11 month old not sleeping 😣

[Jadelr]

Hi,

just looking for some advice. My 11 month old has gone from sleeping from 9-7:30 to now for the last two weeks he has been a nightmare to put to bed. He’s been falling asleep around 10:30 then waking up several times in the night just standing up in his cot and wanting to play etc. I don’t understand why he isn’t sleeping, it’s draining the life out of me 😓

Can you post his overall routine?

Wakes up from around 6:30-7:30
Has morning bottle then around 9:30 will have breakfast.
Around 11:30 has a nap for an hour and a half.
Has dinner once he wakes up.
Then has a bottle at around 15:00
Has his Tea around 5:30-6:00
Bath time at 6:30

When he is awake I will usually take him out on a walk. Go swimming, we play etc. Before bed I was advised to not let him play etc and to try read him a bed time story to wind him down before bed however he’s never interested.

Honestly, it's because he's a baby.

Babies and toddlers sleep can be up and down for years. My eldest slept well from 2 weeks - 4 months, then it went tits up. Then from 10-12 months, then it went tits up again. We thought we'd finally cracked it when she slept well for a year from 2-3 but no, it went tits up again.

Enjoy the good times and remember the bad ones won't last forever.

I find it difficult with the lack of sleep as I’m struggling with post natal depression and I’m severely anaemic so my mind and my physical health aren’t the best at the moment and the lack of sleep makes things 100x worse. I’ll just have to adapt and overcome it

I disagree with not letting him play - babies / toddlers need to get rid of energy before bed! We chase my 11 month old (crawling) around upstairs for ages after her bath, she loves it and it tires her out. Then feed and bed, she usually does go down easily. She's had her bad weeks with sleep though, it's usually just temporary whilst their brain is doing something. Are you doing any playgroups? Being with other kids really tires mine out. And she's at nursery now, after that she is exhausted.

Well that’s what I thought. I’ve always tried to tire him out before bed by playing etc because he has a lot of energy 😂 I’ve never went to play groups because I’ve not been well in myself enough to go on my own and family and my partner are at work. However I have looked into a few groups the past week as my health visitor mentioned them, so I think I’ll try and take him to one now I’m feeling abit better ☺️

Mine went through this at 13 months after learning to walk - even though LO had been able to crawl and pull up for weeks, suddenly a month after learning to walk they realised they could run around their cot and it was chaos for several weeks until they got out of their system.

We now plan to physically exhaust them each day until they are too tired to stand up for hours in the cot. Now 16 months, some nights the toddler will lie down on the floor to tell us they need an earlier bedtime 😬 soft play and swimming on the same day actually over did it...

Am I reading this right… he naps 11.30am-1pm, and this is his only nap of the day, then doesn’t go to bed until 9pm, now more like 10.30pm? Unless I’ve got that wrong I suspect he’s massively overtired because that’s so little sleep for his age.

He has an hour nap on an afternoon. I forgot to put that in.

My 11 mo generally goes to bed ok for a night but often only naps for 1hr all day long and his days start at 6am ISH and bed time isn't until 7.30am ish. He is also up at least 3 times a night for milk but often even more than that crying and wailing for hours sometimes.

So yeah, no advice but solidarity with the sleep deprivation. I'm going back to work very soon and will have to drink a lot of coffee!

Can you repost his routine with the second nap and meals? I think it’s a timing issue that you can solve with some tweaks.

Your naps seem a bit out of kilter. I’d move the first one forward and cut it to 60 mins (10.30 ish, 3 hrs wake time) then another nap around 15.00 for another hour. Then bedtime 8/8.30. So a bit less nap time in the day overall but spaced a bit better with bedtime a little earlier.

@Jadelr at 11 months I would recommend something like this. It’s very tricky as you’re in the transition to one nap. This is what’s causing his night wakings - too much daytime sleep and not entirely at the right times.

7am wake and breakfast plus cup of milk
9.30am small snack (e.g. half a banana and some water)
9.40-10am cat nap in the buggy or car

12noon lunch with protein, Greek yoghurt for dessert, water

12.30-2.30 nap

3pm snack and cup of milk

5pm dinner, carb based and less protein than lunch
6pm bath
6.45pm milk
7pm bed lights out

You are aiming to drop that morning cat nap and move to one nap at 12-2pm over the next few months. There will be messy weeks but by 14 or 15 months it should be in place.