I'm so tired

[angrymcangerson]

My 16 month old is being a nightmare at sleeping. Prior to clocks changing he slept 8:45-7/8 maybe waking once but going down after a quick cuddle.

When the clocks changed we kept the routine as it is and started putting him down at what is now 7:45 expecting him to wake at 6/7 which works better for us anyway.

He has been a nightmare. He is so tired and goes down no issue. Gets to 12 and is wide awake and nothing gets him back down. Eventually he goes to sleep between 5-6.

He's not cold, doesn't want a drink, there are no noises, no visible teeth coming through, he just wants to play and be up and about. If you try and sit with him quietly he will scream and struggle until he's put down.

We are absolutely exhausted. I'm working 8-6 in the office and my other half is working from home so he doesn't go to nursery or anything like that.

We're at a loss at what to do and we are just exhausted. Any ideas before I have a breakdown!

The clocks going back has caused trouble here too :(

When my baby (10 months old) wanted to be up for the day at four my husband tried this:

Pat and shush in cot, retreat and leave room after a minute. Wait five minutes (there will be screaming)

Go back in, rub back/pat/shush in cot. Leave room for six minutes.

Etc - adding a minute before going back in each time.

This tries to teach that night time is sleepy time and we’re not getting up that early! It got us a couple more hours in bed, she fell back to sleep after a few goes at this. Good luck x

What are his naps like?

Sounds like he's got his schedule confused a bit and thinks nighttime is daytime! When my DD has had long awake periods in the night, I've just gone and repeatedly resettled but actually what worked best was setting myself up a little bed next to her cot and just going to sleep (as best you can). As a pp said - night time is sleepy time.

Other things I'd look at would be nap schedule and how much exercise he's getting every day.

I know The Contented Little Baby book is not popular on here but I did get some very good tips from it. The main one is not to talk to your baby during the night.

By all means go in when he is awake, pick him up, cuddle him then put him back to sleep. But then go out without saying anything.

I found this worked for me as well. If I said anything out our then my brain would wake up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, DH was under strict instructions not to say anything, not even to ask if everything was OK. If DS woke then I went in, physically soothes him, then stumbled back to bed in a semi coma again.

Don’t know if this will help at all. Fingers crossed for you.

Sorry - typo - meant to say that if I said anything out loud.

It took an hour of resettling in the dark on Sunday morning but our 15 mo finally went back to sleep for another cycle and woke up at the new 6:40. Her body clock has reset.

As others have said, treat any waking before your reasonable time (ours is 6:30) as the middle of the night: no talking, no light, just resettling in cot. It takes consistency and perseverance but it does pay off IME.

I may also be lucky to have a baby/toddler who is generally happy to lie in her cot chatting away for quite a while. It must be hard with a baby who stands up and shouts straight away.