Not sure what to do with DS 10.5 months

[pissovski]

DS is 10.5 months and is lovely. He started crawling at 7 months, is weaning well and is just cutting his top front teeth - but i feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

Almost every night DS wakes up. I try and try to put him back to sleep in his cot (or hold him till he is asleep), but more often than not he won't go back asleep until he is laid on our bed. Sometimes, he can then be put back in his cot, but more recently he stays awake for anything up 2 hours, and won't settle. I try to feed him and some nights he wants it, others he's not interested. I am keen to get him out if this cycle (he used to sleep quite well), for mine and Dh's sake, as well as his own. He is currently in our room in a cot. (we are moving house soon, and will keep him with us, until his room is decorated). He seems to have gone to just one nap as well. Usually this is 1.5 - 2 hrs (but today he only 50 mins). He used to sleep fairly well from 8/8.30pm - 7.30/8am but is now waking later due to his nocturnal alertness (so will sleep from 8pm - early am (waking between 3 - 5) and then sleep again from 6 - 9)

Also I am still (FF) dreamfeeding DS. Without it, he wakes and definitely wants feeding. He takes a fair amount of milk in the day (but often in dribs and drabs) and is having 3 solid meals (plus a snack). He usually has his bedtime bottle at 7.30 -8pm ish (goes to sleep on it) and then his dreamfeed at 10.30 - 11pm.

Sorry this is so long - and to get to the point! What can we do about these issues? How do we get DS to 'sleep through' or resettle (or at least not be awake to 2 hours before sparrow's fart!)? And is the dream feed an issue and how do we stop him needing it?

Thanks all

ok - last night was a rare one! DS slept from 11 - 7.30!! Bet he will be back to 'normal' tonight though [bconfused]

It sounds pretty normal for the 10/11 month sleep regression - although horrible. It's caused by a big developmental leap at about 46 weeks. You can read more about it in The Wonder Weeks.

However, if he's just gone to one nap it could well be overtiredness - only 4% of babies drop to one nap before 12 months, and 50% are still on 2 naps at 18 months. If it's that, making bedtime much earlier (a couple of hours sooner than it used to be) may help. The shorter his nap, the earlier bedtime will need to be. Many children that age are on a roughly 2-3-4 pattern: first nap of about 45 mins about 2 hours after waking; second nap of 1.5-2 hours about 3 hours from waking from the first nap; bedtime about 4 hours after waking after the second nap.

You may find that the one nap thing is a temporary issue caused by the sleep regression and that you can go back to 2 after the developmental leap is past, which should help avoid night waking due to overtiredness.

Dunno about bottle feeding, but my bf 2.3 year old still needs a night feed.

Thanks lots AngelDog :) that makes sense - and makes me feel a bit better :)