When Ac moved in she transitioned from several little cat naps per day, to one solid two hour nap. One long nap in the day is good sleep training for night I feel, as I find that lots if little dozes mean wakefulness at night.

I hope this helps. Xxx

Ps. Or daytime nap 'happy hour' (which is actually two hours for me) is also time to post on MN! Xx

YEs was inherited at 12 months on 3 naps a day - I immediately moved it to 2, then switched to one by about 18 months.

Then he stopped napping at 2yrs

DS was inherited...

Hi Welovelego, thanks for your post. Think you might have read someone else's post cos my boy is not wet thro at night. His issues are more about separation I think.

YEs DS's sleep issues were definitely about separation.

My LO couldn't cope with quiet through the night, and woke roughly every hour (at two, but I don't want to depress you!). She slept better with a fan going, and I eventually bought a white noise machine thing. I think it was partly separation anxiety (80%), partly the change to a quieter house was unsettling, and partly she was born very prem and it's not uncommon for babies who spent a lot of their early months "learning" their sleep patterns in the SCBU to prefer noise and bustle when sleeping. I think the main difference was from just dragging myself into her as promptly and calmly as possible every single time she cried out, cuddling her for as long as she needed, and letting her take her time learning to trust that.

HGrace if you do co-sleep, which we did and really loved, remember to check out all the safety issues.

www.nct.org.uk/parenting/co-sleeping-safely-your-baby

and

www.babycentre.co.uk/a558334/co-sleeping-and-safety

I am afraid I can't offer any advice as dd was a terrible sleeper! Good luck.