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12m 5am wakeup

2 replies

Mum2be0523 · 18/01/2024 21:15

Please can someone help me! My 12m has gone through I think every faze possible and im at my whitsend

he has resorted to waking at 5am initially very cheerful to which quickly escalates to him screaming crying as he is over tired and there is literally nothing we can do he just screams and screams. Sometimes this lasts an hour sometimes two so of course he goes back to sleep after this making up for lost time but totally ruining his naps for the rest of the day and im exhausted and going back with him and so exhausted Im unable to wake him up to try to get back on schedule so he may sleep for an extra 2 and a bit hours at this point. He has two naps a day so this has totally ruined the first so first nap end up being anything between 11-12pm and then of course ruins the afternoon nap which unfortunately ends up being 4pm even 4.30 but will only give 25 mins. Come 7.30 however he is still exhausted and cries to go to sleep you cant win. He closes his eyes and within about 10 seconds he is back wide awake - now he is unfortunately a rock to sleep baby and this has always worked well . He will lay in my arms just staring and I think its ok he is chilling out and will go no this can go on for an hour if not longer . Tonight I was feeding him at 7.30 by which his eyes were closed and I think it was 8.45 before he finally went. During this time he also has two intervals like being like a bottle of pop rolling around the bed giggling and babbling, I tried him in the cot but he just screamed hysterically. Please does anyone have advice if he wakes at 5 shall i force him to stay awake for a full wake window so 3hours ish and then only give a 30 min nap. If he goes back within the hour (say 6) should I wake him at 7/7.30 to get on track and again a 30 minute nap at say 9. Believe me I try my hardest in the day to get him to nap but as its so messed up it’s impossible. Iv tried to get him to self settle again absolutely impossible however throughout the night if he wakes I have finally been able to pat him back instead of rocking which is progybut as far as self settling to go to sleep absolutely impossible he gets so hysterical he is nearly sick and has been sick. Please can anyone help me

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Ellie525 · 18/01/2024 21:27

So solidarity as Ive had a baby that will alternate between angelic sleep throughs and total chaos 😅🙈

At 12m we found 1 long nap per day worked better for him than two (which seemed counter productive as he was over tired so doing what you describe but weirdly was less tired having 1 big nap a day?!)

So if he woke up anytime before 6 it was bottle to resettle.. even if it meant he then slept til 8 no problem..

Down for nap 11.30-12ish and would often nap for 1-2hrs (sometimes needed to be resettled/nap on me after 25mins but thats fine) then awake til 6/630ish then bath bottle bed...

Not saying its magic solution but things definitely got better when we paid less attention to recommended wake windows/number of naps so maybe some trial and error?

Ellie525 · 18/01/2024 21:29

And we also did whatever it took to resettle him through the night...rocking/patting/bottle/white noise etc 😅🙈 I just figured babies need sleep so whatever it takes is fine at 3am 😬😬

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