1 year old up for 2 hours almost every night, tell me it gets better

[sh797]

@finleyk I literally just went through this!!! For months and many many hours awake

Okay so I see you say his second wake window is 6-7 hours? I would say that’s too long. We finally have been having some success this month and our current schedule is 6 wake hours in the morning, and 5.5 hours for second wake window. 530/6am wake up, 12pm to 1:30pm nap and bedtime is 7pm. Btw my son is almost 2 now so a 7 hour wake window would even be too much for him! So your baby could be overtired being awake that long.

Also I see he has recently dropped a second nap, that transition is hard! This could also be a part of that. If he recently dropped that second nap I would definitely be pushing up his bedtime. That actually helped us a bit as well in the midst of the chaos when things seemed to smooth over for a bit. We pushed up bedtime to 6pm and that seemed to help for a while.

The other thing I want to add is feeling triggered and like a wreck. Oh gosh I can relate. I had nights when I had to leave his room and yell into my pillow. I’m not proud of it but it’s so hard when you just can’t go back to sleep when you’re exhausted and it’s dark all around you. All I can say in those moments is you’re not alone, and keep in mind it’s also hard for our babies going through this as well. Those 2 things kept me a bit more sane on those extra hard nights.

Allow yourself to be a wreck. This is a season that will pass but it’s a hard time. Rest when you can and cancel plans if you need to. This is an important time to put yourself first!

I wish I had the perfect quick fix answer for you cause I know how hard this is. But it will pass!

 

[elizabella]

@finleyk Just know your not alone in sleep trouble. I’m a walking zombie. My baby doesn’t do this split night thing that people are calling it but she is up 8-15 x a night crying. It. Sucks. So fucking bad. I’m always so tired and I’m just mean all the time. Not to her but I’m just generally in a bad mood. Idk what to do. I would much prefer this split night thing at least I would get a chuck of sleep. Sorry your going through this. How is it that so many babies sleep good and some struggle so bad. It’s just crazy to me. Sighhhh.

 

[finleyk]

@elizabella Oh god, thank you for this! 8-15x is rough… My son does the waking up crying thing a couple of times a night and I already find it really hard. Yeah, it’s wild to me how different kids are. My daughter always took ages to fall asleep (we’re talking 1,5 hours of rolling around and resisting after an 8 hour wake window) bit then slept like a rock. My son is the opposite- easy to put to sleep but a very light sleeper. He sometimes wakes up from the clicky sound the button on the baby monitor makes when I turn it off carefully. I’m sending some hugs to you, hang in there! It will get better eventually (at least what I’m hoping)…

 

[titus]

@finleyk Wake time? How long are nap(s)? Usually split nights are due to too much daytime sleep.

 

[finleyk]

@titus Please check out the edit in my main post, I answered some of the questions there!

 

[titus]

@finleyk I hate this word because it’s thrown around often by those with a sleep training approach very loosely but that sounds like overtiredness. My toddler is almost 2 and 5-6 hours is typical for her between her nap ending and bedtime.

My toddler was toggling between 1 and 2 naps for months and I didn’t worry about it too much. If she had an early nap, we knew she’d have a catnap end by 3:30/4pm, max. She’s also low sleep needs so her daytime sleep never exceeded 1.5 hours (hardly ever more than 10.5 hours overnight) except a few weeks ago when she had her first cold.

Perhaps dropping to 1 nap is just not what baby is consistently needing for now.

 

[blotovdaniel]

@finleyk My guy did splits from about 8 months to 18. Occasionally it comes back but it’s mostly in the past. I learned everything. Had sleep coach and children’s clinic helping. None of it worked. He just finally aged out of the behavior. It was awful. 1-4 hours ever night. So sorry you are dealing with this. I know we had sleep pressure right. Started iron supplements, magnesium, etc. it’s just who my kid is.

 

[savoiraimer]

@finleyk Hi, any updates?

 

[finleyk]

@savoiraimer Hi, thanks for asking! Unfortunately it’s still pretty much the same. We had a couple of rough weeks recently as he was up almost every night because he was sick, teething etc. Now it’s a bit less frequent but it’s still the same. He’ll be up for 2 hours on the dot every single time