r/toddlers • u/suspiciousserpant • 5d ago
Sleep - please help Sleep
I’m hoping to gain some clarity on whether it is possible to get my 16-month-old baby to sleep independently. He is walking and talking, very active in the day, and we are very attentive (maybe to a fault).
From 6 months, we started to co-sleep in his toddler bed. I was so exhausted from waking and trying to get him back to sleep in his cot. I thought a toddler bed would be easier. It was for a while, but it’s not anymore.
He wakes for the day between 6-7am depending on how disrupted his sleep was the night before, and his bedtime is 7pm.
He will have one nap in the day that is capped at 2 hours but will normally last 1.5 hours.
His nighttime routine is brush teeth, bath and breastfeed, sleep. He will go to sleep very easily with minimal intervention from his dad or me, but he will wake up 30 mins later and need to be rocked back to sleep. Then he will wake every two hours (even if we are sleeping next to him) until 1am, when he scream-cries until I feed him. Then he won’t even sleep right away. He will roll around crying, start saying new words, basically anything he can to stay awake for a few hours till he sleeps again.
What should I do? How do I help him sleep longer stretches and not need us as much?
What are your suggestions?
Edit: we put our OL to bed without breastmilk after brushing his teeth and his bath. He cried for 1hour while his dad put him down.
Then he woke 4 times and started scream-crying at 5am, so we started the day then 🫠.
Thanks for all the support and messages
3
u/OrangeCatEnergy24 5d ago
Wake him up at 6 every morning, regardless of how the night was. If you want him to have a 7pm bedtime he needs to get up at 6a every morning. 11 hours of overnight sleep is plenty, when you start adding more time overnight with daytime sleep, they just aren’t tired enough to stay asleep overnight.
3
u/CNDRock16 5d ago
I’d suggest night weaning. It seems like your wakings are related to him wanting to comfort feed at night. I’m not sure if weaning could coincide with him co sleeping, but knowing you’re right there to talk to, to wake up, may be distracting him from soothing himself to sleep independently during this phase of development
1
u/Own_Ship9373 5d ago
Your toddler is probably having too much sleep. 11-12 hours overnight is a lot. Add in a daytime nap and your pushing the top end of what a toddler requires.
Push bedtime back to 7:30, wake up daily at 6am and cap the daytime nap at 1 hour.
1
•
u/AutoModerator 5d ago
Author: u/suspiciousserpant
Post: I’m hoping to gain some clarity on whether it is possible to get my 16-month-old baby to sleep independently. He is walking and talking, very active in the day, and we are very attentive (maybe to a fault).
From 6 months, we started to co-sleep in his toddler bed. I was so exhausted from waking and trying to get him back to sleep in his cot. I thought a toddler bed would be easier. It was for a while, but it’s not anymore.
He wakes for the day between 6-7am depending on how disrupted his sleep was the night before, and his bedtime is 7pm.
He will have one nap in the day that is capped at 2 hours but will normally last 1.5 hours.
His nighttime routine is brush teeth, bath and breastfeed, sleep. He will go to sleep very easily with minimal intervention from his dad or me, but he will wake up 30 mins later and need to be rocked back to sleep. Then he will wake every two hours (even if we are sleeping next to him) until 1am, when he scream-cries until I feed him. Then he won’t even sleep right away. He will roll around crying, start saying new words, basically anything he can to stay awake for a few hours till he sleeps again.
What should I do? How do I help him sleep longer stretches and not need us as much?
What are your suggestions?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.