11 month old awake for hours during the night - HELP

[Firsttimemum282]

I am really struggling at the moment with night time with my 11 month old. He is awake for 2-3 hours during the night. Sometimes from around 11/11.30pm other nights like tonight from 2.30/3am. He won’t stay in his cot during this time and screams the place down so I have been placing him in bed with me but he just throws himself around and starts getting frustrated and hitting out at me.

This has been happening for a number of weeks now. As a first time mum I’ve never experienced anything like this before so I am unsure wether this is part of a sleep regression, something I’m doing wrong in his routine etc

Any help/advice would be hugely appreciated 😥

No advice sorry as I'm currently rocking my 11 month old back to sleep. We've been awake for a few hours.

We are going to start sleep training next week so fingers crossed

Hope you both go back to sleep soon x

What was overnight sleep like before this happened? Any changes? What does the bedtime routine look like? What does his nap routine look like?

Posters always seem quick to say “drop a nap!” but I don’t think that’s necessarily the answer in a lot of cases. And makes life a lot harder if your kid needs them! But I am wondering if that’s the issue here. Either that or you need to nudge him awake at 7am to try and break the habit as I’ll assume he’s been sleeping in to make up for it!

I had this with my DS. I used to keep everything the same, he wouldn’t stay in cot so I used to cuddle him in his room. No lights, white noise on, didn’t leave the room.

Regardless of “advice” I kept up a night feed too.

I didn’t change anything else and it passed

He hasn’t ever been a great sleeper he has disturbed quite often but usually settled straight back off once putting his dummy back in or rocked.

His routine is pretty consistent -

He wakes between 6.30/7.00am regardless of being up through the night. He has a 7oz bottle upon awakening.

7.30/8.00 - Breakfast

9.30/10.00 - Morning nap. He doesn’t go down on his own I pretty much snuggle him to sleep. He screams and won’t settle in the cot if placed in drowsy and left.

10.30/11.00 - I wake him from his nap after an hour otherwise if left he would sleep for two/three hours. He has a 7oz bottle once awake.

12.00/12.30 - Dinner

1.30/2.00 - Another hour nap. We were doing two hours but recently changed this to see if it helped the waking during the night but that doesn’t worked either.

2.30/3.00 - 7oz Bottle

5.00/5.30 - Dinner

6.15 - Bathtime and pjs on and settle on the couch ready for bed.

6.30/7.00 - 7oz bottle and snuggled to sleep. Placed in cot were he sleeps great until these awakenings.

Once he’s fell back asleep during the night awakenings he sleeps soundly again for them few hours.

I am still at home with parents so I share a room with him.

Any advice and constructive criticism welcome as I really do feel like I have no idea even 11 months on 😔

Could he be going through a developmental leap?

mine is and he’s often waking up during the night!

please don’t sleep train - a baby wakes up for a reason even if we haven’t figured out that reason

My DS went from having 2 naps a day to one at 11 months and sleeps much better now.

DS2 did this, the bugger! He did it on and off until he was about 2. He's 4 now and hasn't done it since then although he does have nightmares now.

My other children didn't do it so I doubt it's anything you're doing wrong.

However looking at the schedule, it's a lot of nap time and an early bedtime. It's probably the combination of this that means he's not tired by that middle of the night period and ready to wake up and play.

I'd try and keep him awake until 8 and see if it helps.

Maybe try & stretch out the morning nap til maybe 11ish if you can? then let him sleep til he wakes up naturally, then lunch & keep him awake til bedtime. Alternatively it could just be a regression that will settle by itself. Could try something to eat before bed? (weetabix or small bowl porridge although it doesn't seem to be waking from hunger).

Thank you for all your replies and suggestions.

I will try pushing the nap and see how we get on.

I don’t believe it’s hunger as I have tried offering him a bottle during the wake period and he doesn’t drink it or if he has some of it he doesn’t resettle with it.

I have to disagree with some of the others and think that doesn't sound like enough day sleep for an 11month old! Although it goes to show all babies are different as both my elder kids had three naps still at 1! I would def let him get the couple of hours in the morning then a shorter afternoon nap then bed!
Poor day sleep can cause all sorts of crazy problems! My nearly 10 month old gets 2 big or 3 smaller naps at the moment.
Sorry you're having a tough time love, that sounds like a stressful situation for you.

I agree. I don’t think two one hour naps is enough. OP there should be some tell tale signs if he’s overtired though.

I wouldn’t tinker with too much too quickly. Just try one thing and see if it has any impact.

I disagree with the disagreeing! Their awake window is 3-4 hours at this age so you can’t really fit much more than two one hour naps in at this point until they go to one nap. If baby wakes at 7, first nap at 10 for one hour, then at 2pm for one hour, then 4 hours until bed. All babies are different of course, but being awake is important for their learning just as getting enough sleep is! All you can do is play around and see what helps, I’ve read before to make sure you try each thing for 2 weeks to see if it works before trying the next thing.

Hit the nail on the head really @Peaplant20 that they’re all just so different. Two hours worth of sleep in the day over two naps plus 12 hours overnight sleep seems about right (which is what OPs son is doing). My disagreeing was only because my own son had a 2hr + 1hr nap at a year; so I just meant it isn’t necessarily that it’s too much day sleep. I do think it’s important to look out for signs of being overtired too though. My baby daughters don’t stay asleep for very long if they’ve had crap sleep during the day, but I think it’s pretty obvious when they haven’t.

@ReeseWitherfork definitely! It’s so tricky to work out when they’re all so different!

This is happening with my 10.5mo ds
Molars coming in is the problem here

I would cut down the morning nap to 30 mins max and move it forward to 9am if he's waking around 6.30/7. Then go for second nap around 12.30/1 for max 1.5 hours so he's up by 2.30 latest. Then bedtime 6.45/7pm ish. He will still get a similar amount of daytime sleep (I don't agree he's getting too much, if anything it's on the lower end of the scale for babies his age) but should be more tired by bedtime. You want to hold on to a longer lunchtime nap as he will keep this up for longer, hence extending this a bit so he gets a decent sleep, but cutting down the morning one.

I've been there!
My son used to liek to get up at 3 for 2/3 hours and would only settle at about 6 which is when I would need to get up for work.
It was absolutely horrendous and he still likes to throw these 2/3 hour sessions in every now again.
I think they call it split nights?
The only advice I have for a sleepless baby is to make it as comfy for yourself as you can. Most sleep disturbances are developmental and you can't hurry them along so just try different things during these patches to get you through. Would a projector distract him and help settle him? Co sleeping? Considering map times/wake up times.

This phase will pass I promise ♥️

I seem to throw Lyndsey Hookway’s name out on MN a lot… PP mentioning “split nights” reminded me that she posted about it not so long ago. Here you go OP, see if anything here helps…

www.instagram.com/p/CbdKMQWBFCs/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

My son is only 7 months
And
He two naps a day
Two hours in morning
And
About an hour in afternoon