10 month old wakes for an hour every night

[Travellerintime]

Well almost every night. I'm not even looking for solutions, because frankly I think we've tried everything, but wondering if anyone else has been here?

I don't think it's teeth or discomfort of any kind (because it happens so frequently) - I think it's just his sleep cycle. He'll wake up sometime between 1:30 and 2:30am, and it'll take an hour to get him back to sleep. Generally he's not that upset - just kind of moans on. We've tried leaving him/not leaving him/patting him/cuddling him/co-sleeping (which incidentally generally makes things worse as he seems to think it's playtime and then gets really upset when he realises it's not).

Hell, it's knackering.

what time does he go down?

Goes down without a fuss at 7pm, wakes around 6.30/7 am. Tends to sleep through apart from this one waking.

bump

How much daytime sleep is he getting? Too much could possibly be a factor???

Grim.

Have you tried waking him at a different time, BEFORE he would usually wake? Disturb his sleep cycle at a different point. I guess you are going to say yes.....

My DS used to do this and it drove me crackers. He would go through phases of it and then it just stopped. I thought it might have been developmental - for eg when he was about 5 months he used to do it and would be trying to crawl, when he was older it would be pulling himself up on the cot etc or burbling baby talk. I used to just try to leave him to it as much as possible because otherwise he'd think it was playtime like you said. It did definitely stop but I remember it used to frazzle me at the time, so sympathies to you.

My ds2 does this.. or at least he did do this. He'd never slept through the night until about 13months old when he just stopped waking up at night. It was the same as your LO only he would often be awake for up to 2 hours, not distrssed just awake. The improvement co-incided with me dropping one of his day time sleeps. Now he sleeps once at lunchtime and is generally fine at night now. Chances are it will pass soon but I know its knackering whne you are in the middle of it.

so pleased to see this thread! Am having the same problem with my dd 9 mths. She has started waking up for an hour and struggles to go back to sleep without me or DH with her. Always been a good sleeper, slept through from 10 wks 6.30/7 to 6.30am. Have ruled out hunger, teeth, wind, nappy change, illness...am now tired and stuck! Friends have said its usual when DC are going through developmental stage - DD is crawling and cruising. Any ideas?

I was beginning to think we were the only ones ever who'd experienced this. Not that I'd wish it on anyone else, but it somehow makes me feel better to know we're not.

Pudding25 - I wish he WAS getting too much daytime sleep. In fact he only sleeps for a max of 1.5 hours a day, sometimes less (2 naps x 35 mins are quite common). In which case, I know he could be overtired, but by day he copes pretty well with this amount of sleep; doesn't seem to need much more.

Arriety, I have thought about waking him earlier in the evening, because even if he did do his hour grumping, at least it wouldn't disturb our sleep at the worst time possible (2am is such a deadly hour). He has an ear infection just now, poor wee thing, so that will have to wait until he's better.

I've heard the developmental stages theory, Variety, but it has been an awful long one...(ds has been doing something along these lines for more months than I care to admit).

Hi Traveller - have just switched from my thread to read yours. I know it's no help in cracking it but at least I find some comfort in knowing that there are others out there doing the 2am rock. Makes it a little less lonely and makes me feel a little less guilty for not knowing what (if anything) should be done to stop it or if it really will just get better one day. After all, we're not sure any "weirdy regimes" are going to work! Here's to all of us!

we had this too, though DD was a bit older. I think it is developmental. I assumed it was either nightmares, or just a bout of insomnia; I think everyone gets them from time to time. I found offering Ella K's worked by making her more drowsy (won't take milk from a bottle but loves the EK's) in the same way as us having a milky drink.

Good luck; ours took 2 months for her to stop!

Chooster,
Have been thinking about your message, and speculating that dropping one of his two sleeps will help. He really isn't a baby who needs masses of sleep; seems to cope quite well with less sleep than dd did, so maybe the one sleep thing will help.

hey,

my ds is 10 mo also. We put him down at about 7.30 - 8.30, he has just went to bed the now. He gets up at about 9am, and he has a nap at around 11.30am. Usually only lasts about 20 - 30 minutes. He doesnt have any other naps during the day, and he sleeps all night. He used to wake as soon as the sun came up, so sometim es 5am in the summer. I bought him some cot toys, and he used to wake and play with them, you could hear him on the speaker playing music lol.
Maybe you could get him a plug in night light and a couple of cot toys to keep him amused, so he can settle down in his own time.

I was just gonna suggest a similar thing to hollyandnoah. My dd was a bit older when her night time waking started, but eventually we discovered that instead of being in a blacked-out room, its better if the landing light is on and her door is slightly ajar. Then when she wakes up she plays with teddies and books in her cot, then falls back asleep again. She gets no attention from us until proper morning. Maybe as he's a bit younger, you could get one of those toys you put on the cot where they bash it and a nightlight comes on and it plays a tune? Or the one where you can turn it on by remote control?!
Really hope this phase passes quickly for you.