post #1 of 1
9/7/11 at 7:22pm
Thread Starter 

My 14 month old DS is having problems staying asleep, and he cannot settle himself back down 95% of the time.

 

Here's the background.

 

When he was little (up until about 9 months) I let him sleep in my lap or in the Moby Wrap almost 75% of the time.  The rest of the time he was either sleeping next to me or up until about 6 months in his swing.  Around 9 months I decided he needed to start sleeping on his own, so I could use his naptime to get some time to myself to do things like shower and answer emails.

 

At 9 months I started taking him to the bed to nurse him to sleep, and he stayed there.  Often I would have to go in every 45 minutes to nurse him back to sleep.  When he hit 12 months, it was like he magically could not sleep if I didn't stay in bed with him.  Suddenly he was waking in 15-20 minutes, and once I went in to nurse him back to sleep I had to stay there or else he woke up grumpy.

 

At 11 months we decided that I would put him down for the night, and I would come back out to spend time with my DH.  This is when the big trouble started.  Bedtime is somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 PM most nights, and I swear that by the time it is 10:00 I have been in the bedroom 3-5 times to nurse him back to sleep. 

 

Once I go to bed, he only wakes up once or twice during the night which is totally fine with me.  He nurses quickly, and goes right back to sleep.  However, he does suddenly feel the need to stay latched, and if I unlatch him about 50% of the time he will cry and wake up completely.

 

I'm just not sure what to do.  I feel like this is partly my fault for letting him nap on me when he was little, but gosh darnit they are so cute at that age ;).

 

He has been a one nap child since he was about 9 months old (so 5 months total).  I've tried so hard to get him to take 2 naps, but he really just wants one nap around 11:00 AM that will last about 3 hours; however, I have to be in the bed with him for almost 2 hours of that.

 

He goes to bed around 7:30 PM, and he is up for the day around 6:00 AM.  I realize this combined doesn't seem like much sleep, but he really is a happy kid when he is awake.  No signs of being tired, and I'm not much of a sleeper myself.  I can function completely fine on 2-3 hours of sleep for days in a row, so the pediatrician has insinuated that maybe his sleeping is genetic (I'm not the world's greatest sleeper myself).

 

Sorry for the long post, but I really need to reclaim some time to myself.  I wake up at 5:00 AM, and he is up by 6:00 AM most mornings, and then I have to lay with him at naptime, and then I spend my entire evening going in and helping him get back to sleep.  I'm hardly spending any time with my DH, and I am definitely giving up time to take care of my needs during the day.

 

Thanks so much!

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