1 Year Old Not Slepping

Hello, I am a stay at home mom w/ four children. My oldest are in sports they are 9 and 7. I have a 4yr. old and 1yr. old. I can tell you that your one year old does not need to go to bed at 6 or 7 or 8. You are setting her up for a disasterous night if you ever have to go somewhere past that time. Get your own schedule or bedtime routine down and take it from there. What works for you and her works for exactly you and her.
I do believe it sounds as if she is hungry at night. You may want to try and feed her something like oatmeal before bedtime since it can be thick or just as consistent as she likes it. My daughter had this same thing going on and now I feed her right before her bedtime bath and she sleeps from around 9 or 10 until 9 or 10A. I don't have to get up for work so, this works super for our family.

That bedtime is very late for a 1 year old. At this age, their bedtime should be between 6-8:00. There may be several issues that need to be resolved, so I would suggest you read the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

Just for comparison, my 1 year old sleeps 12-13 hours at night (7:30-8:00ish) and has one 2-3 hour nap midday. Many babies this age are still taking two naps, however.

She sounds very overtired to me. Good luck!

FWIW, my children never ever went to bed before 9:30 or 10, no matter what I might do to make it happen. Seems to be genetic. If they were to go to bed somewhat earlier, they were sure to wake up by 1 and be ready to play. Some of what they say is correct, though, that rocking them to sleep does not teach them to go to sleep on their own. I did that with mine because they were twins and I needed to get them to go to bed at the same time and not wake each other, but I stopped it around 18 months and trained them to go to sleep on their own. All that said, there may be some other issues causing your baby to wake. Have you checked to see if she is having gas pains? Try giving her gas drops, put her on her tummy and rub her back; also pat her back rythmically. She may also be starting to have bad dreams and does not know what to do with herself. Since she is a solo baby, you should train her to go to sleep by herself soon. Also be sure that she is getting enough food during the day. But if she is scared or hurting you do need to comfort her, then try to let her go back to sleep on her own. The recommended books will probably help you figure out how to train her to go to sleep on her own. good luck.

I have to agree with the other mom that 9:30 or 10pm at night is too late for a 1 year old. The other thing is that she has gotten used to you rocking her to sleep so she now demands it.

You are going to have to create a schedule for her and you. Say, baby up by 7 or 8 am, breakfast, playtime, lunch by noon, nap 1 to 3 pm, playtime (walk outside or stroller), dinner by 5 or 5:30pm, get ready for bed at 7pm in bed by 7:30pm. You might have to let her cry a bit to get used to it. But you have to remember who is the parent and who is the child and you have to be the strong one. As said before, kids need boundaries and they must follow. Once habits are created it takes so much more to break them. Can you see yourself rocking a 10 year old to sleep? No, I didn't think so. So you have to start the routine you want your child to have which starts the day that they come home from the hospital. What's that saying, train them up. No one said it would be easy as there is no manual on how to raise a kid. Good luck. The other S.

I know it is sooo hard to listen to your baby cry but you dont want to create a 1 am rocking habit. The very most I would do is go in and give her her binky or pat her on the back and leave. Dont pick her up. Then, if you can, just go back to bed. One of the best gifts you can give your child is teaching them how to soothe themselves back to sleep at night. Good luck!

Oh, and just in case, I would go ahead and give her tylenol right before bed. For your peace of mind. This will pass soon as long as you dont help create the habit.

Also, I agree about the bedtime too...too late. My kiddo makes it to bed by 7:30 every night, but I dont know if putting her to bed early will help your situation though.

I agree with the other two, that's way to late for bedtime. Babies up to about four months don't usually settle for the night until about nine, but after about four months their bedtime jumps earlier by far. My two year olds go to bed between 6 and seven and sleep until seven or eight and take a two hour nap around noon. I also recommend Healthy Sleep Habits; Happy Child it gives great info on how their sleep evolves and how to help them along. She will cry forever at that time because she's already way tired. Put her to bed earlier and she wont cry so long. When I was at my wits end with my second and both weren't sleeping, he gave me that book and said after you choose a bedtime as a starting point, give her Benadryl about a half hour before that every night for a week to get her recognizing that she's tired, then stop and she'll keep the schedule on her own. She cried three hours the first night, I thought I would go insane, but it was an hour the second night and much less the third. Give it a go with the earlier bedtime, good luck and if you have any questions or want to borrow the book or just want the success story with each of my subsequent children, just let me know.

Ok, I have three kids four and under and trust me I feel your pain!!! My oldest did the exact same thing and like you I hit breaking point! I know it is hard but letting them cry themselves to sleep is really the only way. The first night with my son( at about the same age) he cried for over three hours, but each night it got less and less. Just remember your child is not feeling abandoned it is just a trained response....... She cries, you come and get her......you just have have to retrain her and yourself. I have had to do this with all three of my kids to some extent and it usually takes three to four nights. I would also suggest putting her to bed a little earlier so the crying doesn't cut into your sleep time as much. In the end this is your baby and you can only do what you feel comfortable with, this is just what has worked for me.
Don't let anyones advise make you feel like you are a bad mom either, trust me we are all learning as we go!!!!

good luck and get some sleep!