Right. So how the fuck do I get him to sleep later?

[TheRealMBJ]

DS 18mo, until recently impossible to settle without feeding and would wake up multiple times at night and insist on BM. We have partly co-slept since birth. We have had MAJOR success with these over the last 2 weeks. He now has a feed before bed but goes in his cot awake and settles and goes to sleep (albeit with me sitting next to him -small steps) at around 7pm. He still wakes around 10pm but will settle without a feed (and if we bring him to bed with us he will sleep through until about 4H15-4H30 when he is awake and requests boob. I refuse to feed him at this time as in the past it has meant him being attached to me but awake until around 6am which drives me CRAZY! I offer him water instead but whe he realise he isn't getting boob he gets up and wakes for the day.

He is NOT really ready to be awake. He yawns and is grumpy until he has a nap in the morning at around 9H30 for 1.5 hrs. (Usually his only nap of the day). So he is then awake from about 11am until bedtime at 7pm.

Should I move bed time later (although it used to be but that just cause him to be overtired and impossible to settle) or cut his nap (here again, I'm not sure it's possible as he is exhausted from being awake since the middle of the night.)

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

It's not clear what you changed to get him to settle himself to sleep at 7? Could you not do the same at 430? Alternatively can give him a cuddles etc and then could you tell him it's not time to get up yet and leave him in his cot without it distressing him?

My ds, similarly, suddenly improved his sleep at 18 months - very dramatically too. I think in his case it was a significantly improved understanding mostly combined with us getting stricter as we saw he understood we weren't just abandoning him - which had been our concerns and stumbling point until that age.

I didn't change much tbh . He just wouldn't abide being put down in the cot before, and now does.

Sorry - just seen you sit next to him - could you do that for a time limited period at 4? Didn't read properly because currently sleep deprived with ds2 but only 2 weeks old! Fwiw he is already a better sleeper than his brother and confirms my opinion that all these smug people whose babies sleep perfectly immediately are misguided if they think its much to do with them! You can influence it certainly, but a bad sleeper is usually just the child and nothing or little that you do.

I used to feed DS and put back in the cot and say sleep time. Could take up to half an hour of him grizzling but usually worked. Room has to be pitch black though. He rarely does it now at 21 months, unless he has wind.

The problem is that DS doesn't (never has) 'grizzle' he goes from happy to distraught. It is really only in the last 2 weeks that I have been able to put I'm into the cot without being asleep and without him becoming distressed.

I have learnt from experience that if I do feed him at. That time of the morning and then attempt to take him off, he goes berserk.

I should also clarify that we do ring him into our bed at some stage at night, every night. It depends on mine/DH's ability to continue getting up to resettle him. When he does come in with us he doesn't wake/need resettling until 4-4H30. The periods he is spending in his own room are lengthening slowly but he does wake up in between us every morning. This in itself is not a problem as I cannot cope with getting up every hour or so to resettle (We are not willing to do CC/CIO) and do quite like waking up next to him, just not at 4H30!

Ok just re read your OP - he only has one nap a day? He might be overtired which does result in rubbish sleep! Can you give him a short 30 nap in the morning and a longer one post lunch?

Hmm... Haven't thought of that. Might give that a go

Might take a week or so take effect.