Quick poll......sleeping habits in 9 month - 18 month olds

[goldendelicious]

DS is almost a year old. Just wondering what other babies sleeping habits (both day and night) are.

IMO DS isn't a fantastic sleeper - goes from 8pm till 1am, wakes up has to either have someone stood with him or a bottle. Sleeps then till about 5 or 6 then wakes up, sometimes has bottle then might drop off (but ONLY in our bed this time) but might stay awake. Once awake lasts about and hour and a half before he sleeps again for nearly two hours. Rarely sleeps at all in the afternoons!

Want to try and get him to stop waking and having such a long nap so soon after waking.

What do your children do and any tips for a tired mummy???

[GarfieldsGirl]

Your ds sounds very similar to my ds1 at that age. He was about a year when he stopped napping during the daytime.

DS2 is 9mo, he goes in his cot at about 8-930pm, then will wake at about 2or3, has a bf, then wakes again at about 5 and comes into bed with me for an hour or so. He usually then has a nap for an hour soon after breakfast, and will then have a further hour long nap at about 4pm.

Sorry no tips or handy hints though!

[IdrisTheDragon]

DD will be one on 20th September. She isn't a great sleeper - goes to bed between 7 and 8 and will wake at least once during the night before waking uo between 6 and 7.

Generally will sleep for a while in the morning and not sleep in the afternoon.

As DS (2.9) slept through from about 4 months, I am a little tired and unused to it (well I am used to it now). I exist by getting a lie in when I can (DH and I take turns at weekends) and falling asleep on the train coming homw from work .

Sorry about ty[ing - DD is trying to help

[IdrisTheDragon]

DD will be one on 20th September. She isn't a great sleeper - goes to bed between 7 and 8 and will wake at least once during the night before waking uo between 6 and 7.

Generally will sleep for a while in the morning and not sleep in the afternoon.

As DS (2.9) slept through from about 4 months, I am a little tired and unused to it (well I am used to it now). I exist by getting a lie in when I can (DH and I take turns at weekends) and falling asleep on the train coming homw from work .

Sorry about ty[ing - DD is trying to help

[IdrisTheDragon]

She helped .

[kittywits]

Goldendelicious dd3 (8 months) sleeps from 7-7 at night and then every 2 hours during the day.
I can't work it out myself. If she's up for more than 2 hours she gets grumpy and needs bed! I'm not complaining mind, just not had one quite so addicted to her bed brfore.
I think though that's it's because she's the first one to have slept in an Amby baby hammock. Bloody marvelous things. All mothers should have one!

[mum2monkeys]

dd sleeps from 6.30 to 7.30, and has 2hrs after lunch....Put her to bed at 6.30 , she prefers to put herself to sleep and will usually chatter to ted for 30 or 40 mins - v cute, has been doing that since she was about 7mths, now 16mths.

[poppiesmum]

Dd goes from 6.30pm-6.30am. She then has another nap at about 10am and again at 3pm. She has always slept this way during the day, but up until last month we could only put her down asleep into her cot at 8pm when we had rocked her to sleep in our arms. She would then often wake at 2am.

Decided to take control of the evenings to get some more time back for me and dh, and went down the controlled crying route (putting her down at 6.30 and letting her cry for 5 mins before going back in, then 10 min, the 15 etc etc). Wasn't nearly as bad I was expecting - on the first night she cried for 15 mins , the second night was the same , but by the end of the week she was being put down awake, chatting to herself for a bit before going to sleep . It amazed me how quick and effective it was! She has also stopped waking at night now, as if she does stir, she can get herself back to slepp without me or dh settling her.

I know cc has it's cynics, but it worked for us, we have gained 1.5 hours of the evening back and dd sleeps 100 x better as a result!

[bobblehead]

dd is 15 months and gets put in cot between 6-7pm, depending how tired she (or I) is. Usually plays and looks at books for 30-40 mins before moaning again but will then drop off with a little milk. Usually wakes twice a night for a bottle and gets up between 6-7am. She will usually plat in cot until one of us gets up 6.30-7am.
She usually goes for a nap at 11am for 2-3 hrs, but some days only for an hour and some days I can't get her down until 2pm.

Would love to stop the nighttime bottles as she is drinking too much milk and is far too dependant, but just can't face doing anything as she has never been a great sleeper so I'm scared to rock the boat while things are this good!

[chocolateshoes]

DS is 14mths.

He goes to bed between 6.30 - 7 (during this time he has milk & stories & either 'asks' to go to bed by pointing at it or appears sleepy so I put him in) & falls asleep generally pretty quickliy - within 5 mins. He sleeps through til at least 7am (although on holiday was more like 6.15 - maybe because we were sharing room) - today we woke him at 8am.

He only has 1 day time nap - 12.30-2.30 2 solid hours - again goes off very easily.

He rarely naps in car unless its an unusually long journey & never naps in buggy.

He has a toy that he always has in bed so he does associate that with sleep & he always cuddles her. He also has blackout curtains.

Not sure what to suggest to help but have you read up on controlled crying to stop the night waking? And maybe water instead of milk so he gets disinterested?

Good luck!

[Mum2FunkyDude]

HI GoldenDelicious (my ds's favourite apple by the way)

DS is 9 months
He goes to bed between 6:30pm-7:00pm after a bottle and very strict bedtime routine (I never deviate)
Wakes around 5:15am-5:30am (we leave him in his cot, he has a chat with his stuffed cat and bangs a bit on the wall and dh gets him at 6:00am and take him along to the kitchen to make coffee and a bottle.)
He naps at about 9:00am-9:30am for around 1.5 hours and again at about 3:00pm-3:30pm for another 1.5.hrs

I try and have him awake by 4:30 op so that he can have tea in time for a bath around 6:00pm-6:30pm

[goldendelicious]

Hi, thanks for all your suggestions, we've sort of tried controlled crying but DH hates hearing DS crying so tends to go in to his room before the time's up. I'm a bit tougher but still hate the crying. Noone likes to hear their babies cry tho do they but its what I call 'tough love'.

Nice to know we're not the only ones still getting up in the middle of the night. TBH, he was really good and slept through from 2 months till about 6 months. Could be either cos of teething or when I went back to work that he started waking in the night again and hes never slept through again since!

[mower]

Hi GoldenD. My ds is also almost a year and am very pleased that he is a very good sleeper, as 30 weeks pregnant!

Have you tried controlled crying? How I got ds to stop waking for a feed in the night was to keep pushing the time back when he had a feed. So basically if he was waking at 1am for the first few days refused to go in before 1am then push it back by half an hour or so over the next few days till he eventually goes through the night.

I found this way so much better as I knew that I could go in at some point during the night but just at the right time, as hated hearing ds cry.

I find afternoon naps help ds to sleep longer. Yesterday ds slept from 3pm till 5pm, was worried he would not go to sleep and would wake up early but he went down at 7.15 and woke at 8.30 this morning. Could you try taking ds out in the car to get him to have afternoon nap?

I hope it gets better for you soon. SO horrible being tired.

[goldendelicious]

Thanks mower, I will see what time he wakes up tonight!! Sometimes he'll sleep through from 8pm till 5am but won't go back to sleep unless he's had a bottle AND he's in bed with us. We obviously much prefer this than the 1am AND 5am waking!

DH has taken him up to his cot tonight as i'm exhausted - he's been up there since quarter past seven trying to get him to go to sleep. Feel shitty and tired and guilty that I can't seem to resolve this problem when everything was going so well before.

[Olihan]

Just a quick thought - he may be overtired by bedtime because he's having so little sleep in the day.

DD was one last week and she goes to bed about 7 - 7:30pm and gets up about 6:30 - 7:30am. Occasionally she'll have 20- 30 mins nap in the morning, depending on what we're doing but usually she has 2 1/2 - 3 hours from about 1pm. She used to have a longer morning sleep but it pushed her afernoon sleep back so she was getting really late going to bed. I now just keep her going til 1 if I can but it doesn't always work!!

Ds was more of a problem sleeper, especially around this age and we eventually solved it with cc. I think it's the quickest, but probably the hardest route to take, but if you stick with it it does work in less than a week, usually about 3 days I think.

Only other thing I can think of is to start watering down his 1am milk and gradually reducing the quantity so it's not worth waking up for iyswim.

Bear in mind though, some kids are just naturally early risers - both of mine went through a phase of waking at about 5, ready for the day. It was horrific until I got used to it, then they reverted to a maore sociable 7am!!

Hope ypu manage to solve something soon.

[goldendelicious]

Hi Olihan, TBH we were beginning to think he's just an early riser cos DH is as well...though not as early as DS!!!

I really want to try and get him to sleep longer in the afternoon than the morning. Trouble is, he gets tired very quickly in the morning and is very grumpy and moany if I wake him before he's ready, which is no fun for either of us. He then won't sleep in the afternoon as he's had his fix already - I agree therefore that in the evening he's overtired, thats definate.

AAARRGH!!!

Need to break the cycle - a certain book (YKWIM!)says that he should have had enough food during the day to stop him being hungry before 7am. This isn't working with DS as he wants milk!!!!

[divastrop]

i have similar attitude to mum2funky,my dd2 is nearly 9 months now,she goes to bed at 7 and wakes around 7 next morning.she doesnt often wake in the night but if she does i just ignore her unless she is ill/teething(get the calpol)or needs changing.i got ds and dd2 started on bedtime routines as soon as i got them home from the hospital as i have to get up at 6.30am to get the older 2 to school and also due to the nightmare i had with ds1 when it came to sleeping.

[divastrop]

oh yes,and she has 1 or 2 daytime naps,usually mid-morning and mid-afternoon for about 15-30mins at a time,but this is cos shes not very active(not crawling or anything)yet so doent use much energy in the day

[goldendelicious]

Just about to go to bed and DS has started crying in his cot.

No idea why cos he never wakes up at this time?

I might try giving him bottle now and see if it lasts him till morning. At least its a change to the normal routine!

[1Baby1Bump]

my ds is the same age age as yours, goldendelicious and his sleeping is exactly the same. but he has maybe an hour or 30 mins in the morn then if im lucky an hour in the afternoon.

[1Baby1Bump]

oh yeah, and mine has bottles too. he usually has one in his bed that he can find for himself.

[Mum2FunkyDude]

GoldenDelicious,

If you come back to this thread, try and read Tracy Hogg's book, Baby Whisperer, there is also a website with a forum discussing her tecniques. She doesn't use controlled crying, but has some very insightful ideas. I use her technique all the time and it works a charm. She also points out what to look out for in your parenting style, should it possibly be something you're not doing right!

HTH

Baby Whisperer

[PinkTulips]

dd is just 19 months and has been in this routine since 11 months

bath, story, bf/bottle, then bed at 7.30, sleeps til either 6/7 and comes into bed with us for an hour or wakes at 8 and plays in her cot til 9ish

she has a nap somedays, not others... she asks for one if she wants it at about 11/12. seems fine the days she doesnt haveit though so go figure!

before 11 months she was a nightmare... couldn't get her to sleep til 3/4am some night and she's want up again at 5/6am and wouldn't nap at all. she was getting ill from exhaustion and i wasn't far behind her as i was working p/t, bf-ing and pg with ds so we had to leave her to cry. heartbreaking but it worked and she's happier and healthier for it.

if she wakes at night now we just go itn, tuck her in, say 'night night dd' and leave and she never cries to get up. she knows we're there if she needs us but that theres no hope in hell of her getting up.

[thekidsmum]

DS 17m goes to sleep on DH knee after some milk. Put in bed at anywhere from 8.00-8.30 sleeps till 6.00 am 7.00am. Will have a two hour sleep around 11.00 - 1.00 or some times misses it out altogether. We always get him to sleep on our knees in the living room, he doesnt have any problems settling himself when he wakes during the night. On the rare occasion he does wake up usualy if he is ill, we put him in bed with us and he goes back to sleep, then we can put him back in his cot or if we all go back to sleep we leave him. Have done this with all 4 children.

[foundintranslation]

ds (15 months) wakes between 6.30 and (sometimes) 8, will sometimes play in his cot for a bit while dh and I lie next to him and struggle to wake up, generally has one 1-2 hour sleep around midday, but will sometimes sleep in the morning and again in the afternoon, and occasionally sleeps very late in the afternoon (5 or 6pm) leading to bedtime (which is late as it is - 9pm or so - he's just not tired before then) being even later. I still bf him to sleep, but it is sometimes possible to put him in his cot when he's drowsy but awake and he'll drop off himself. He usually wakes up once a night, around 4am - sometimes wakes twice and sometimes sleeps through.

[jellybellie]

my ds (11 months) goes to bed around 7.00pm (bath, milk, story, bed routine) and sleeps through till 6.00am-6.30am - babbles to himself and plays with the pattern on his sleeping bag! till dh gets him up around 7.00am. Has two naps - about 10.00am for 1.5 hrs and about 1.30pm for 1.5 hrs. All subject to change obviously but usually pretty much sticks to this. Does often cry out for a few seconds in the middle of the night but falls back asleep pretty quickly - usually the result of banging his head on the cot when he moves in his sleep!!