Night-waking because of development spurt!? Really?

[artifarti]

DS is 15 months and has slept through from about 8 months, although he's a bit of an early riser. Over the last couple of weeks though his sleep has got worse and he's now waking in the night screaming and taking up to 1.5 hours to settle. It's not consistent - one night he woke at 11.45 but this morning made it until 5am. I've had him checked out for an ear infection and his teeth don't seem to be bothering him and I don't think he's cold....

So - the only other thing I can think of is that in the last 3 weeks he has started to walk, talk and be very independent (e.g. feed himself). Everything seems to have happened at once and he is non-stop at the moment!

Did anyone else's DC react in this way to development? And will it just resolve itself? At the moment I am sitting by his cot until he goes back to sleep. He gibbers to himself and occasionally sticks a hand out and says 'Harroo!' which is very cute but we are all - including him - getting a bit knackered by it all.

A lot of things happen in their brain and yes, I think it affects their sleep a lot.

I have a 2.5 year old who is a very late talker, and litteraly the week before he started saying words and imitating speech he started waking up at night. He had been a fantastic sleeper from about 10 months old.

I think (my theory) that when they start speaking, some new connections are made in their brain and it affects their creativity/imagination and they have more vivid dreams maybe? at the same time, he started being scared of things on telly and being scared of the dark. It's different because he's older, so maybe I notice things more.

I know it's a funny question but does he get enough sleep? during the day? naptime?

Sounds plausible. Hope it will resolve soon so you can get some zeds again.

"Harroo" sounds very cute.

Thanks for your reply, Blueberry. He has one or two naps (depending on what time he wakes up and how tired he is) that usually add up to at least 2 hours. I do wonder if he's over-tired too (it must be the equivalent of me suddenly running a 10k everyday and taking an English exam!) and he's been going to bed half an hour earlier.

Did your DS settle down again?

It is exceedingly cute, Skegness, but TBH begins to lose its appeal after an hour of sitting in the dark at 3am!

I'm watching this with great interest because my DS is 2.3 and seems to be waking a lot more, I'm wondering if he's starting to have nightmares because he's quite distressed when he's waking up.....

no advice really just letting you know my ds is 18mnths and has been doing this since 15mnths. i just accept now that i probably wont be guaranteed decent sleep till he turns 18 and leaves home.

No he hasn't settled down. I generally try to settle him down in his bed but sometimes he comes in our bed because he is very upset and I am very tired... not good I know but I'm completely over protective of him.

Ah yes, I can imagine. It sounds like my daughter's amazing 4am singsong shout and grin session, which would be hilarious and cute in another context too.

My dd did this from 18 months until now - nearly three. It goes through fazes, sometimes three or four times a week and sometimes nothing for a few weeks. She wakes in the early hours, normally is completely happy, chats, sings, laughs etc to herself for anything from 2-4hours and then usually goes back to sleep.

It has driven us crazy at times, mainly as we lie awake listening to her and are then completely shattered. We left her in a cot for ages so at least we knew she was safe. We now just try and sleep through it. It has become alot less recently but is always worse when she's excited ie when nana comes to stay so we now believe it's just her imagination kicking in.

my son is 16 months and has been doing this for a few weeks now. exactly around the same time as he learned the choice phrase 'me baby'.

hello artifarti! I wanted to reply because our two boys still seem to be living parallel lives or something (from not sleeping through to early waking to suddenly it all appearing to go wrong again!)... Only one word here so far ('cake!') and ds has been walking for a couple of months, so not the same timings developmentally, BUT for the last month or so we've been having some RUBBISH sleeping. Ds would often call out once in the night and settle himself back to sleep but the settling stopped and he obviously needed us a bit more. After various strategies we ended up just shhing and saying 'it's night time' and leaving again. He would go back to sleep, but would shout for about 15 minutes or so - not great, but MUCH less shouting than if we stayed with him, cuddled etc. Over the last week we seem to have turned a corner - back to settling himself in the night again or just sleeping straight through. I really don't know what made a difference (if anything), although I'd noticed he was ravenous at breakfast time and so started giving him semolina and stewed fruit for pudding...?!? Could your ds possibly be hungrier (what with all the walking and brain power it takes to start talking?)? However, our ds STILL pings awake at 5am, 5.30 on a very good day. ARGH!

ps. hope you're well apart from the general knackedness...

that should be knackered-ness!

DD is 15 mo and started waking early after always sleeping reliably til 7.30.

She's also started talking loads and walking about a month ago.

My HV warned me to expect this. And she was right. Apparently it's perfectly normal. And TEMPORARY.

averagemum - do you know, I just knew that you would answer this post! I am very good thanks. I am loving your DS's first word - who could he have got that from? BTW, did your DS go through the Lunatic at Bedtime phase?...we had a good month of that one...

I did wonder about the hunger and so gave him good old Oatibix for supper. He slept through until 6.55am this morning, which is a stand-out record (it's usually 6am if we're lucky). Who knows what tonight holds? He certainly likes to keep me on my toes...

Clicked on the thread to say yes it does happen. Especially when they have just learnt to walk or talk. Sleep and development are inextricably linked.

Lunatic at Bedtime phase? What fresh hell is that? Don't tell me we've still got that to come?!!! Nope, I think the advantage (HA! ha!) to early mornings is knackeredness at bedtime...

Wonderful news about the 6.55am start. After smugly claiming we'd cracked it ds was up shouting for an hour last night, then awake for the day at 5am. And since he's worked out how to tell me he's hungry (pointing at his mouth and saying YUM!) he seems to be demanding food constantly! So now of course I'm worrying that he's eating too much and it's making him uncomfy in the night... Is it just my son who can eat his own body weight in cinamon stewed apples? By the way, did your early mornings just sort themselves out by themselves, kind of? I think I may have to resign myself to it. DS seems to need 12-12.5 hours max, so if he has 2 hrs in the day, and I insist on putting him to bed at 7pm - because by then I really need a break - then I'm looking at 5am starts until he drops his nap / starts school / leaves home...

Lunatic at Bedtime was when I would put him to bed as normal and as soon as I left the room he stood up and started to cry. I would go back in and lie him back down. Pretty quickly as soon as I went back in the room he would start laughing and throw himself down This could go on for up to an hour. I probably could have put a stop to it with controlled crying but I think it was partly due to transitioning between two naps and one and also because I dropped the last BF, so I felt too guilty! It took about a month to stop - I read a lot of books on the stairs in that time.

Early mornings got a bit better when the mornings got darker. It's usually between 5.45 and 6.15 now. After 6.30 is a glorious rarity though! Most of my friend's DC's seem to need to be woken at 8am. But if anything is wrong (teeth, illness etc., which is about 50% of the time!) it's more like 5.20. I can't tell you how pissed off I was when they replaced Balamory with Big Cock Little Cock at 6.20am. I've never been so close to writing a letter to the BBC!

So what sleep regression are we due next? I am particularly looking forward to when they go into beds and spend half the night climbing out...see you here then!

I'm looking forward to it so much my ds is staying in a cot until he's sixteen (pity he's already quite tall for his age )

I would KILL for a 6am start! Just out of interest, what time do you put your lovely boy to bed? My plan is to have no plan until he hits two and I can throw money at the problem by buying one of those 'gro-clocks' (suitable from two years, apparently). Only 9 months to go!

DS is in bed at about 7.20 and asleep in five minutes (hence the timing of my post, had to pause to get wine ). Sometimes he goes down earlier if he's had an early nap (nap is usually 1.5-2hours). I fully expect the early waking to recommence in about April when it starts to get lighter, as that definitely has something to do with it.

Hey-ho, see you back here soon!

IME both are linked - had similar probs with my (now) 2.10 yr old twins. Major sleep regressions just before crawling, walking and on and off from 25 months until now (their language has developed at lightening speed during this time).
There's a great book about sleep regressions/grumpy behaviour/feeding problems etc. etc. just before developmental leaps: The Wonder Weeks (can't remember names of authors - they're a couple of Dutch researchers I think). I got my copy from Amazon. It covers the time from birth to 14 months, but I noticed similar spurts at 18 and 21 months, and occasional sleep problems on and off since 25 months, though nowhere near as dramatic (we went through one hellish phase at 21 months, when DS woke screaming every night - inconsolable for up to an hour - for four fricking weeks. It made me want to stick a fork in my brain. But he started talking in much longer sentences afterwards, so there you go).
I've heard a theory that brain development in babies and toddlers takes place during periods of REM sleep (the lighter period of sleep), and that babies and toddlers spend longer in this phase when going through developmental leaps - so they wake more easily than usual. When you think about all those synapses firing away in there and everything they learn and do in the first three years of life, it's amazing they manage to shut off and get any sleep at all!
Anyway, hope my ramblings have helped.

Thanks CrapSuzette, that makes a lot of sense. After a few good nights we had random hysterical screaming at 12.45 last night but fortunately back to sleep in 15 minutes.