Quick poll......sleeping habits in 9 month - 18 month olds

[goldendelicious]

DS is almost a year old. Just wondering what other babies sleeping habits (both day and night) are.

IMO DS isn't a fantastic sleeper - goes from 8pm till 1am, wakes up has to either have someone stood with him or a bottle. Sleeps then till about 5 or 6 then wakes up, sometimes has bottle then might drop off (but ONLY in our bed this time) but might stay awake. Once awake lasts about and hour and a half before he sleeps again for nearly two hours. Rarely sleeps at all in the afternoons!

Want to try and get him to stop waking and having such a long nap so soon after waking.

What do your children do and any tips for a tired mummy???

[riab]

golden,
exercise makes a big difference for us, I try and take him to as many active play sessions as possible. we do somethign everyday- playgroun, tumble time, swimming etc. Playgroups are good too as the stimulation of other children seems to help wear him out!

[CrotchetyCow]

DD is 14 months.
She wakes between 7.30 and 9am and has breakfast. She gets put down for a nap between 10.30 and 11am, sleeps until 12.30-1pm when she has a small lunch. She has a small snack at 3pm and a large evening meal at 5pm.
She then gets a beaker of milk while we do some quiet play with lots of cuddles, refill beaker and a biscuit while we and sit and read some stories around 6pm. Bath and then bed, asleep at 7pm. Before I put her into her bed we sit in the dark in her room and I give her some more milk, very quiet chat/sing and then we have a lovely cuddle
(absolute best part of the day) and she is put down. I always wish her goodnight and tell her I will see her in the morning.

[goldendelicious]

Thanks riab, some great tips there i'll give them a go!

I never thought along the lines of exercise - he's just starting to walk now so in a few weeks I might see a change for the better if he's wearing himself (and me!) out running riot round the house!

He ate loads for tea tonight but not till 6pm - had late breakfast as we were running very late this morning after 2am phone call from DH work so this threw everything out of whack. Must try harder!!

P.S - i've posted on the feeding thread in support of your decisions, I was exactly the same

[riab]

DS (17 mo) sleeps from 7.15/7.30pm til about 6/6.30am which isn't bad. he DOES wake up however about 3 night out of 7, I thought he must be hungry but soon realised its just thirst/nappy change. So we have it down to a fine art now.
I go in, lift him out and put him down with bottle stright in his mouth, he drinks while I change his nappy (he is in a sleeping bag so I only unzip it as much as needed for the change).
All done with no talking and light off.

He then has a nap after lunch from about 12/12.30 - 2pm. (recently cut this back to 1 1/2 hrs as it seems to mean better sleep at night.

If he hasn't had enough exercise he can wake at 5/5.30am GRRRRRRRRRR and refuse to go back to sleep. Those days he is VERY tired by about 9am, occasioanlly I let him have a 15-30 minute catnap on me, (ie not in his cot), or DVD for an hour, or I take him on a long walk in his pram - (he doesn't sleep just zones out)

My top tips:

Give him a HUGE tea, don't give any juice or snacks after 1pm and then give tea between 4 and 5pm, lots of starchy stuff, pasta is a fav in our house.

Then give a bottle of milk or BF for supper plus a plain biscuit or toast if he will eat it.

Now you've ruled out hunger!

Decide on a bedtime routine, you can pat/stroke/stnad by the cot/sing - whatever you want to do but you're doing this in the night as well so make sure you can do it for up to an hour at 1am.
We do lights off, bottle of milk, snuggle cuddle, into cot, 3 nursery rhymes (same ones which i know by heart) then SHhhh goodnight repeated.

Any waking in the ngiht do nappy/drink as quickly and quietly as possible then go straight back to bedime routine.

It took us 4 weeks to get is sussed but it worked! from 8 month DS was a terrible sleeper and as I was workign I was at my wits end. But we sorted it out, I don't mind the odd wakeup a 3am as I figure he gets thirsty just like I do and he can't manage the bottle yet himself. (he is back to sleep within 30 minutes)

PM me if you want details

[fluffymum]

hi there. I have ds1 (3yrs), DS2 10 months. Both can get very thirsty in the night. Ds1 always wants his bottle of water by the bed if he wakes in the night thirsty. If ds2 wakes in the night He will down half a bottle of water.

Could your babe be thirsty not hungry?,Just a thought.

My ds2 sleeping well now (6.30-6.30) but it is variable and depends on teeth. Next week things may change, but I am not getting that regular wake up time in middle of night since introducing water.

So far as naps go, he has nap within an hour or 2 of waking for maybe an hour and then again in afternoon , 3 or 4 for maybe 1.5 hours.

We are flexible here...I'm no good at strict routine but do try to keep bedtimes the same.

[goldendelicious]

Well last night tried giving DS a bottle when he cried at 9.45pm (never done that before) but he wouldn't have it at all. Went back to sleep in DH's arms so we put him back in his cot where he slept till 3.30am, then woke up screaming. I put him in bed with me (DH had been phoned at 2.00am to go in to work as burglar alarm was going off ) and he moaned a bit, then laid awake for AGES just looking round the room (laid down not crying or anything). Fell asleep eventually.

Anyways, I didn't give him any milk at all during the night. DH will give in easier but he didn't get back till gone 6am (his work had actually been burgled ) so I was in sole charge! As a result DS has eaten really well today and gone to bed easily at 8pm so we'll see what happens tonight.....

Sorry, thats a big post!!!

[pogface]

My ds is 10 months - he sleeps 7.30 til 11.30 , when i wake him or he wakes for a b/f - if i leave him he wakes at 2 or 3; then again til around 5 or 6 - but i have always regarded this as still night time, and treated the feed i give him at this point as a nightfeed, done in the dark, and put him straight back down afterwards. nine times out of ten he'll go back to sleep til at least 7.30 (used to sleep til 8.30 but its got earlier and earlier).
Would love to phase out the 11pm feed but feel certain that would just mean he woke at 3 or 4 am which is a lot more painful; he hardly eats during the day so darent risk it!
nice to hear so many others arent sleeping thru either!

[bobblehead]

I eat extremely well through the day, but I can wake up hungry at 4am, so I'm not convinced babies don't get hungry. Of course they won't starve, but its not like they can look at a clock and say "oh well, breakfast in a couple hours anyway, I'll just enjoy my sleep".

Of course I'm a total pushover though and will believe anything to justify not having to do cc

[jellybellie]

my ds (11 months) goes to bed around 7.00pm (bath, milk, story, bed routine) and sleeps through till 6.00am-6.30am - babbles to himself and plays with the pattern on his sleeping bag! till dh gets him up around 7.00am. Has two naps - about 10.00am for 1.5 hrs and about 1.30pm for 1.5 hrs. All subject to change obviously but usually pretty much sticks to this. Does often cry out for a few seconds in the middle of the night but falls back asleep pretty quickly - usually the result of banging his head on the cot when he moves in his sleep!!

[foundintranslation]

ds (15 months) wakes between 6.30 and (sometimes) 8, will sometimes play in his cot for a bit while dh and I lie next to him and struggle to wake up, generally has one 1-2 hour sleep around midday, but will sometimes sleep in the morning and again in the afternoon, and occasionally sleeps very late in the afternoon (5 or 6pm) leading to bedtime (which is late as it is - 9pm or so - he's just not tired before then) being even later. I still bf him to sleep, but it is sometimes possible to put him in his cot when he's drowsy but awake and he'll drop off himself. He usually wakes up once a night, around 4am - sometimes wakes twice and sometimes sleeps through.

[thekidsmum]

DS 17m goes to sleep on DH knee after some milk. Put in bed at anywhere from 8.00-8.30 sleeps till 6.00 am 7.00am. Will have a two hour sleep around 11.00 - 1.00 or some times misses it out altogether. We always get him to sleep on our knees in the living room, he doesnt have any problems settling himself when he wakes during the night. On the rare occasion he does wake up usualy if he is ill, we put him in bed with us and he goes back to sleep, then we can put him back in his cot or if we all go back to sleep we leave him. Have done this with all 4 children.

[PinkTulips]

dd is just 19 months and has been in this routine since 11 months

bath, story, bf/bottle, then bed at 7.30, sleeps til either 6/7 and comes into bed with us for an hour or wakes at 8 and plays in her cot til 9ish

she has a nap somedays, not others... she asks for one if she wants it at about 11/12. seems fine the days she doesnt haveit though so go figure!

before 11 months she was a nightmare... couldn't get her to sleep til 3/4am some night and she's want up again at 5/6am and wouldn't nap at all. she was getting ill from exhaustion and i wasn't far behind her as i was working p/t, bf-ing and pg with ds so we had to leave her to cry. heartbreaking but it worked and she's happier and healthier for it.

if she wakes at night now we just go itn, tuck her in, say 'night night dd' and leave and she never cries to get up. she knows we're there if she needs us but that theres no hope in hell of her getting up.

[Mum2FunkyDude]

GoldenDelicious,

If you come back to this thread, try and read Tracy Hogg's book, Baby Whisperer, there is also a website with a forum discussing her tecniques. She doesn't use controlled crying, but has some very insightful ideas. I use her technique all the time and it works a charm. She also points out what to look out for in your parenting style, should it possibly be something you're not doing right!

HTH

Baby Whisperer

[1Baby1Bump]

oh yeah, and mine has bottles too. he usually has one in his bed that he can find for himself.

[1Baby1Bump]

my ds is the same age age as yours, goldendelicious and his sleeping is exactly the same. but he has maybe an hour or 30 mins in the morn then if im lucky an hour in the afternoon.

[goldendelicious]

Just about to go to bed and DS has started crying in his cot.

No idea why cos he never wakes up at this time?

I might try giving him bottle now and see if it lasts him till morning. At least its a change to the normal routine!

[divastrop]

oh yes,and she has 1 or 2 daytime naps,usually mid-morning and mid-afternoon for about 15-30mins at a time,but this is cos shes not very active(not crawling or anything)yet so doent use much energy in the day

[divastrop]

i have similar attitude to mum2funky,my dd2 is nearly 9 months now,she goes to bed at 7 and wakes around 7 next morning.she doesnt often wake in the night but if she does i just ignore her unless she is ill/teething(get the calpol)or needs changing.i got ds and dd2 started on bedtime routines as soon as i got them home from the hospital as i have to get up at 6.30am to get the older 2 to school and also due to the nightmare i had with ds1 when it came to sleeping.

[goldendelicious]

Hi Olihan, TBH we were beginning to think he's just an early riser cos DH is as well...though not as early as DS!!!

I really want to try and get him to sleep longer in the afternoon than the morning. Trouble is, he gets tired very quickly in the morning and is very grumpy and moany if I wake him before he's ready, which is no fun for either of us. He then won't sleep in the afternoon as he's had his fix already - I agree therefore that in the evening he's overtired, thats definate.

AAARRGH!!!

Need to break the cycle - a certain book (YKWIM!)says that he should have had enough food during the day to stop him being hungry before 7am. This isn't working with DS as he wants milk!!!!

[Olihan]

Just a quick thought - he may be overtired by bedtime because he's having so little sleep in the day.

DD was one last week and she goes to bed about 7 - 7:30pm and gets up about 6:30 - 7:30am. Occasionally she'll have 20- 30 mins nap in the morning, depending on what we're doing but usually she has 2 1/2 - 3 hours from about 1pm. She used to have a longer morning sleep but it pushed her afernoon sleep back so she was getting really late going to bed. I now just keep her going til 1 if I can but it doesn't always work!!

Ds was more of a problem sleeper, especially around this age and we eventually solved it with cc. I think it's the quickest, but probably the hardest route to take, but if you stick with it it does work in less than a week, usually about 3 days I think.

Only other thing I can think of is to start watering down his 1am milk and gradually reducing the quantity so it's not worth waking up for iyswim.

Bear in mind though, some kids are just naturally early risers - both of mine went through a phase of waking at about 5, ready for the day. It was horrific until I got used to it, then they reverted to a maore sociable 7am!!

Hope ypu manage to solve something soon.

[goldendelicious]

Thanks mower, I will see what time he wakes up tonight!! Sometimes he'll sleep through from 8pm till 5am but won't go back to sleep unless he's had a bottle AND he's in bed with us. We obviously much prefer this than the 1am AND 5am waking!

DH has taken him up to his cot tonight as i'm exhausted - he's been up there since quarter past seven trying to get him to go to sleep. Feel shitty and tired and guilty that I can't seem to resolve this problem when everything was going so well before.

[mower]

Hi GoldenD. My ds is also almost a year and am very pleased that he is a very good sleeper, as 30 weeks pregnant!

Have you tried controlled crying? How I got ds to stop waking for a feed in the night was to keep pushing the time back when he had a feed. So basically if he was waking at 1am for the first few days refused to go in before 1am then push it back by half an hour or so over the next few days till he eventually goes through the night.

I found this way so much better as I knew that I could go in at some point during the night but just at the right time, as hated hearing ds cry.

I find afternoon naps help ds to sleep longer. Yesterday ds slept from 3pm till 5pm, was worried he would not go to sleep and would wake up early but he went down at 7.15 and woke at 8.30 this morning. Could you try taking ds out in the car to get him to have afternoon nap?

I hope it gets better for you soon. SO horrible being tired.

[goldendelicious]

Hi, thanks for all your suggestions, we've sort of tried controlled crying but DH hates hearing DS crying so tends to go in to his room before the time's up. I'm a bit tougher but still hate the crying. Noone likes to hear their babies cry tho do they but its what I call 'tough love'.

Nice to know we're not the only ones still getting up in the middle of the night. TBH, he was really good and slept through from 2 months till about 6 months. Could be either cos of teething or when I went back to work that he started waking in the night again and hes never slept through again since!

[Mum2FunkyDude]

HI GoldenDelicious (my ds's favourite apple by the way)

DS is 9 months
He goes to bed between 6:30pm-7:00pm after a bottle and very strict bedtime routine (I never deviate)
Wakes around 5:15am-5:30am (we leave him in his cot, he has a chat with his stuffed cat and bangs a bit on the wall and dh gets him at 6:00am and take him along to the kitchen to make coffee and a bottle.)
He naps at about 9:00am-9:30am for around 1.5 hours and again at about 3:00pm-3:30pm for another 1.5.hrs

I try and have him awake by 4:30 op so that he can have tea in time for a bath around 6:00pm-6:30pm

[chocolateshoes]

DS is 14mths.

He goes to bed between 6.30 - 7 (during this time he has milk & stories & either 'asks' to go to bed by pointing at it or appears sleepy so I put him in) & falls asleep generally pretty quickliy - within 5 mins. He sleeps through til at least 7am (although on holiday was more like 6.15 - maybe because we were sharing room) - today we woke him at 8am.

He only has 1 day time nap - 12.30-2.30 2 solid hours - again goes off very easily.

He rarely naps in car unless its an unusually long journey & never naps in buggy.

He has a toy that he always has in bed so he does associate that with sleep & he always cuddles her. He also has blackout curtains.

Not sure what to suggest to help but have you read up on controlled crying to stop the night waking? And maybe water instead of milk so he gets disinterested?

Good luck!