Can the 18-month sleep regression hit this early?

[sunnyfields25]

Hi folks

DS is 16mo and his sleep has been deteriorating for a few weeks. His one nap has dropped down to just an hour some days. Early wakings, sometimes at 4.30am. We were just about managing, until this evening...

We put him to bed as usual. He always self settles with a dummy. But tonight he's cried and cried since 6.45pm. It caught us off guard so we've had a muddled approach of paracetamol (as we initially thought it must be pain) followed by a combination of picking up and rocking and then trying to settle in the cot. Nothing has worked so DH is now in it for the long haul, trying to hold DS until he's in a deep enough sleep to put back down. I dread to think what awaits us in the night!

Does this sound like the 18-month sleep regression? I know we're quite early, but I don't understand what else it could be.

Thanks in advance for any pearls of wisdom

It could possibly be a regression or he sounds possibly overtired? Where is his nap situated during his day? I'd try to make it as near to the middle of his day as possible. My DS at that age was generally 7am wake up, 12pm - 2pm nap and then 7pm bedtime so he had (after bedtime routines etc) almost an equal 5 hour stretch of awake time either side of the day.

Whatever it is I hope it works itself out for you soon!

Hi @beccii161016. I'm certain he is overtired, but have no idea how to make him get more sleep. We dropped down to one nap sooner than I would have liked because he was consistently refusing the afternoon nap. So now his nap is at 12ish. It used to be at least 2 hours long, sometimes 3. But now we get just over 1 hour and then he's awake and upset.

He finally dropped off properly at 9.15ish last night. I was sure he'd sleep later this morning as he's shattered, but nope, 5.15am and he was awake and raring to go

DH and I need to come up with a plan of action for this evening, assuming it happens again. We don't want to do controlled crying, but then again holding and rocking DS back to sleep isn't a good solution either. Any ideas anyone? Is there a middle ground?

Sounds like he is overtired.
Today will he be giving sleep cues about 9ish? Seeing as he was up early I mean.

Does he have lunch before or after his nap?

Sunny I’m having similar situation here with a lack of napping baby leading to OT and early wakings and refusing to sleep coz OT at night
I’m not sure what to do!!! I need to tackle the naps as that’s where the problem lies but I don’t now how. I’ve tried patting but doesn’t work. How long has your nap been short
Mine is 11 mo and think it was the 10 month regression which screwed it all up!

As a PP has said I'd imagine he'd be showing tiredness cues around 9. If you can I'd try and push it until 10 ish. Let him nap for as long as he likes and then put him to bed around 6:30. He'll have had an even-ish amount of sleep either side so hopefully that will help. I'd then push the nap 15 mins later each day until his bedtime and waking time are reasonable as obviously 5:15 is very early!

Have you tried to settle him back to sleep when he initially wakes? My DS went through a short stage of very early wake ups where initially we were getting him up but started just popping in to tuck him in, give him his comforter and he'd drop back off. Sometimes it would take 20 mins or so and he would be moaning (not crying just sort of a moaning noise) but he would drop back off for an hour at least. The phase passed in the end.

Yeah I think people are right that's overtired, we seem to have got trapped in a downward spiral.

He did look a bit sleepy at 9ish @Redken24, and it's tempting to put him down then, but on the occasions when we tried it he then wouldn't sleep in the afternoon.

He has lunch before his nap @RainbowsArePretty so I don't think it's hunger. Although he has got very fussy with food lately too!

It's awful isn't it @ivfnewbe, you know that they're tired and if they would just sleep they'd feel better, but there's no way of making them understand that. The early morning wakings have been going on for a couple of months but the short naps are a recent thing, probably only a couple of weeks, And some days he will still have 3 hours.

Thanks for the advice @beccii161016, much appreciated. What you've suggested sounds sensible, my only concern is that if I put DS down at 10am and he only had a short nap then he could have no sleep between about 11.30 and bedtime. Unfortunately DS is very resistant to resettling. We have tried and tried but he cries as though he's truly distressed, even though one of us is right there trying to stroke his back and say soothing things to him. Last week I was so desperate for him to have a good nap that when he woke after an hour I just held him and he had another 1.5 hours. But I can't be doing that every day, and it wouldn't work for mornings either.

Ugh, I never knew before DS that sleep would cause us so much stress!

What time is bedtime? Bath then bed starts at six here which sounds early but she gets up the same time everyday 645 - 7am is a lie in.

We aim for 6ish @Redken24 (following tea at about 5.30). We try and make the whole thing as speedy as possible but it's normally 7ish when we put DS down. It's hit and miss as to whether he settles quickly or chatters to himself for ages. Or, as happened for the first time last night, has a full-on hysterical meltdown!

What time does your LO go to sleep for the night?

6pm bath
615 brush teeth jammiez on and in bed for 620/25
She's nearly two and maybe dropped to one nap about 18/19 months. Has her nap about 1130 after lunch 😂 only in this hose is 11 lunch
Any teeth coming through? Constipation etc? These are the things that muck up sleeping here.
When we are having a bad couple of days/weeks I always say tonight will be better and go to bed early myself.

Good question Redken, I wondered if teeth might be the issue. My 15 month old’s sleep suddenly got worse a couple of weeks ago, to the point that I was googling sleep regressions, but then when she did a massive yawn I spotted 2 molars coming through on the bottom, and there’s now 2 on the top coming too (which presumably was why she was up 6 times the other night 😴).

Molars are grim!
In fact all teething is! Prebabies my pals with children would complain about not sleeping and teething and I would think pfft there just making a mountain out of a molehole /pfb etc. And now with my own I wish I'd been so much more sympathetic. They laugh hard when I tell them these things - good friends! Also posting on here helps loads as well

From what I understand, bedtime routine should be 30 minutes max to enable them to remember it (or expect it if that's a more apt way to say it) and make the connection between the things happening and bedtime. It's only something I've read so not sure it's gospel but it makes sense. I'd try to make your bedtime routine much more concise and see if that helps.

Sunny it’s so hard isn’t it! Today my lo did 23 mins and woke up screaming! Yet yesterday managed 1 hour 45 (we still on 2 naps) and don’t think he can handle 1 so no idea wot to do!!!

I’ve had short naps for 2 months now
Think my 2 hour plus afternoon nap will never return!

Wow @Redken24, I'm amazed at the efficiency of your bedtime routine! It's making me wonder how on earth we manage to faff about and make it take an hour! It doesn't help that DS dislikes having teeth brushed, but even so we're going to try streamlining it in a bid to get him to bed earlier.

It's interesting that you asked about teeth because I noticed yesterday that he has a lateral incisor coming through. I'm not sure that's the sole cause of all the problems, but it certainly won't be helping matters.

What you've said about the shorter bedtime routine definitely makes sense @beccii161016. We're going to have a team effort tonight to get it done and dusted as quickly as possible.

How old is your LO @ivfnewbe? It really throws you off when you get used to them having a nice long nap and then all of a sudden they decide they're not doing it any more.

Last night we didn't have another meltdown at bedtime, which I was utterly relieved about. Naps are still rubbish though. DS woke up crying after an hour of napping, so I resorted to rocking him back to sleep and holding him so he'd have another 45 mins. I am really going to have to stop doing that though. I ignored the stuff about 'rod for your own back' when he was little, but I'm thinking at 16 months there's the risk of creating a habit we can't break. Plus my back can't handle it!

Haha if it helps I brush her teeth when she is securely wrapped in a towel (like a cat) straight after the bath - our dentist thought I was joking. 😂 she hates it too.

Ha that's an interesting technique @Redken24, I might have to give that a whirl!

Well last night we succeeded in getting DS to bed for 6.30pm. It was great, he fell asleep really quickly and slept peacefully... But then he woke at 4.30am He did then snooze on and off til 5/5.30am. But now we're in a quandary of whether to stick with earlier bedtimes given that they might cause even earlier mornings. Given how quickly he nodded off though it seemed like he needed it.

It's great that he fell sleep so quickly and had a 10 hour stretch! It's completely up to you but maybe push bedtime back ten minutes a day until it reaches 7/7:30. Hopefully, he will still have a 10 hour stretch and that wake up time will creep a little later. With 10 minutes each day it shouldn't^^ be long enough to impact his sleep for that night. And hopefully now he's had a good nights sleep he might go down for a longer nap if he's not overtired. If not at least you're making progress with nighttimes and that's a positive step forwards!

Wow I know it might not feel it so far but that is an excellent stretch! Maybe yes the ten minutes thing would help or even it might go better tonight and sleep for longer?

I'm already thinking of bloody clocks changing 😥

Sunny mine is 11.5 months and naps been crap since 9.5 before he was doing beautiful long naps and I was waking him up. I don’t think he’s ready to drop to one nap though as it’s been going on since 9.5 months...not sure wot to do either! Our nights seem ok except occasional quick wake or early wake it’s just he’s very tired and I’ve brought bedtime early so means wake up is earlier..:not sure if it will ever end but I’m bored of patting him for hours to try get a bit more sleep!

Thanks for all your tips and suggestions @beccii161016 and @Redken24 - I know no-one can 'fix' this for me, but your help has made it feel less lonely!

At least if your LO is sleeping ok at night that's something @ivfnewbe, but I know the not napping is still rubbish. I used to faff about patting DS or stroking his back and I'm not sure I ever once succeeded in sending him back to sleep.

DS refused to fall asleep until 7pm last night but then woke up at 4.30am this morning . After a week of pitifully short naps, he was conked out for ages yesterday afternoon - we let him sleep for 3 hours before waking him.

This seems to be a pattern forming, where he has a week of short naps and then gets so exhausted that for a day or two he'll sleep for 3 hours in the afternoon. And then we're back to square one of short naps. And all the time he wakes early in the mornings. I don't know if the 3-hour naps could be making the early wakings worse (not that they happen very often)... Does anyone else let their LO sleep for that long during the day?

I was coming here to ask this exact question! I wasn't sure if it was a developmental leap or teething or just chancing his luck! DS has been doing this for a week out of the blue too.
He is only 12mo though. And he napped yesterday for almost 2.5hrs.
He cut his afternoon nap about a ,month ago just refusing to go. So I'm trying to move his ,morning nap back but it is proving difficult. He has slept incredibly well since he was 6weeks old so I'm not coping too well with the lack of sleep haha

Keep me posted what works for you?

Haha yeah I think it comes as quite a shock when they have been sleeping relatively well up until now @Elunabelle. I'll let you know if I ever find a solution to the problem. Everything has gone out the window the past few days as DS is poorly so sleep has become an even rarer occurrence. Hoping to get back on track soon!