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14 month old sleeping terribly - is this still the one year sleep regression?

4 replies

cjbrown1 · 27/03/2023 11:24

It's my first time posting on here, but I've read all the forums about this and I was hoping to get some advice for our situation too.

Our 14 month old is not the worst sleeper I've heard of (will sleep in her cot, usually wakes at least once or twice for a dummy) unless she's going through a sleep regression and the one year sleep regression seems to have hit her particularly bad. Just before her first birthday she started walking and suddenly her sleep became so much worse.

Rather than waking up once or twice a night, she now will wake up and be awake for maybe an hour or two in the middle of the night. If she's just awake and not upset we'll leave her too it, but often she's pretty upset. She's obviously tired and wants to go back to sleep but can't seem to get there. Or sometimes, she'll cry out every hour and need one of us sleep in the room with her. We've never bed shared as she's way too active and actually seems to hate it if we bring her in bed with us.

We were also hit by a bunch of illnesses in February, including covid which didn't help.

Sometimes she surprises us and will sleep through. There's no consistency with any of it. We have generally found she'll sleep better if she manages to stick to her two nap schedule and has a good dinner, but that's very hit or miss.

But she's now started refusing her naps in the day too, which she was always really good at. Before this, she was taking one long nap in the morning after a 3 hour wake window that lasted about 1hr 30 and then a 30 min nap in the afternoon after a 3 1/2 hour window, bedtime then after a 4 hour wake window. We were having to wake her from this last nap so her bedtime didn't get too late, as it was already around 8 oclock!

She definitely outgrown these wake windows now so we're trying to work with it, but fitting in two naps and then 4 hour wake windows is proving difficult. A few times we've tried a one nap day, but then she definitely gets over tired and ends up waking up after 45 minutes inconsolable. She did that with my parents last night and was awake for another 3 hours and didn't go to bed until 11!

Another issue is that she's not that interested in food. She'll eat a few bites and not be bothered so I think sometimes she wakes hungry. She's still having a few small bottles a day, about 15-20oz in total which I know is too much but she directly asks us for milk now and my thinking is that it's better she's getting the vitamins through that than not eating at all.

She's pretty forward for her age, running, climbing and talking loads so I do wonder if it's partly because she's developing so much.

Anyway, long winded question, but is this still the one year sleep regression at this stage? It's gone on too long and I'm really struggling with the lack of sleep at the moment. I know every phase passes eventually so I'm just clinging onto that hope that this isn't her sleep forever now.

OP posts:
naomiembrace · 28/03/2023 21:05

Not much advice other than to say, think at that age one nap is normal. If baby can't last the whole morning, aim for a 2 hour nap around 11.30 am and then slowly push it later. Then bed time would be at 7pm. My baby is 11 months and is on one nap a day. Also, maybe get advice on the food issues from health visitor. It might be better not to offer milk as she may then be more likely to eat,

cjbrown1 · 29/03/2023 06:32

Thank you so much for replying. ❤️ I agree, I think we’re going to try one nap this week if she can make it and see how she goes. I think I will cut her milk down and might start offering it in a cup rather than a bottle and see if that makes a difference.

She did two naps yesterday but fought both of them and then we had to wake her from both so she didn’t end up going to bed at 9pm (it was still 8:30 in the end). However, she did sleep well and only woke once for some milk. It’s so confusing!

OP posts:
wibblewobbleball · 29/03/2023 07:11

Move to one nap, and put in an early bedtime if you need to. Expect it to take a couple of weeks to see an impact on night sleep.

cjbrown1 · 29/03/2023 11:04

Thanks so much for replying, I’ve kept her awake until 11 today and she’s just gone down for her nap so much better. Hoping this will eventually help her sleep in the night too.

How early is too early for bedtime?

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