15 month old waking up at same time every night

splashthecash

Hi all,

We have a 15 month old daughter who has been waking up at the same time for the past 4-5 nights in a row....between 11:25pm-11:30pm she starts crying and keeps crying for the next 1-3 hours. We switch on the lullaby music on the monitor to get her settled. We are trying not to go down to her too much, don't want her relying on us to fall asleep.

Has anyone else had this "same time" problem before and how do you finally overcome it?

Thanks!

3DataModem

She might be going through a growth spurt and simply hungry.

Our two are exactly that age and about half the time she wakes at 10 for a half-bottle and he wakes at 11 for a half-bottle. Both eating and growing like crazy.

I just give it to them; takes 10 mins, and 5 mins later they are asleep.

gaz wac

Were having the same problem with our 7 mth old. At the start, putting her sudor back in and playing her music seahorse was enough to get her back asleep. But this was 3 or 4 times a night !!!:(

Then we dedided to let her cry it out...no good. So ended up giving her 4 oz...then she would sleep...were also putting it down to growth spurt.

common sense brigade

..

between 11:25pm-11:30pm she starts crying and keeps crying for the next 1-3 hours.

If your child is crying for 1-4 hours! you should go to her. thats far too long to leave a child crying.

DM addict

Agreed. Crying for up to three hours is WAY too long.

Ayla

Out of fairness to the OP, "crying for 1-3 hours" doesn't necessarily mean the crying is incessant, and nor does it mean that s/he isn't trying to soothe the child in that time. I know with my girls that they might start crying & it'll be lots of crying, then soothing, trying to relax back into bed, a quiet tip-toe out of the room, then crying again 2 mins later.

OP - my 18 mo old has been a dreadful sleeper her whole life, and it does seem that she's finally starting to get into a week-long sleeping cycle. Meaning she'll sleep perfectly for a week, then gradually a wakeful period will start forming again (usually around 4am), then we'll have a week of hell, then it'll quiet itself back again until we're in happy sleep mode again. We've actually been noticing that the worst sleeps usually happen around the full moon (and there are blackout curtains in the room, so it's not the light). It's been well documented that the moon's cycle has a hormonal effect on people (even on women's menstrual cycles) so it's possible it could also be affecting sleep patterns.

All I can suggest is stick with your routine, whatever that is, and wait it out.

lolli

She's probably hungry. Maybe try give her a yogurt or some readybrek before she goes to bed.

Possibly could be teeth either? My daughter is the same age and she seems to be teething at the moment.

splashthecash

Ayla wrote: »

Out of fairness to the OP, "crying for 1-3 hours" doesn't necessarily mean the crying is incessant, and nor does it mean that s/he isn't trying to soothe the child in that time. I know with my girls that they might start crying & it'll be lots of crying, then soothing, trying to relax back into bed, a quiet tip-toe out of the room, then crying again 2 mins later.

OP - my 18 mo old has been a dreadful sleeper her whole life, and it does seem that she's finally starting to get into a week-long sleeping cycle. Meaning she'll sleep perfectly for a week, then gradually a wakeful period will start forming again (usually around 4am), then we'll have a week of hell, then it'll quiet itself back again until we're in happy sleep mode again. We've actually been noticing that the worst sleeps usually happen around the full moon (and there are blackout curtains in the room, so it's not the light). It's been well documented that the moon's cycle has a hormonal effect on people (even on women's menstrual cycles) so it's possible it could also be affecting sleep patterns.

All I can suggest is stick with your routine, whatever that is, and wait it out.

Thanks for the reply Ayla - to confirm to you (and the others) my daughter is not crying for hours non-stop...I'm not that bad. It is as you say, crying for 10 mins, dozes off for 5 minutes - crys again etc...

She is a well fed young girl...has loads to eat during the day so I doubt very much it is hunger that is waking her\keeping her up. She has her bottle in her room with just me. No distractions, quiet, dark relaxing atmosphere.

We are really at a lost as to why it is 11:30pm that she wakes...she has obviously gotten herself into a routine that we didn't introduce and we just need advice on how to get her out of it before it becomes a permanent fixture.

It's been like this now for a month or two and apart from this, we have no other issues with her sleeps\naps

Thanks again all

Chuchu

Hi OP... could she be overtired? She could be going into deep sleep too early (i.e. as soon as you put her down) and then, as a result, wakes up and can't self sooth herself back to sleep. How are her naps during the day? Our daughter is around the 19 month mark and has gone through the odd phase like this, it's usually an overtired cycle or her teeth. I haven't ever feed her to get her back to sleep. We found the babywhisperer methods usually sorted out any sleep issues we've have without sticking to it like nazis if you know what I mean, took the bits that made sense and worked, and ignored ones that didn't seem applicable. Hope you get to the bottom of it but there is a reason why she's waking up.

fi1979

Hi, I have heard that certain teeth can be more difficult when they are coming down. I know my girl; when her front top two were coming together, seemed fine during the day, but then woke several times in the night, just crying, no sign of anything obviously wrong. We started giving her half a paralink suppository (just saying what we did not advising here!) because it lasts around 6 hours rather than calpols 4 hours, which seemed to give her the ease to sleep longer.

Definately rule out the obvious first, cold, hunger, then I would be thinking pain myself, and would try eliminating that possibility.

BTW I do realise we;ll have worse teething to come yet, God help us!!!

hatetherain!

My little one is 2 now but around 18mths she started waking at 1.30am 5 nights outta 7...we couldnt figure out what was happening, but she gradually just grew out of it.

My friend also gave me a little tip, she said to give her a piece of cheese before I put her to bed....and it works!
I know the old saying that cheese before bed gives you nightmares, but thankfully its made baby (and me!) sleep peacefully!:)