14 month old night waking

[Northernsoul90]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice re toddler waking in the night. DD (14 months) had previously been sleeping through the night since around 4 months apart from usual things like illness and teething. This last week she has started waking in the night usually at about 12am for anywhere from 1-3 hours and I'm not sure how to approach this.

She normally wakes stood up crying in the cot and I go in and quietly lie her back down but she quickly becomes hysterical and throws her dummy out repeatedly stands up/screams. She is cutting a molar so that could be playing a part but I think it could be a regression also. Last night she was awake from 12:30-3:30am and in the end I brought her into my bed as I was too tired to carry on standing there lying her back down, she still took a while to settle in my bed.

I've tried giving calpol/teething gel, shushing and patting her back and lying her back down, cuddling and rocking her. Is this just something we have to ride out or am I missing something? She is still on 2 naps at the minute, she's always needed quite a lot of sleep and seems exhausted 3 hours after waking first thing. I haven't previously felt as though she's ready to transition to one nap and could possibly make the night wakings worse if she's not ready? Or maybe I should try it? Sorry for the long post any suggestions appreciated!

I would try one nap, my 14month old has been on one nap since 11months and prior to that we were having some split nights. They are all different though, trying it can’t hurt.

We have occasionally had a few nights of being awake for a few hours and sometimes we have been able to attribute it to something and sometimes we haven’t, so it can always be a phase that stops just as quickly as it started.

I know you said it took a while to settle in your bed too, but if you did it as a first option rather than a last resort would she settle quicker? We always bring DS into our bed from his first wake. Every family is different though and what works for me may not work for you. Mine has never slept through other than the odd night so obviously we’ve had to make the choice that gets everyone the most sleep!

The other thing I would look at is bedtime, they can only have so much sleep in 24hrs, so if bedtime is too early that could cause the night time parties.

Hopefully you get some more rest soon, being awake for hours in the night isn’t easy.

Thank you for your reply! I'm going to try one nap I think, it's been 2 today as she was exhausted this morning with having been awake for so long in the night!

Hopefully it's just some kind of phase and will pass soon... we've never co slept before so I'm reluctant to start at this stage really but I couldn't do another hour of lying her back down and comforting her. Like you say it's whatever works I suppose! normally she wakes around 6:30am has a morning and an afternoon nap which is max about 2.5 hours total and then bed around 7-7:30. It's all gone a bit haywire though this last week and she's not been waking until 7:30/8 with the disturbed night which is then pushing everything else later. Maybe i should try waking her at the usual time regardless of broken sleep?

It’s so hard to know what to do isn’t it. I would definitely try the one nap. My DS wakes around 7am then has a 2hr nap usually around 12-2pm then bedtime is currently between 7-8pm. Lately his nap has been 1.5hrs most days rather than 2hrs but bedtime hasn’t changed so his sleep needs are obviously decreasing a bit.

When he first went down to one nap bedtime shifted earlier so he was going to bed at 6pm until he was able to stay awake a bit longer. I didn’t actually do anything to transition to one nap, he just started refusing the morning nap and getting tired around 11.30-12 and did a 2hr nap, up until that point he had only ever done 45min naps. Took about 2 weeks for his bedtime to get back to his ‘normal’.

You could wake her or not worry about waking her and just letting everything shift later. She’ll probably need a slightly earlier bedtime or later wake up while she adjusts to one nap so up to you which end of the day works best for you. I’d always rather have some alone time in the evening but I know some people would rather have a lie in!

In all honesty my Dd is 29months old and we still have random night wakes. They develop so rapidly in the first three years. I used to search for answers to night wakings but now I just think until they have a more developed immune system, until they have all their teeth and until most of the massive developing is done - sleep is just going to be hit and miss.

it’s worth experimenting with naps they can really affect night sleep. At that age I used to let my daughter have short cat nap at 9am and then longer more restorative sleep at about 1pm.

Also my daughter cut her molars around that age too and her sleep was disturbed for about 8weeks.

good luck ❤️

Thank you both ❤️... we shall see what tonight brings! I will try one nap next week I think it's worth a shot?! I may have to do some experimenting with the routine and timings etc.

@Icantspeakrightnow I bet her molars are sore at the minute I've given her some calpol this eve, managed to get a look in her mouth and I can see one at least cutting through.