Awake at night for 2 hours? Help.

misssurly

LO goes down at 6:45-7:15pm in the evening and has started sleeping soundly until 2:30 or 3:30 when she wakes up for up to 2 hours. She isn't upset, crying, asking to nurse, or play - and I don't engage her just keep lying her back down - but she's just wide awake. Last night it was for 2 hours (2:30-4:30), rocking, nursing or co-sleeping didn't help get her back to sleep. Eventually she went back to sleep with me from 4:30-6:30.

She naps 2 naps in the day, usually 9:30-10 then 1-2ish.

Reading through Ferber night wakings chapter, it says long waking are due to being in her crib too long. But there's no way that 7pm-2:30/3:30 is enough sleep right? I'm aiming for 7-6am in the night, but I'd get up with her at 5am if I could stop those long night wakings. Any advice?

 

 

KatieB19

When Ferber says "too long in their crib" he means total about of sleep/time spent in crib in a 24 hour period.  If I recall correctly, he suggested that 1 year old would sleep for 12 hours in a day -- he broke it down to about 10 hours at night, and 2 hours for naps.  Obviously every baby is different, these are just averages.  You could try changing bedtime, set it later and see what happens.  FWIW, DS dropped his morning nap around 12 months, so maybe that could be part of it?  There are so many variables when it comes to baby's sleeping! 

jsugrin

If you're not bedsharing I simply wouldn't engage with her at all.  Since she seems to be happy, just awake I would not go in at all and just let it work itself out.  She may be working on a new skill or something.  My youngest did the up for two hours thing but he did it from birth, woke twice a night to eat but stayed awake for 2 hours each time.  As much as I hated to eventually we had to do CIO about 9 months with him.  He was waking up out of habit, not eating and just playing yet would get pissed if I didnt' play with him.  First night he cried 30 min, night two was 20 min, night 3 was super brief and then he was STTN most of the time.

I just worry for you that she'll turn this into a habit and think it's fun mommy time.