1 Year Old Sleep Patterns

Hi A..

How does he do during naps?
Does he sleep in his crib for naps?

I started letting my daughter sleep in her crib at 8 months, my son at 7 months. I know the older they get the harder it becomes. I've heard some people mention a book for toddlers for the sleeping.... Maybe someone will mention it.

Do you lay him down and then he wakes up?

Tell me more of what you're doing.

My Dr told me once that if I allow them to fall asleep in my arms or bed and then move them, it is a million times worse than laying them down awake because then they wake up startled and scared to be somewhere else.
Once I believed her ;) I tried it and it did work much much better.

My son is a great sleeper, it is very rare that he wakes up at night since the beggining.

My daughter has always been a very light sleeper and at 21 months we still have struggles where she wakes up screaming. We lay her back down and she's fine, back to sleep, but somebody has to go in and it happens a couple of times a night, in the middle of the night... uuggrrr its exhausting.

She does go down awake, no problem.
Do you go in and try to get him back to sleep without picking him up?

One other thing that has made somewhat of a difference is leaving a very dim light on at night. Sometimes the hall light, she doesn't seem to freak out as much if she can see. Maybe there's some babies that get scared more easily....

Let me know a little more of your routine and I'll try to give you some suggestions of what has worked for us.

I love co-sleeping and am sorry that you feel that you have to defend yourself. If this is something that you want to continue, do it. Don't let anyone tell youwhat to do. My son didn't start sleeping thru the night until he was about 15-16 months. I really think that it sometimes just happens. We never did CIO with him or our daughter & they both sleep great. Yes, we co-sleep with our daughter, but are weaning her. She is more than 50/50 there. With our son, we also kept a small bottle of water in his crib. Over several weeks, we decreased the water until it was just like a pacifier. That helped alot for him. Again, if you want to co-sleep, do it & don't feel bad about.

A., if it was me, I would just bring him to my bed..but you could bring him to your room...little bed on floor. With my first she slept on her crib mattress that was on our floor for months. She just wanted to be close to us. Our second slept with us forever...and is now 5 and just starting to sleep in her room. I say do what you can to get sleep...I promise he won't be in your room/bed forever...and in case anyone starts the whole sex conversation...if he sleeps in your bed..you can go anywhere else in the house for sex once he goes to sleep. Millions of cosleeping parents are not without an active sex life you know:) It's such a hard time not sleeping, but hang in there, it does get better!

Is it possible that he is hungry? Does he have a drink or anything before bed? That could be the problem. Also, does he have a bedtime routine? If you do the same thing (in the same order) every night before bed, he will catch on that bath time & a book means bed time is near. I know it is hard, but when he wakes up, try to get him to go back to sleep without picking him up. Just lay him back down, rub his back or face, sing to him, ect. My daughter was finnicky about bedtime for a LONG time & still wakes up occasionally, but those things worked for me. Good luck :)

Hi A., I completely disagree that it is a bad habit when a child sleeps with his/her parents. This seems to be a cultural thing here in the States. I grew up in Europe and slept in the same bed with my mom (she was a single mom) until I was much older and knew of several other children that did the same thing. So please don't feel bad about it. My son had trouble sleeping through the night. He really had a hard time soothing himself back to sleep. We ended up giving him a plush animal in his crib that helped him greatly! I watched him during the day to see if he favored one of his animals that he played with. We finally realized that his favorite was a kitty. He loves taking it into the crib with him and I have watched him wake up during the night, take his kitty in his arms and going back to sleep with it close to him. We also bought him a Fisher Price Rainforest crib toy that attaches to the railing and plays soothing sounds and music. It also shines a soft blue light on him that he loves. When he was little he loved to sleep in his aquarium bouncy seat, so now the bouncy seat is pushed up to the crib and when he wants (or needs) to listen to the music to go back to sleep, he can turn it on. Like your son, my son would be able to cry for hours... Anyway, he now sleeps through the night. Occasionally, I hear him turning on the bouncy seat at night but he never cries like he used to. Now when he cries, something is wrong. The other thing you might try is to take him off dairy. My son and I had a stomach virus and I took him off dairy. I noticed that as soon as he was off dairy our nights were even more peaceful. I didn't know that he had a dairy intolerance. Anyway, I hope you have peaceful nights very soon.

I was a single mom and so there was no "back up help". I pulled my son into my bed often...he's 5 now, he sleeps in his own bed and I sleep in mine and that's how nights go (although we still take naps together occassionally). My advice, enjoy that suggle time while you can. They grow up so fast. I don't know how to get them to sleep through the night--but for me, him knowing I would always be there, no matter what time of day or night, it what worked. They sleep longer and longer with each passing month...and one morning you will wake up and wonder why he's not there and freak out like "o my gosh, is he still breathing?" (remember the first time he slept 6 hours straight?)

Best of luck!