Why is my baby having split nights?

[Pikachu678]

She goes to sleep at 7pm then she's up for anywhere between 1.5-3 hours in the early hours. Generally goes back down around 05:30-6, and then I get her up for the day at 07:30. She has 1 nap at 12pm that is 1.5 hrs. My son had split nights but he was napping 2-3 hours during the day, and as soon as I started capping his naps he started sleeping though. But this doesn't seem to be the problem this time round as I don't think her nap is too long.

Anyone have any ideas? She's fed when she wakes up so she isn't hungry. Bedroom is kept around 19 degrees and she's in a sleeping bag so she's not hot or cold. She's 9 months old, which I know is a bit on the early side for dropping to 1 nap, but she was fighting her morning nap, refusing to go down for her afternoon nap then also not settling well at bed time. She has no problems falling asleep at nap time or bed time now. My son also dropped to 1 nap at 10 months so I think I just have low sleep needs children.

This has been going on 3ish weeks so not sure if that's a bit too long for a phase/sleep regression as it seems to be becoming the routine now.

It sounds like you're doing everything right to be honest. You must be knackered though.

Your story reminds me a little of DC2.

DC2 gave up tbeir daytime naps at 9 months and woke up routinely in the night but did go back to sleep quite easily. At 9 months, they learnt how to unzip their sleeping bag and climb out of the cot and crawl to me - that happened every day at 4am. Tbey wanted to play but i managed to persuade them to have another hour of sleep with me.

Asa DC2 grew up, they never slept much and rarely seemed tired. DC1 is very envious!

At age 20 (years) I found out that they had ADHD, so that could be the explanation for their restlessness. But obviously that may or may not be the case with your baby.

@dizzydizzydizzy Yeah, I can't think of anything else to try. My son was an awful, awful sleeper and a menace for split nights and I read what felt like the entire internet on baby sleep with him, so I felt armed this time around and hoped things would be better. But she's obviously cut from the same cloth! Calpol/nurofen make no difference either. I'm fine with her getting up, I am not necessarily expecting her to sleep through yet, it's the 3hrs of faffing about in her cot and whinging at me that I don't know what to do about. She's got a little light up toy that plays lullabies and she's happy if I set that off, but as soon as it's done she starts whinging again. She also slept through from 8 weeks until about 8 months so this has come as a bit of a shock 😂

@Pikachu678 I do hope things improve soon. All that faffing sounds very frustrating. I'm just wondering if you can put a playlist on? I'm thinking Twinkle Twinkle etc. Maybe put it on at bedtime as well so they associate it with Sleep.

DC2 did slowly get better. DC2 is now 21 and sleeps from 9 or 10pm to 5am. A bit unusual, especially for a student. They are at the gym when it opens.

What time in the early hours does she usually wake?
7pm is a pretty early bedtime, I'd try pushing it back to 8 or 8.30.

@dizzydizzydizzy that could be a good idea actually, as she likes the music. Thinking about it, my 3 year old has a tonie box he doesn't use and I'm sure it has a lullaby tonie, so I might set that up in the baby's room instead.

@VikaOlson I'd happily put her to bed later, but the problem is she'd need a second nap to last until 8pm/8:30pm and at the moment I'm finding it impossible to get her to have more than 1 nap a day. She fights a morning nap, but if she has it, she won't have an afternoon nap, then she'll be over tied and screaming for hours (I had to take her out in the car at about 11pm to make her go to sleep when we tried this), so I am not keen to repeat that.

I hope it works @Pikachu678!

Hi :)
I remember having to drop naps for a while then all of a sudden had to go backwards and try more naps again and it worked! I think they were just going through a regression and sleep went up the wall so I thought be best to drop them and of course that made them sleep a bit more as more tired but then slowly things went bad again when they had to much sleep debt just constantly over tired so struggled to stay asleep.
Maybe try going back to 2 naps for a few days and a later bed time.
No harm in trying :)
Maybe a quick cat nap in the morning then build enough sleep pressure for a longer one in the early afternoon x

No idea but my 9m old does the same. I’ve tried everything. He still has a night feed and I have to sleep with him half the night. He wakes up around 8x a night