waking one year old

[Espoo]

Hello

I am hoping for advice and wisdom. My one year old dd has never been a great sleeper but is now napping during the day and she goes down to sleep in the evening without much trouble (on her own). However she has taken to waking up between midnight and 2am and is awake for around 2 hours once up. I just can't seem to get her back to sleep. I don't think she is cold/hot/hungry etc. I try everything and every time I think she is back to sleep she is up again. Do I need to just wait it out or should I actually get her up? Don't know how to deal with this wake up. Any advice would be great.Thanks

My DS was a bad sleeper until he was about 13/14 mnths, and he did that for a while.

Whatever you do, DON'T start getting her up and chatting/playing. If there is any chace she could be hungry, try givig her a late night weetabix or something just before she goes to bed. Really try not to feed her snacks in the night...she will probably eat them even if she isn't hungry, just for the distraction, and that will set up a habit that you don't need!

Maybe consider cutting out her afternoon nap? Or shortening it?

Does she wake and cry, or just whinge/fuss? If just whinging, maybe try leaving her to sort herself out?

How long has she been doing this?

Thanks Astrophe. She has been doing this for the last 2 months and it is a wake and cry. Sometimes she is thirsty and I give her some water. I didn't think I should get her up but my mum suggested it. She sleeps for about 45 minutes in the morning and about 1 and a half hours in the afternoon. Do you think that is too much? Will try and give her some food before she goes to bed and see if that makes any difference.

tricky huh? I would try cutting her nap to 45 mins for a week, and see what happens, aand also try the extra bedtime snack. And I'd also try not getting up/or getting up, but then leaving her for a bit. I was never one for leaving mine to 'cry it out', personally, but you may find she whinges and grumbles for 10 minutes and then goes back to sleep...which personally I think is quite acceptable...but obv depends on your parenting style

And if all else fails, make a sign and stick it above her cot: "It's a Phase!"...and I'm sure it is (hope it is!)

I mean her arvo nap - so 45 mins in morning, 45 mins in evening.

Or, another thought, push her bedtime back by a half hour or so?

Thank you, really good suggestions will give them a go

When my son was this age we had similar problems, I found the quickest way to get him back to sleep after a night wake, was to bring him into our room for a drink of water and a cuddle on my lap. It seemed to relax him, I then take him back to his room and put him down awake and he got himself back off to sleep. It might work, and it has created no bad habits here, as my ds is now 18m and is sleeping fine again.

My son napped the same as your DD at that age as well.

We had a similar problem recently (there's a thread about it somewhere). What worked for us was to, when he woke up, go in, no light, little talking/stimulation give him a bit of water and then lay him back down again and go out very quickly. If he was howling, go back in after a minute or two and lay him down again and say 'it's sleepy time'. Repeat until howling subsides to muted whinging/blessed silence. Intermittent shouting I ignored, cos I'm tough like that .

I didn't think it would work - after all I'd been up with him night after night for 1-2hrs for weeks trying to get him back to sleep - cuddles, singing, milk - but nothing used to work. But suprisingly this worked after just a couple of nights.

I think he'd just got used to being up with me every night and expected it and just needed reminding that he needed to go to sleep instead. He's sleeping better than he ever has now (fingers and everything else frantically crossed).