one year old night waking/ VERY early morning HELP !!!

girl genes

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 6:28 am

I have a sweet gorgeous B"H 1 year old - and I am wiped out. She was waking up 3 -4 times a night and I thought it was because her pacifier kept falling out. So at about 8 months it away but unfortunatley the bottle became the substitute. Then she would wake up still one or so at night for a bottle. I think that by one years old ( and she is a good weight) she doesn't need formula at night, so I decided to "sleep train" her. 2 weeks later and she still wakes up some nights, last night was from 3-4 screaming ( I kept going in and calming her - she screamed louder then!) and wakes up every morning at either 5 or 5.30. Some nights when she wakes up, I feel I need to giver her water, because maybe she is thirsty -is that what is ruining the night training.
It is so hard to hear her cry, but honesty trying to carry on (work, other kids, house etc) waking up every night and being up from five is hard.
I would really appreciate all your advice.
Also how much sleep should a one year old be getting?
Thanks

happymom

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 7:22 am

she might be tetthing or going through a hard time. there was a time when both my kids did this at around that age. I would go to them and comfort them.

its importnat to make sure they are getting thie right schedule. like thier nap at the right time and going to bed at the right time because if they arent then its harder for them to get into a deepm sleep and they wake uo alot. but if they are still, sometimes kids go thorugh that. sometimes they get scared in middle of the night, sometimes they are teething. I never let my kids cry and bh they are sleepimg through the night.

Marion

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 7:34 am

My 18 month old is doing this right now and we can't figure out why either. Except that his schedule is all over the place as he still hasn't recovered from Pesach. And we think he's also teething (molars)...

AlwaysGrateful

Mon, Apr 27 2009, 8:56 am

girl genes wrote:

last night was from 3-4 screaming ( I kept going in and calming her - she screamed louder then!)

I don't have much advice, but just a few suggestions...

My baby didn't click with the "I'll go in to check on you, then leave again while you're crying" technique. If I went in, he would only cry harder when I left, and I felt like I was almost waking him up more than he was before. So I stopped going in at all. When I heard him cry, I would just wait outside his mostly closed door (I'd peek in if I thought he couldn't see me) to make sure his cries didn't suddenly get stronger (which might mean he'd hurt himself - gotten a foot stuck in the bars, banged his head, etc) until he fell asleep. That worked MUCH better for me, once I convinced myself that it was NOT cruel because it was what my baby needed to fall asleep.

As for the early waking, what is the rest of his schedule? My baby was waking up at about 5:30 every morning. At a friend's suggestion, we made his bedtime about half an hour later, and now he sleeps til 6:30 on most mornings. I know that other people made bedtime earlier with similar results. Sometimes changing the nap schedule can help as well...

Good luck, and hang in there!