15 month old sleeping less?

[sunnygir1]

My 15mo ds has gone from sleeping 11-12 hours a night to sleeping 8.5-9.5 hours a night.  He is restless most nights, nursing a lot, and then wakes up early and seems crabby and tired for several hours after.  Occasionally I'll get him back to sleep after an hour or two, but often dd (almost 4) is up by that time -- meaning I can't go back to bed and she might wake him if the timing is bad.

He takes one nap a day which might be 45 minutes or 3 hours.  That has been fairly consistent for a while, so it's just like he dropped 2.5 hours of nightime sleep and isn't making up for it anywhere.

We are going through a bedtime routine transition.  I have always rocked or bounced (or sometimes nursed) him to sleep.  I was over it and it wasn't working anymore, so we've switched to putting him down in his crib awake and hanging out with him or leaving the room for short intervals until he falls asleep.  This process could take 10-15 minutes with no crying or 1-1.5 hours with plenty of crying.  We've been doing it for a week or two.  He sometimes sleeps until we go to bed 2-3 hours later (or longer) and he sometimes wakes up within 1-2 hours.  The first time he wakes after we go to bed I bring him into our bed and we bedshare the rest of the night. (This last part has always been the case -- crib before I go to bed and our bed when he wakes.)

He has also cut all four one year molars in the last month, so teething may be a factor.  I have sometimes given him Tylenol before bed, and sometimes it seems to help; other times it doesn't.  I've also tried giving it to him when he wakes up early, but that doesn't seem to help him get back to sleep.

Dh thinks we should put him to bed later, but I'm inclined to put him to bed earlier.  We aren't 100% consistent, but bedtime is between 7:00 and 8:00 unless we're away from home visiting or something.

Any thoughts for a tired mama?

[Mal85]

Is he talking yet? Could be working on that milestone, which means it'll pass eventually. When DD was working on her language, she slept a lot less... just like when she was working on crawling and walking. She was also very cranky during the day and had tantrums like crazy. Looking back, I know now she was just frustrated because she wanted to be able to communicate with me but hadn't figured it out yet. She's 22 months now and I just started baby sitting a 15 month old little boy. To compare where he is and where she is now, it's amazing the transformation just from being able to tell me what she wants!

[sunnygir1]

Duh!  Thank you for this.  He is really working hard on walking and talking both.  He has still been mostly crawling although he's been able to walk 6-8 steps at a time for over 2 months.  The last two days he's been walking all over the place!  And he's been working on his words a lot...just started saying "apple" today.

I guess maybe I should just relax and go to bed early.  ; )

 

Originally Posted by Mal85 

Is he talking yet? Could be working on that milestone, which means it'll pass eventually. When DD was working on her language, she slept a lot less... just like when she was working on crawling and walking. She was also very cranky during the day and had tantrums like crazy. Looking back, I know now she was just frustrated because she wanted to be able to communicate with me but hadn't figured it out yet. She's 22 months now and I just started baby sitting a 15 month old little boy. To compare where he is and where she is now, it's amazing the transformation just from being able to tell me what she wants!

[diana_of_the_dunes]

I'd try putting him to bed earlier.  My 15 m/o DS started going to bed at 7 pm instead of 8 about 2 months ago.  He still gets up between 6 and 7:30 am, but goes to bed an hour sooner.  His naps are all over the place.  Most mornings he's back to sleep between 8:30 and 10 am, and he could sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hrs.  Then he takes an afternoon nap, which is variable, depending on how the morning nap went. 

He's also working on language (babbles constantly), plus he's teething.  I can't wait for his molars to come in, then maybe we'll get a little less drool and a little more sleep.

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by diana_of_the_dunes 

I'd try putting him to bed earlier.  My 15 m/o DS started going to bed at 7 pm instead of 8 about 2 months ago.  He still gets up between 6 and 7:30 am, but goes to bed an hour sooner.  His naps are all over the place.  Most mornings he's back to sleep between 8:30 and 10 am, and he could sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hrs.  Then he takes an afternoon nap, which is variable, depending on how the morning nap went. 

He's also working on language (babbles constantly), plus he's teething.  I can't wait for his molars to come in, then maybe we'll get a little less drool and a little more sleep.

Yeah, sometimes I have better luck at bedtime than other times.  I'm trying to determine if the earlier bedtime works better -- I think it does.

He has been doing a little better sleeping at night, which is awesome for me!  Still up very early, though.  Maybe that's just his new schedule.