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Original poster

22 month old waking after 5 hours sleep

12 replies

Ankleweights · 16/12/2024 15:34

Hi everyone,
I'm so sleep deprived and need some advice or suggestions.

My little girl is 22 months old. She mostly self settles to sleep at 7.30pm but every night she will wake after 5 hours so half past midnight.

I will then either hold her til she falls asleep or give her a bottle so she can fall back to sleep. Sometimes she'll keep waking up every couple of hours after midnight.

She eats well enough. I'm so anxious that she'll wake that i struggle to doze off when i get to bed. Otherwise she's a very happy and healthy child.

Also, i have to go in quickly when she wakes. I wait a bit incase she self settles but when i know it's going to become a cry i go in. What doesn't help is our walls are thin, so if she starts crying the neighbour starts blaring music which doesn't help her fall asleep.

Does anyone have experience of this and ideas on what could be causing her to wake after 5 hours specifically? She used to sleep through the night during summer but not before or after.

OP posts:
Oioisavaloy27 · 16/12/2024 15:40

5 hours is great.

Original poster
Ankleweights · 16/12/2024 18:43

@Oioisavaloy27 it's better than where we were when she was 14 months waking every hour! But I'd have hoped in summer when she slept through it'd carry on

OP posts:
teaandkittehs · 17/12/2024 14:18

5 hours doesn't sound great to me. My nearly 2 year old sleeps through most of the time, thank fuck! How many naps is your little one on, and how long is the nap, presuming it's only one? Maybe it needs to be shortened?

Original poster
Ankleweights · 17/12/2024 20:37

@teaandkittehs she has one nap anywhere from 1 hour 20 mins to 2 hours around 12pm. Last night she was up at half past midnight and awake til 4am til she konked out in our bed when bottle and attempts at self settling didn't work. She did try, kept popping her head up and i just sat there for an age with me going time to go sleep goodnight i love you. Then tried holding her to sleep but she was fully awake and when i put her down so woke straight up. Then had work the next day. My little boy used to go down at 7pm at that age and out til the morning. He was a colicky baby but when he got over that we got some relief. Though he only napped for 40 mins during the day. So there's that now you mention naps to me.

OP posts:
teaandkittehs · 22/12/2024 14:20

Ankleweights · 17/12/2024 20:37

@teaandkittehs she has one nap anywhere from 1 hour 20 mins to 2 hours around 12pm. Last night she was up at half past midnight and awake til 4am til she konked out in our bed when bottle and attempts at self settling didn't work. She did try, kept popping her head up and i just sat there for an age with me going time to go sleep goodnight i love you. Then tried holding her to sleep but she was fully awake and when i put her down so woke straight up. Then had work the next day. My little boy used to go down at 7pm at that age and out til the morning. He was a colicky baby but when he got over that we got some relief. Though he only napped for 40 mins during the day. So there's that now you mention naps to me.

Edited

We had a short phase of split nights where our little lady was awake 3.5 hours in the night. She was about 17 - 18 months old and we had to cut her nap down to 1.5 hours. She turned 2 yesterday and is still on the same routine but the second I see signs of long night wakes I'll cut her nap to an hour, or try a later bedtime, or both! It was pure hell behind awake at that time and sometimes i couldn't go back to sleep afterwards so my day started at 12.30 am once or twice. My god it was so hideous. I'm still a bit damaged by it! I know the averages are there etc but in order to get those averages it means some of them just don't need as much sleep, maybe your second one is like your first one! My friends little boy stopped napping at 2, all my other mates children made it to about 2.5 before they dropped their nap. Good luck, whatever you try xx

Original poster
Ankleweights · 22/12/2024 19:00

teaandkittehs · 22/12/2024 14:20

We had a short phase of split nights where our little lady was awake 3.5 hours in the night. She was about 17 - 18 months old and we had to cut her nap down to 1.5 hours. She turned 2 yesterday and is still on the same routine but the second I see signs of long night wakes I'll cut her nap to an hour, or try a later bedtime, or both! It was pure hell behind awake at that time and sometimes i couldn't go back to sleep afterwards so my day started at 12.30 am once or twice. My god it was so hideous. I'm still a bit damaged by it! I know the averages are there etc but in order to get those averages it means some of them just don't need as much sleep, maybe your second one is like your first one! My friends little boy stopped napping at 2, all my other mates children made it to about 2.5 before they dropped their nap. Good luck, whatever you try xx

Show quote history

I shortened her nap to 1 hour 20 rather than letting her go to 2 hours and last 4 nights she's woken only once around 11pm. I gave her a bottle to drink each time and she fell asleep after it and slept through til half 6 or 7. Thank you for even suggesting it. I'm so exhausted from lack of sleep i find my thoughts aren't even coherent enough to come up with things to try. I'm still anxious and can't sleep thinking she'll wake up any moment which I'm sure will happen but in any case this is the best rest I've had in goodness knows how long. I was taking annual leave just to catch up on sleep! Also the other thing is the more she sleeps through it'll actually become a habit for her. Good luck to you too. Take care xx

OP posts:
teaandkittehs · 26/12/2024 16:49

It took me a very long time to lose the sleep anxiety that split nights gave me. My dear partner took the baby monitor a lot more than me for a few weeks, until i learned to relax a bit and trust it again, but I've still not fully forgotten it and still get sleep fear some nights!

LoafofSellotape · 26/12/2024 16:51

We had this , stop the bottle there's no need at this age,just offer water. It stopped the wakings after one night when ds realises only water was on offer.

teaandkittehs · 26/12/2024 16:55

LoafofSellotape · 26/12/2024 16:51

We had this , stop the bottle there's no need at this age,just offer water. It stopped the wakings after one night when ds realises only water was on offer.

Ours didn't need a night feed from 6.5 months onwards so i would probably agree with this!

Original poster
Ankleweights · 01/01/2025 10:28

@LoafofSellotape
Yeah she defo doesn't need the bottle. I gave it to her because i was so exhausted from carrying her and could leave her to drink it and fall asleep.

Good news is she's stopped waking at night for the bottle herself and just sleeps through to 6 or 7. Otherwise that would've been my next step but honestly i feel like a whole new woman.

OP posts:
teaandkittehs · 01/01/2025 11:50

Ankleweights · 01/01/2025 10:28

@LoafofSellotape
Yeah she defo doesn't need the bottle. I gave it to her because i was so exhausted from carrying her and could leave her to drink it and fall asleep.

Good news is she's stopped waking at night for the bottle herself and just sleeps through to 6 or 7. Otherwise that would've been my next step but honestly i feel like a whole new woman.

So glad to read this. May it continue!

Original poster
Ankleweights · 01/01/2025 15:44

@teaandkittehs thank you so much! And also i hope we get over the sleep anxiety! It's been hard but hopefully with time it'll be a not so fond distant memory xx

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