16 month old sleep advice

ToastieSimons · October 2013

DS2 has barely napped in weeks. Thursday and Saturday he didn't nap at all. Friday he fell asleep as we pulled in the driveway from getting DS1 at school and as soon as the car stopped he woke up. Yesterday he was up for the day at 7, napped from 3-4:30 and went to bed at 10:30. He got up for the day at 6 today. He is still in his crib refusing to nap.

He refuses to sleep, I don't know what to do. At nap time, I put him in his crib and he screams bloody murder (not crying, screaming-yayayaya, ahhhhhh). I try rocking him, he is literally screaming and writhing and wiggling against me so hard he ends up soaked in sweat and even farther from sleep. So I try just leaving him in his crib and he screams, turns around tries to stand up and screams. He'll quiet down for a few minutes and then just start screaming again. If I go in, it doesn't do anything. He calms down, looks at me and laughs. So I replace the binky, tell him it's night night time and walk out. About 2 minutes later the screaming will start again. This will last hours. If I then get him up and try to rock him, it's exactly the same as before. Meanwhile, he's awake and miserable.

The part that stinks is that he only has from 1-2:30 nap or he has to wait until 3:30 when we get home. Add in that he has physical therapy 3x/week, occupational and developmental therapy another time a week each, we have a tight schedule. And with him only getting about 7-8 hours of sleep a day he is miserable and is starting to refuse to participate because he's cranky. I'm at my wits end though, because nap time is when I had to tidy up the house, get dinner started because DS1 eats as soon as he gets home from school.

And now all he wants is to be held (NOT worn, he refuses, screams, arches, pushes off me, etc) and occupied. Yet, I still have DS1 to take care of.

In the past month he has learned to sit, crawl, and he just started pulling to stand this week. Could he just be too interested in the world around him? I thought it was his molar, but that pushed through 2 weeks ago and he still isn't sleeping better.

Any advice? Both my boys are special needs, DS1 doesn't walk or talk nor does DS2. So I can't have DS1 occupy himself or feed himself, etc. And all the screaming is getting DS1 pretty upset.

ETA: Up until about 3 weeks ago he would take 1 2-4 hour nap and sleep about 10 hours at night.

ncbelle · October 2013

Definitely new skills mess with sleep. I would try for an earlier nap. And honestly sometimes my kids would fight being worn to sleep...how I normally put them down...if they were overtired. But if I just pushed through it, they'd be out in 5 minutes.

michellersayer · October 2013

Please don't be rude and judge me.. BUT.. My son has been sleeping in a toddler bed since he was 16 months old (bc he was getting to the point where he could put his leg over the crib rail and I was terrified he would fall out).. We put a gate at his bedroom door and we have a lazy boy and a dresser that we child proofed.. Even screwed it to the wall so it wouldn't fall down on him if he opens it hard.. During naps maybe 20% of the time he cries and gets out of his bed.. But then maybe 5-10 minutes later he would take his blanket and crawl back into bed and go to sleep. I only first discovered this when I was throwing up and couldn't go into get him to calm down.. (I'm 36 weeks preg).. But now he's 20 months old and even if he gets out of bed which is rare.. He still get back in soon as goes to sleep.. I have a camera in there so I watch him too. I swear I'm not a mean mommy!

16 month old sleep advice

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