11 month old sleep patterns

[cufflet73]

Hi, I'm new here and could really use some advice. I'm not sure my ds2 is getting enough sleep...I'm certainly not! He is on 3 good sized meals a day plus snacks, plus bf's. He had real issues sleeping at night so I had to resort to controlled crying. That worked (for the most part) and he now sleeps for 10 hours per night. The trouble is, he wakes at 4 am and will not settle. The only way I can get him to sleep is a bf. Most of the time he will then go down til 6. He'll then have a sleep at about 9 for an hour then that's it ubtil he crashes at 6pm. I've tried to give him an afternoon nap but he won't have it! He's then eeally grumpy. I know 10 hours is good for his age but I can't seem to eek out his bedtime until say 7 which would hopefully make things easier. My daughter slept much more than this without any issue and I'm concerned that his lack of day sleeps may be detrimental to him. Any suggestions on how to get him to sleep more in the day to mean he sleeps past 4 am?! X

Hi cufflet73.

You could try shortening his morning nap to about 30 mins. I know this sounds like a mad thing to do, but you may find that he is more likely to take another nap later in the day. This in turn should push bedtime back a little and (hopefully) mean a more settled night.

When dd was this age we had to limit her morning nap otherwise she wouldn't settle again in the afternoon. Eventually we were able to skip the first nap and she slept for a couple of hours just after lunch.

I know it's a pain but I wouldn't worry too much about having to feed him back to sleep at 4am as at least you are keeping his body clock in bedtime mode iyswim.

One more thought - have you tried a dreamfeed? If you give him a feed just before you go to bed you may find that he has his longest stretch of sleep from then until 6 or 7sh, instead of from 6pm-4am.

I hope some of that is useful.

I've just moved my 11 month olds nap times, she was on 2 x 1 hours, but I now put her down at 11am and she sleeps for 2.5 ish hours and is much happier, no fighting at nap time or bed times.

If she wakes for milk early (5ish) I give her a watery bottle of formula

Also, I dream feed at 10.30 ish