Growth spurt... Or not?!!!

[IMissSleep]

Hoping someone can help me here!

DS is 18 months and has been sleeping like a dream for months. The last few nights (well more like 7 nights!) he has been waking between 2-3am and is very unsettled. The only thing that gets him back to sleep is a bottle.

I don't mind this but wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this around this age? He's not had a bottle in the night for months.

He's eating the same during the day so wondrered if it's a growth spurt?

He's still having a 2.5hr nap in the day, maybe I should try and reduce this?? Sometimes he'll sleep for 3hrs!

Thanks!

It could be that he is having a growth spurt or could it be teeth?

As for the nap, I'd try leaving him for 1.5 hours and then getting him up to see if that makes a difference.

Hmm, could be either! I used to find that I'd get early mornings or bedtime battles if it was a case of too much daytime sleep. Growth spurts are so hard to detect until after the event!

I'd try cutting the nap - although not by an hour as this is quite dramatic, but maybe 15 mins every few days to see if this has an impact. IME, if you cut the nap too much too soon, you can get overtiredness which looks very similar to undertiredness and makes life very confusing!

From my experience, 2.5/3 hours is quite a lot of daytime sleep for an 18 month old (although they're all different and some are very sleepy). To put it into perspective my daughter was on 1 hour at this age, reducing to 45 minutes a few months after. At 2, she had cut out her nap altogether (although this is quite early... a lot keep it up to their 3rd birthday).