Sleep routine

kmonroe2

My 13 month old usually takes a 2 hours nap during the early afternoon, goes down for bed (after bedtime routine of book, bath, warm milk) around 7:30-8 pm and wants to wake up for the day around 3:30-4 am. Sometimes I can get him to go to back to sleep but only after a bottle. Help me! I'm exhausted. My husband is exhausted. We have another baby coming in April and if this one is not sleeping yet, we are going to lose our minds. 

What is your baby's average sleep through the day? Any suggestions for the early riser? 

shannm

Hmmm....so he doesn't nap between 3:30 and his afternoon nap?  When is that afternoon nap?  That seems like a really big block of time for someone his age.

Is he really really tired by bedtime?  Have you tried putting him down earlier?  I know it sounds counterintuitive but I have heard that it works....

When he wakes at 3:30, what do you do?  Do you let him try to get himself back to sleep?  Do you keep things quiet and dark?  Have you tried just swaying with him in the dark room and then encouraging him softly to go back to sleep?

How is he doing with solids?  Maybe he is relying too much on milk and if the solid intake was increased maybe he wouldn't seem hungry at 4am?

By about that age, my DD was on milk at meal time only.  She was sleeping from about 7 to 6, occasionally waking in the early morning but easy to soothe back down if necessary.  We ususally let her put herself back to sleep.

Sorry I don't have anything more specific to advise, good luck!

ss265

My DS is 13 months too and since birth we gave him a bottle right before bedtime and anytime he woke up at night. He used to sleep through the night but we took an international trip 2 months ago and he schedule has been off since then and my DH has also started sleeping with him when he wakes up which is probably affecting his schedule too.

It sounds like you give him a bottle right before bedtime so he could be relying on it as a crutch which is why he needs a bottle to settle back down when he wakes up. Maybe move the bottle to earlier in his routine? I recently moved DS's bottle to earlier in his bedtime routine - now we do bottle, brush teeth, books, lullaby etc so the bottle is not the last thing he experiences before sleeping. I also put him down in the crib, turn the lights off, turn on his giraffe and he usually sleeps pretty quickly. Since we changed his routine, he has started sleeping better.

singingirl96

At our house, we put our son down at 7:30/8 and we don't see him again until 7:30am.  If he wakes up in the middle of the night (which is rare) we'll check on him on the video monitor.  If he's ok, he'll go back to sleep on his own.  No matter what time he wakes up in the morning, we don't go into his room until at least 7am.  I know this sounds tough, but really he's now used to this schedule.  At first we had to do a few days of CIO, but we're all much happier now.
I wouldn't give him milk in the middle of the night.... He's come to expect it and that's why he keeps waking up.   I bet that once you cut that out, he'll just sleep through. 

michelle615

How long has this early wakeup been happening?  The reason I ask is DS seems to have gone through phases of waking up early.  He's 18 months old and we just had a recent phase of 4-5am wake ups for the day almost every morning for weeks.  This was regardless of the time we put him down.  He's sleeping later again now, but it was exhausting physically and emotionally.  In previous early wake up phases putting him down earlier for bedtime was about the best solution for us.  So I would agree with OP that suggest that.

That aside, I also agree with OP that mentioned one nap may not be enough during the day at 13 months.  In our case, DS didn't transition to 1 nap until around 16 months, and even then had an occasional 2 nap day for a while after that.

One more thought.  Is your LO feeling ok? If your LO is teething, sick, ear infections, congested, you name it, it could affect sleep too.

Good luck.  It's hard and I hope it passes soon for you!