Top
Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.
Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.
Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lorena says

    Hi there,
    First time mom here. My 11 month had been falling asleep on her own since about 7 months with an8pm bedtime. The last week she’s been crying at bedtime and not wanting to go to sleep. I let her cry for about 10 minutes before I rock her until she starts falling asleep but as soon as I lay her down she cries again. I have been restarting the whole cycle again. Any suggestions? Should I change her bedtime? I worked so hard to sleep train the first time I don’t know if I can start all over ?

    • Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says

      Hi @Lorena – Thanks for writing to us! Sorry to hear that your 11 month old has been fighting bedtimes! This can be caused by a number of things, but if you think it may be schedule related, please check out our free schedule maker to get a custom sleep schedule that’s based on her age and her morning wake-up time! Here’s the link: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-schedule-maker/
      Hope it’s helpful Lorena! Good luck!

  2. Julia says

    Hi there,

    My son goes down at 7 and usually wake at 5am for a quick nurse and then we wake him at 7am. He goes down for his first nap within 2.5-3 hours of waking. I have noticed that he often takes a longer morning nap than an afternoon nap , i.e. he might sleep 1.5 hours in the morning and then only 30-45 in the afternoon. Should I wake him from a morning nap to help lengthen the afternoon nap? Definitely feel comfortable with the sleep he gets in the 24-hour period but still feel like we could be maximizing nap times better. It’s a little unpredictable with how long he will sleep for morning/afternoon (though he really seems to need the morning nap), and it would be helpful for me to have consistency.

    • Janelle Reid says

      Hi @Julia, thanks for writing to us, I’m happy to help! My son did this as well. Sometimes his morning naps would be so so long that I wouldn’t even really be able to do a second nap, but that didn’t bother my schedule (kind of worked out for me) but I know how this unpredictability could be a major inconvenience. You could certainly try waking him to see what he does! Here is a link to a free guide with tips for nap help that may give you some additional ideas: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
      If you want more detailed information on naps and schedules you may want to check out our ebook Mastering Naps and Schedules that you can purchase directly from our site: https://www.babysleepsite.com/mastering-naps/
      I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions!

  3. Holly says

    I’ll be honest, I feel spoiled after reading this and some of the comments.

    My 10 1/2 month old was terrible at nursing and insisted on Co-sleeping the first 5 months but after 1-2 nights of limited cry it out, he has been sleeping peacefully through the night in his own room and bed for months now.

    He usually wakes up anywhere from 7:30-7:30 but he will talk and play in his crip for 30-45 if not longer and sometimes go back to sleep until I get my lazy butt out of bed.

    Once we are up, we get a new diaper and go have breakfast within 30-40 minutes of rising. He has solids first, whether it be scrambled eggs, oatmeal or yogurt and fruit just depending on what we have.

    After he starts to play with his food he gets a 6oz straw cup of formula.

    Once in a while he will have a snack between breakfast and morning nap but it’s pretty rare.

    Morning nap time is always almost exactly 10 am.

    He sleeps 1-2 hours with rain sounds playing.

    When he wakes up it’s lunch time. Solids first, he’s mostly on finger/table foods. Then 6oz of formula in a straw cup or rim trainer cup. Bottles have been out of the pantry for about a month now (woo hoo)

    Afternoon nap is always about 3pm (1-2 hours)

    Upon waking it’s dinner time. He gets some simple snacks if I’m in the middle of making dinner but we try to keep it light to avoid spoiling dinner. As usual when he starts to play it’s time for formula.

    After dinner is bath time if it’s bath day, followed by some playtime and snuggles before 7:30/8 pm bedtime.

    He gets one last cup of formula about half an hour before bed.

    Right now he is teething pretty hard so he does fuss a little through the night but puts himself back to sleep and usually sleeps 11-12 hours.

    Times between meals are always filled with lots of play and stimulation, or at least baby chasing dog around the living room time.

    We have mostly tried to avoid using nursing/milk feedings as comfort items.

    As a newborn we stuck to the EASY routine which is eat,activity,sleep,your time mom.

    It worked great instead of him needing to feed to fall asleep. We had some minor issues where he thought he needed to nurse after every cat nap for a short while lol.

    • Neosha says

      @Holly – Thank you for sharing your little guy and your day with us! It really sounds like your little guy has a wonderful schedule together that works superbly for you both (and maybe for your dog! 🙂 ). It’s not always easy to come by that but it sounds like you know that! 🙂 Again, thank you for sharing and please keep reading!

  4. Chasity says

    Hello,
    I pick my 11 month old up from daycare at around 5. He falls asleep in the car on the way home, and doesn’t wake until morning. Do I need to wake him when we’re home to eat.He is 25lbs and happy. He wakes up between 5:30 and 7 depending on the day. And eats within an hour of being awake. We are transitioning him from formula to table food (he won’t eat baby food). He drinks anywhere from 8 to 16 ounces of formula a day.

    • Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says

      Hi @Chasity – Thank you for writing to us! it sounds like you’ve got a great little sleeper on your hands! Yaay! Many babies at this age do sleep through the night, which can be 12 hours (or so), and they do this without a feed. I’d suspect that he must be having a feed shortly before you pick him up, but I would recommend speaking to your baby’s doctor for specific advice based on his growth and development and caloric needs though. This way, you will have specific advice from someone who knows baby well! Good luck and thanks again for visiting!

  5. Sara MC says

    I’m concerned my 11 month old isn’t sleeping long enough at night. We’ve tried different bedtimes, but we have found she only sleeps 10.5 hours overnight (7:30pm-6am). No matter what. She sleeps ~3.5 hours during the day, in a morning nap of 1 hour (9am) and and afternoon nap of 2.5 hours (1pm), generally.

    She’s never been a sleeper, always on the low end of the spectrum when a range was suggested.

    I’m just concerned that we’re doing something wrong and affecting her night sleep. Any help would be appreciated!

    Thanks in advance!

    • Janelle Reid says

      Hi @Sara MC, thanks for writing to us and sharing what your daughter’s sleep has been like. Judging by the times you shared, it does look like she’s getting enough sleep in a 24 hour period, just one extra hour is during the day instead of at night. How is her mood? If she is generally happy then it is likely she is getting what she needs, but if she’s super cranky and seeming really tired then it would be something to look into more. If you are concerned still, please contact us directly to [email protected] and we can help you from there figure out what the best plan of action would be to work on this. Hope this helps!

      • Sara MC says

        I’m so relieved to hear your response! She is very happy, so I guess she’s just not a long over night sleeper.

        Thanks very much.

  6. Melissa says

    Hi my 11 month old isn’t sleeping through, he wakes at least 2-3 times a night for feeds. I’ve had problems getting him to eat solid food he prefers finger foods that he can pick up at eat his self. He used to sleep all the way through at one point but he just stopped. I’m shattered and have two other children. I really need to establish a good sleeping pattern

  7. Zouz says

    Hi my son is 11 months heading to 12 months. Only has naps in the car. Still wakes up 2-3 times at night for a bottle.
    I put him in his bed for a nap and he throws his bottle and cries.
    I have tried letting him cry it out and that still doesn’t work.

  8. Jen says

    Thanks for this post. My 11 month old had been doing probably about averagely well with sleep until about 2 weeks ago when she suddenly started to refuse point blank to go down for a nap, but would still get very sleepy and cranky at naptime so clearly needed her naps. Since then I have been wasting half the day trying to get her to take naps and it was starting to drive me crazy, then i came across this post and realised that she wasn’t eating the right proportions of things at the right times – i was giving her breakfast too early so she wouldn’t eat very much of it and then it would be a couple of hours before she was ready for a nap. And I didn’t usually give her a snack until after her morning nap so she would be hungry and eat a lot of snack but then not be very hungry at lunch time. After reading this post a couple of days ago I have made some drastic changes to her feeding routine so she doesn’t have breakfast until she’s been up for a couple of hours, and she’s eating twice as much breakfast, then doesn’t even need a snack when she wakes up (other than milk feed) and so eats twice as much lunch. Result = she’s going down for naps again. Thank you so much!

    • Janelle Reid says

      @Jen – that is so AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing. We love hearing that your daughter is sleeping better and you aren’t going crazy trying to get her to nap either!

  9. Azucena says

    Hi! I’m looking at the schedules and they are much much different than ours. My 11 month old wakes up between 5:30am and 6:00am every day. Has 3 hour wake period and 2 naps of about 1.5 hours each. He is primarily on breastmilk (pumped) /formula about 28-32 oz per day plus solids. My toddler who is now about 2 1/2 also woke up that early. They get plenty to eat during the day but still wake up early. I’ve tried to give the 11 month old a bottle around 5 and leave him in his crib in hopes he will fall asleep again for a later wake up time but he won’t sleep at that point.

    • Janelle Reid says

      Hi @Azucena, thanks for writing to us. Early waking can be a tricky one, especially when it’s on the edge of not being early (we would consider 5:30 early, but while 7 am is more ideal, some babies do better waking at 6 so that’s typically the earliest we’d say is ok). But there are still things you can do to try to push them later, just may be a bit of trial and error. Here is an article that may help give some tips: https://www.babysleepsite.com/how-we-sleep/baby-waking-too-early/
      If you are really over it and need more help, let us know and we would love to help. Feel free to contact us directly anytime at [email protected]
      I hope this helps!

  10. Sally says

    My 10 month old (closer to 11 months now actually) has been absolutely refusing the morning nap lately. I will put her down at the regular time 9:30 (she wakes at 6:45 at the latest) and leave the room. She has been self settling for ages, so this shouldn’t be the issue. She doesn’t cry much, mostly just chatters to herself, crawls around, stands up, sometimes lays quietly for a few minutes like she might fall asleep, but doesn’t. She will do this for up to 45 minutes before I go in and just get her up. Do you think it is possible she is wanting to drop the nap at this age? She has a consistent 2 hour nap in the afternoon from 12:30-2:30 (or sometimes 1-3). She sleeps 12 hours through the night.

    What are your thoughts/recommendations?

    • Janelle Reid says

      Hi @Sally, thanks for writing to us! Most babies don’t actually go down to 1 nap on average until between 15-18 months. It is super common to get some push back on that morning nap though around this age! Here is an article that explains it a bit more: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-naps-2/12-month-olds-one-nap-transition/
      Hopefully this helps but if you have any other questions please let us know! We are here to help.