How much sleep does your 16 month old have?

[patchesmcp]

My DS has never been a great sleeper and he has probably only slept through the night no more than a dozen times since he was born. At the moment we seem to be going through a phase of waking in the night (only once) but then being awake for anything from 1 - 3 hours. The wakings can occur at anytime from about midnight until about 3.30 but when I total the amount of sleep he gets at night it seems to be no more than 10 hours, regardless of when he goes to sleep/wakes up. He tends to nap for anything from 1 hour 30 minutes up to 3 hours in the day generally, although it is normally about 2 hours.

I'd appreciate any advice anyone could give with the night wakings. When he does wake he does have a breastfeed and then tends to roll around our bed for ages. If we leave him he screams the house down but

Whoops, stupid phone!

...is ok if we are in the room with him. He self settles really well generally for naps and at bedtime, the only problem we have at the moment is this long night waking.

Thanks in advance!

My DS is also 16 months. He sleeps between 11.5 and 12.5 hours at night but he does still wake up and we bring him in with us at around 3am where he goes straight back to sleep. He has a two hour nap. He self settles most of the time in the evening so I have no idea why he can't settle himself in the night!

Is he a cot in your room or his own room? I would stop the breastfeed and only offer water at night, he might just stop waking if you cut it out. If he doesn't then can you just comfort him but not lift him out, hopefully he'll soon realise there is no point and just go back to sleep!

DS is nearly 16 months. He sleeps between 9 and 10 hours at night, and his daytime naps total anything between 40 minutes and 2 hours.

He did go through a phase of waking up at night and staying awake for ages, and when we added it up, it was still 10 -12 hours of sleep out of 24. We were putting him to bed early, and he was compensating.

He won't sleep for more than 12 hours out of 24 no matter what we do. Maybe your DS is waking up and staying awake because he's already getting enough sleep for him?

My 17mo sleeps 7pm-6am, 9-10am, 1-3pm.

Honestly I think there are two points - some children need less sleep than others. Sorry.

But also I think at this age they can be distracted out of tiredness. If I'm on the room with DS he WILL NOT sleep. I'd consider stopping the feed
and seeing how you got on.

My 16mo is in a toddler bed in my room. He was a god awful sleeper before I put him in there, he was cosleeping as he point blank refused to sleep in his cot, when he was tiny he would scream to the point of making himself sick, from 11mo he just flipped himself out of the damn thing!

When he was co-sleeping, he would have about 2 hrs nap from 8am-10am (while in the pram on the school run), an hours nap from 2.30-3.30 pm (again in the pram on the school run.)

He was then awake solidly till 12-1 in the morning. He would wake twice for a feed, and be up for the day at 5am.

As soon as I put him in a bed, he now goes to sleep at around 10.30pm most nights but not all, half wakes at 1am for a bottle (which if I shove in quick enough, he practically drinks in his sleep), then wakes at between 5.30-6am. He has two naps in the day still, at roughly the same times, too.

So it has gone from 7-8 hours in every 24, to 10-11 hours with just a small interlude to plug a bottle in!

I feel so much less like a Zombie now!

1. Have you tried a blackout blind, IMO they should be given out in Bounty packs!

2. It might be worth pondering a toddler bed, some DC's just really hate feeling 'hemmed in' by cot sides.

3. If BF'ing and cosleeping, DC will wake more, they can smell your milk. I knew with all 4 of my DC that I wasn't going to get a full night's sleep until they were no longer either BF or cosleeping.

4. Sone DC sleep better in a room with you in it, as they like to be able to see you as soon as they wake. Others will sleep better in a separate room as they are woken by your breathing or snoring, either from you or your DP.

DS is nearly 17 months. His sleep constantly changes but at the moment he's sleeping sometime between 7 and 8pm until sometime between 10pm and midnight. He then will only sleep again once he's in my bed. On a good night he'll then sleep until about 6am.

If he's at home with me he'll have a 2 hour nap from 10.40am (how weird!). If he's at the childminder he'll only have about an hour nap.

Oh, and we took the side off his cot last week.

Maybe he hears you moving around and thinks he is missing something? Or maybe he just needs a later bedtime until he drops the nap? Some DC's not mentioning any names DS1... drop their nap at 17-ish months, and then they sleep for a bit longer at night. And others still need a nap at 5yo! (DS2).

My DD has been a fairly good sleeper, currently goes from 7pm to 6.30/7am with a nap at 12.30-2.30 if she's at home or an hour ish if she's at nursery. I suspect the nap length at home will reduce soon.

Thanks everyone!

Would you believe it, we did nothing different last night and he decided to sleep through until 5.45am this morning!

He is in his own room and has been since about 6 months thank God

I think you are probably right about the breastfeeds but I'm reluctant to try it as the only time we have he got quite upset when my DH went in to him and when he took him out of his cot for a cuddle he proceeded to waddle walk through to see me :o

Think I will see what tonight holds before deciding what to do next. Fingers crossed...!