18 month old night wakings....

[Willow4987]

I know everyone’s going to say it’s normal for baby’s to wake in the night for years and years but I was hoping for some advice/other people’s experiences if this is normal or not

18month old DS can and has slept through several times but never for more than a few days (we once had a 5 day streak)

However in between this there’s been the usual coughs/colds/teething etc which has disturbed him which I completely understand

What’s I can’t understand are the random wake ups which seem to be for no reason - sometimes he will resettle, sometimes scream like it’s a nightmare and needs us to go in to settle him. This can take anywhere from 5 mins to 2 hours.

Is he having nightmares? Can he just not self settle yet?

I’m getting a bit anxious as I’ve got a baby due in 5 weeks and I’m having a c section so I’m really concerned about my poor husband in those first few weeks when I’ll be physically out of action and he’ll be tending to both of them in the night and he’s absolutely terrible without sleep

Should also say I’m currently sat on his bedroom floor after the 4th wake up in an hour as he screams a few minutes after I leave him (even though he’s snoring away when I do)

I think that there may be a final leap at around 18 months (if you believe in leaps!), so that maybe affecting your little ones sleep at the moment more? I think nightmares and night terrors can start from around that age too, so it maybe that he is having a bad dream and waking up scared.

I would, in your situation, go in to my ds and and settle with a cuddle, tell him that it's bed time and that he had to go back to sleep. We have a "susher" (it literally just goes shhh shhh over and over!) so I would put that on. Sometimes I have to cuddle him until he's calmed down before putting him back down to bed (my youngest is 14mths). Sometimes once I've put him down I have to put my hand on his back for a little bit, as he might protest when I try to walk away. I try to sneak out of the room when he's still awake but nearly asleep so that he can settle on his own to sleep.

Now he's a bit older I try not to let him fall asleep completely on me if I'm cuddling him, as I want him to be able to settle himself down to sleep & not rely on being laid/cuddled up on me.

I hope he settles for you soon. You may find it a good idea to be a bit stricter with him now (this is what I would do), before your newest addition arrives, then hopefully he might be sleeping through more soundly in time for baby's arrival. x