Sleep Training 14 months old

amother

OP ↓

Tue, Aug 06 2024, 9:11 pm

Is there a difference to sleep training when older? I never sleep trained my daughter because everything I saw showed that it isn’t good for them and bad for attachment etc.

But now at 14 months I’m getting a little frustrated. She goes to sleep, wakes up about 40 minutes later crying and pointing to leave the room. Takes about another hour to put her back to sleep and then she’ll be up an hour later and the cycle continues until about midnight when she’ll finally do a longer stretch.

Is the sleep training method of going in and out stretching to longer intervals
A) less detrimental to the child at this age since she can understand what I’m saying and that I’ll come back and
B) is it even effective when they’re this old?

amother

↑ OP

Tue, Aug 06 2024, 9:42 pm

amother Purple wrote:

Is she napping too much in the day?

She wakes up between 7-8 and then goes down for a 45 minute nap about 2 and a half hours later (she’s exhausted by then) then she’ll do another 45 min nap about 3 hours after she wakes up from her first nap. I make sure she’s up by 3:00 latest since her bedtime is 7. There have been a few days where I pushed her morning nap later and just gave her one nap but it didn’t seem to affect bedtime and she was just super cranky the whole day.
Is it better for them to only take one nap at this age?

amother

↑ Brown

Tue, Aug 06 2024, 10:26 pm

It sounds like she’s not connecting sleep cycles. 45 minute naps are short (only 1 sleep cycle), and it seems like she wakes up after around the same amount of time during the night…
Once she learns to fall asleep by herself, she should be able to fall right back asleep as she transitions between sleep cycles.

She’s at the age where some babies still do better with 2 naps, and some do better with 1. If she seems exhausted after 2.5-3 hrs after she wakes up, I’d think she can still use 2. Especially if she’s not resisting the second nap. Unless the short naps are a new issue, then she may be ready to transition to 1 nap.

Make sure to follow a consistent bedtime routine every night (ex. bath, pjs, book, shema/song, bed) and an abbreviated routine for every nap (book, song, bed), so her body knows to get ready for sleep.
Also make sure her room is at a comfortable temperature, and as dark as possible. White noise and a comfort item such as a blanket helps with soothing as well.

Ideally, at this age, she should be getting 2-3 hrs of total daytime sleep, and around 11-12 hrs of nighttime sleep. Her wake windows should be between 3-4 hrs if she’s taking 2 naps.

With sleep training a baby at 1+ yr old using graduated extinction or the Ferber method (going in at set intervals to soothe baby), usually you can expect to notice some progress after 3-4 nights. If after a week you don’t notice a big difference, you may need to reconsider.
Consistency is KEY. If you sometimes give in, it won’t work.

Good luck!!

tirralirra12

Wed, Aug 07 2024, 11:31 am

We sleep trained for the first time at 18 months. She was such a champion sleeper so we never needed to bother before. We let her cry it out for ten minutes. If she's still hysterical after ten minutes, we go and check on her.
The first night was very hard. It broke my heart listening to my sweet little girl sob. But it WORKED. Bedtime and sleep have gotten so much easier. And she's a very happy child, so no permanent damage done I think.

amother

Hydrangea

Wed, Aug 07 2024, 11:35 am

Is she napping in a dark room? I found that putting my kids to sleep in a room with natural light during the day helped with night sleep. During the night I would go in every so often, reassure the child and then leave. Within a few days she should be fine. No child at this age needs to be up at night. Unless she struggles to eat during the day.