Sleeping FAQ: 9-12 months

One month ago I went to Italy to my parents' house; my son had no problems in setting for his naps but at the lunchtime nap he began to wake up crying loudly after 1 hour or max 1 hour and 30 minutes (before he was sleeping for 2 hours and he woke up very happy and singing). I made sure of the fact that he was not hungry, thirsty or uncomfortable. I thought perhaps that some new sounds could be upsetting him but he woke up also when there was no sound at all. Now it is already a week that we have been at home (in Ireland) and he continues to wake up crying after 1 hour and 15 minutes. Yesterday I tried to let him cry (I went to his bedroom to reassure him after 10 minutes and then every 15 minutes): he cried for 1 hour and and half and he was more and more upset. Today it was the same. I do not want to let him cry again if I am not sure that this is a solution (and the only solution).
The worst is that it is very difficult to convince him to have another nap before dinner; if he has no late nap he has some difficulties to settle for the night and he wakes up earlier in the morning.
Usually he goes to sleep happy and smiling and he sleeps all the night without any problems.
My son is on 3 meals a day and drinks 180-210mls formula at 9.30am, 4.30pm and 9pm before he settles for the night.
He wakes at 8am, naps at 12-12.30pm and 3-4.15pm. He settles for the night at 9pm.
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My son who is now 10 ½ months old has started to wake up early since he began crawling, which was about 8 weeks ago. He wakes at 5:10am and starts chatting to himself, but then becomes very noisy. I have to give him his bottle by 6.30am. I don’t think he is waking through hunger since he eats well in the day.

I have tried to follow the advice given to parents with similar problems of early morning waking however the situation has not improved. I don't really know what else I can do. I have tried to change his routines slightly over the last couple of weeks just to see what works best for my son. He still keeps waking up too early.

Feeding details:
6.30am 200 ml formula

8.00am baby cereal with banana or mango, Redbush tea

10.00am oat biscuit

12.00 7 cubes protein lunch e.g. chicken, lentils or fish with carrots and potatoes. Yoghurt and cheese stick. Water or orange juice

3.00pm Fruit mixture; apple, banana, pear or some toast, water

5.00pm 5 cubes of carbohydrate tea such pasta bolognaise, sultana bread, cheese stick, oat biscuit. Redbush tea

6.15pm 200mls formula

My son naps at 9-10am and 1-3pm. He is settled at 6.50pm
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My son has been a CLB since starting the routine, slept through from 10pm feed at 9 weeks and dropped the 10pm feed at 16 weeks, and continually slept 7pm till 7am. We obviously struggled with the lunchtime sleep but solved that and never had any sleep issues either day time or night time until around 8 months old. We started to experience the occasional night waking maybe once a week and so when he woke we gave a milk feed after leaving him for around 30-45 minutes to settle. He would then seem to settle so we though he was genuinely hungry, this has carried on for around six weeks with it gradually getting worse in that we were taking him out of his cot and cuddling him and then still giving him a feed. As my son eats well during the day I saw no reason for these wakings and decided to look at other factors. I had kept a diary so looked back on what happened during the day to cause these night wakings. It became apparent that my son only seemed to wake on days that he was at home with me having a 9.30-10am nap and 2hrs from 1pm. He has never slept well at nursery. On average 20 minutes in the morning, 1hr at lunchtime and another 20mins in the afternoon. On a Tuesday he sleeps well at his grandmas around 2 - 2.5hrs, and he has never woke on any of these nights. So I felt after putting a post on the forum that he was having too much day time sleep on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and decided to try and reduce it to less than 2 hrs per day and this seems to have had a disastrous effect. I was giving 20 minutes at 9.30am and 1.5hrs to 1hr 40min at lunchtime. We are now in the situation of him waking most nights, plus sometimes also waking to start the day at 6am, crying after 30 minutes into the lunchtime nap and then settling but for only 40 minutes, waking after being in bed after 30 minutes. I feel I am in the situation of I am not sure which way to turn to solve these problems and feeling very exhausted as I am by myself during the week. I would just like my happy little boy back. For additional information he crawled at 9 months and this week is pulling himself up on furniture etc. I have not given a milk feed for over a week if he has woken up in the night and stopped getting him out of the cot, and do not go to him until he has been crying for around 20 minutes and then only visit once and have left him to cry and settle which he does do up to 1.5 hrs later.

My son takes 5-6ozs milk from a beaker at 7.15am followed by 1 weetabix with 3ozs milk, fruit and toast. 10am 2ozs of juice, rice cake or biscuit. 12midday, 1 portion of a recipe from the Weaning Book and 1 fromage frais, 2-4ozs juice. 3.00pm 2ozs juice, sometimes a small snack such as cheese but not always. 5.00pm normally jacket potatoes, soup and sandwich, 3ozs milk from a beaker. 6.30pm 6ozs of juice from a beaker.

He weighs around 24lbs.
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We have just returned from a holiday to the US (Florida) and we are now having big problems with my 9.5mth son sleeping between about 8pm and 11pm. He was a very good sleeper before, going through or occasionally waking at 5am for water. Whilst on holiday he slept well also but we have been home a week now and do not know how to solve this problem.
All his day naps are now back to normal but when we put him to bed after his usual night time bottle routine he goes off to sleep no problem then stirs at around 8pm and we then are up and down to his bedroom for the next 2 hours. He falls straight back to sleep on us but it is like he only goes into a shallow sleep and cries every time he stirs. We don't want to get into a bad habit but he does not seem to go back to sleep without us. We have resorted to giving him a little more milk at around 10.30 pm sometimes with a 1/2 dose of Medised and he then sleeps though until morning but we then have to wake him at 7.30am.
In the beginning the time he was awake seemed to make sense with the time difference but 7 days on this cannot now be the reason.

My son feeds at 7.30am 6ozs formula, bowl of porridge, 12midday 4 cubes of meat or fish with potato and vegetables, yoghurt. 2.30pm 4ozs formula, 5pm, 3 cubes of meat or fish with potato and vegetables, fruit puree pot, 6.30pm, 8ozs formula. My son weighs 21lbs.

He naps at 9.15-10am and 12.30-2.15pm. He settles at 7pm.
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My 11-month-old son has slept through since I began the routine when he was 2 months old. He has always seemed very happy in the routine. However since last week he has been waking up at night and wants to play. He will not go to sleep until I give him some milk and on some days even this doesn’t work. I have increased his solid intake and have cut down his daytime sleep to 10 minutes in the morning and 1 1/2 hours at lunch but this still has not worked. He has a varied and healthy diet and eats a meat lunch and a vegetarian dinner. He has cut 2 teeth and I do not think he is teething at the moment.

My son takes 210mls in the morning followed by 1 weetabix, 1 pot of fruit puree, 1 pot fromage frais. At lunch he would eat spaghetti bolognaise [lamb mince] and a fruit spoons of fruit puree. He will have snack of 2 rice cakes or 1 cocktail sausage and his dinner is steamed mixed vegetables with a few spoonfuls of fruit puree. He takes a further 210mls formula before his bedtime.
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My son of 10 months had been waking at 5-5.30am, troubled with a persistent cough which has now been treated with antibiotics and an inhaler. He now wakes at 6.30am but does not seem hungry.  How do I get him back to sleeping until 7am?

He is not yet crawling and hates being on his tummy. He does enjoy time in his walker or walking holding my hands and is generally a happy child.

In the past two weeks he has gone off all solid meals and cut back on his bedtime milk on some evenings.

Below are the amounts of food he was taking up until two weeks ago.

7am: 5- 6ozs of formula from beaker, 1 weetabix, 3tsp fruit puree
10am: 4ozs water from beaker
12.00: 2 cubes chicken, 2 cubes potato, 4cubes mixed vegetables, 2ozs water          
2pm: 3-4ozs water from beaker
5pm: 7-8 cubes vegetable soup with bread, mini sandwiches, pasta shapes and vegetable sauce. Finger food.
6.15pm: 4- 8ozs formula from a bottle.

Daily milk intake14ozs

My son naps at 9-9.45am and 12.20-2.30pm. He settles at 7pm.
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My 9.2-month-old daughter has been sleeping 7pm to 7 or 7.30am since she was 10 weeks old. Just recently though she started waking at 6.30am and now she is waking every morning at 6am which is making her very tired in the mornings, until she's had her early nap. I don't usually pick her up until 7am or so and then I give her breakfast straightaway. Can you suggest anything that could help with the early morning waking?
At present she naps 8.30-9.15am, 12.30-2.00pm and 3-3.45pm.
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My 10.5mth twins were born at 34 weeks. We have attempted to put them on the CLB routine - bearing in mind their prematurity - but have adjusted it from 6am to 6pm to fit in with the time my husband gets up to go to work.
One twin is consistently waking between 4am and 5.30am. Which is obviously too early for any of us and it wakes his twin brother. He has always woken earlier than we would have chosen but used to get to 5.30am regularly, now it is nearer 4.30am. I have cut back his first nap to half an hour (from 8.30am to 9am) and his second nap starts at 12.30pm and can be anything from half an hour to 2 hours long.
We are desperate to get him to sleep 6pm to 6am.
He goes down very well at 6pm, usually talks to himself for 10 minutes and we don't hear a peep until around 4.30am when he starts talking again and this rapidly changes to crying which wakes his twin.
The room is pitch black, not too hot or cold, there are no external sounds waking him and he doesn't appear hungry. We try to leave them until 6am and then go in but this can be hard as they are both wailing pitifully.
He eats well during the day and drinks his first and last bottles completely, since changing his milk into a beaker at 2.30pm he has less but still drinks some.

Please help we don't know what to try next and we are all exhausted. This is especially affecting his twin brother, who loves his sleep and would gladly sleep later if given the chance. The boys share a room as there is no where else for them to go.

They feed at 6am, 7ozs formula, followed by cereal, toast and a piece of fruit. Lunch at 11.30am is protein based such as beef casserole, chicken and pasta, lamb hotpot. My son takes about 4 tablespoons. Followed by yoghurt/fruit/rice cake. He drinks water from a beaker.

2.30pm 7ozs formula from beaker, does not always take all of this.

Tea at 4.30pm is carbohydrate based such as cauliflower cheese, pasta and sauce, cheese sandwiches. Around 4 tablespoons taken. Followed by yoghurt/fruit/rusk.

5.45pm 7ozs formula. My son weighs 20lbs.

My son naps at 8.30-9.00am and 12.30-2pm.
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My son is now just over 10 months old. We introduced the CLB routine when he was 3 months and it worked beautifully for us, and has done until recently. Since he was 8 or 9 months old, he's been waking early, and it seems to be getting earlier and earlier. He was consistently sleeping until 7am until that point. I have ruled out every possible cause of the early waking - his room is blacked out completely, he gets plenty to eat and eats according to the weaning program laid out by the book (has his protein at lunchtime, fruit in the mornings, vegetarian dinners etc). He never refuses his food and he eats a lot of it. I still breastfeed three times a day - upon waking, after the lunchtime nap, and after his bath, before bedtime. He's not a large or small baby - basically right on the 50% mark in terms of size and weight.

When he wakes in the morning, I've been leaving him for 30 minutes or so (he doesn't cry, just grizzles, but will work himself up to crying if I leave him longer than that). He doesn't go back to sleep. I usually end up giving him one breast's worth of a feed, and put him back to bed, treating it as a 'night' feed like I did when he was much younger. He'll usually go back to sleep, though some days he won't do that either, just lies there grizzling again. If he goes back to sleep, I let him sleep until 7.10, then get him up and give him the other breast, then breakfast, then we continue the day as usual. At the moment he's waking at 5.30/6am. I'd really like to know how to stretch him out until 7! He sleeps for 30 minutes at his morning nap, and 2 hours at lunchtime. Both of these nap’s are pretty consistent and no trouble. We put him down to bed between 6.45 and 7pm - we tried earlier so that he wouldn't go to bed exhausted and end up in a deep sleep early. Nothing is working though. I'd love any suggestions! I don't want him to become one of these toddlers that is awake at 4am every morning, and I feel like that's what I'm looking at if I don't fix this. He's a very active baby - crawling, pulling self to stand, constantly on the go and loves to go out and look at everything (overtiredness and over stimulation were our main problems early on!).

My son feeds at 5.30am 1 breast for 15minutes, 7.10am one breast, 10 minutes. Breakfast at 7.30am 3 tablespoons baby muesli with apple, half a small banana mashed with formula, 10.30am two fingers of toast, butter and jam, water from a cup. 11.50am, 4-5 tablespoons of vegetables and meat, homemade, always including a carbohydrate such as potato, small baby yoghurt or custard, water from a cup. 2.45pm, breast feed, both sides for 20 minutes. 4.15pm water from a cup, 5.00pm 4-5 tablespoons mashed mixed vegetables, sometimes with an egg yolk always containing carbohydrate such as potato, rice and pasta. Small baby yoghurt or custard. 6.15pm breast feed, both sides.

My son weighs 9kg [19lbs 13ozs].

My son naps at 9-9.30am, 12.30-2.30pm.
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My 10mth daughter loves the routines and has slept through the night since a very young age. She is a very contented baby through the day. The problem I have is that she will not easily fall asleep in my arms or in the pushchair, although she will sleep in the car.

We are going on holiday soon and I am worrying how I am going to get her to sleep during the day. The flight is only 4 hours but the whole journey will take all day.

In the past when we have been out and she has not been able to sleep in her cot, she will just not sleep until she gets very overtired, has a screaming fit and then falls asleep. On very rare occasions she has managed to fall asleep in my arms or in her pushchair.

My daughter naps at 9.15-9.45am and 12.30-2.30pm.
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My son for the last two weeks has been crying and screaming every time I put him in his cot. He has moaned in the past but settled himself. Only on occasions would I need to go in to quieten him by turning him on his side, readjusting blankets and then leave. He has never been a crying baby and to now have him screaming with tears and sobbing is distressing. It started with one or two naps (can't remember exactly which ones) and now it's every time he is put down. He has cut 5 teeth in the last three weeks and I have given him paracetamol on occasion (doesn't help settle him but keeps him asleep). This week he has woken one out of every two nights and been unable to settle himself. He is pulling to stand on the cot now and can't get himself down. One night he was awake and screaming on and off for four hours. He settles if I stand next to the cot with one hand on his bottom. As soon as I move to leave he screams. Where do I go to from here?

The sleep summary at the end of this page was yesterdays, at all times I had to assist to get him to calm down. (Stand there with hand on bottom)

He breasts feeds at 7am, 2.45pm and 6.30pm. He eats three meals a day, 3oz of millet or oats with milk and 1-2ozs fruit at breakfast. 2oz protein, 2ozs carbohydrate, 3ozs vegetables, 2-3ozs fruit at lunch, 1oz protein, 2oz carbohydrate and 3ozs vegetables at teatime.
He naps from 9.15-10am and 12.55-2.55pm. He goes to bed at 7pm.
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My 10mth old baby has started to fight his morning sleep and I would appreciate guidance on what age he can drop it. He currently wakes about 7 - 7.30am and I put him down about 9.45am (I've pushed the routine back by 30 minutes). Some days he'll cry for 10mins and sleep and other days he will not settle unless I rock him to sleep on me. As I want to put him down for his lunchtime sleep about 1pm (to fit in with play group pick up) I haven't let him go all morning without a sleep yet. Can you please advise what age a baby can go without this sleep? We go on holidays in 6 weeks time and I would like to get him settled into a new pattern (if possible!) before we go. Some days I wake him after 20 minutes and he lasts okay until 1pm.

My son sleeps at 10-10.30am, 1.15-3pm and is settled by 7.30pm.
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My daughter has been a perfect contented baby since birth and followed all your books. Any problems that have arisen have been solved by reading on of your guides.When I returned to full time work when my daughter was six and a half months old she settled well into her nursery and continues to enjoy being there.

The nursery is a local SureStart nursery and is very friendly and definitley the best in the area, I wouldn't have been happy sending her to any of the other nurseries. It really helped knowing she was happy and settled when I returned to work.
There were two things I didn't like about my nursery. The first was that there are no cots for the babies, they sleep on the floor on cushions in a quiet room (which is also used as a sensory area at one side of the room) and the staff seemed astonished to discover that she just needed popping in her sleeping bag and she would go to sleep. All the other babies were rocked, cuddled, sung to etc The second thing I didn't like was the demand feed/sleep attitude of all the staff. They did however say that they would do as we wished and in the beginning they did.

Our problem is that she will not have a full two hour lunchtime nap at all at nursery. She has cut out the morning nap and just about makes it until after her dinner. She will have about 45 minutes, not usually more than an hour. Her night time sleep hasn't really altered. Sometimes she will have another short nap at nursery but not always. They have tried to put her down again at 4pm but she cries so now we make sure we pick her up earlier, which can be difficult sometimes with work. We usually give her a nap until 5pm when she gets home, which can be anything up to an hour long but usually 30 minutes by the time we get home etc. She usually goes down well at 7pm but sometimes whinges when overtired for anything up to twenty-thirty minutes. We tried moving bedtime forward to 6.30pm and cutting out the 4pm nap but she wakes up between 6-6.30 am and then can't make it to her lunchtime nap, besides we need her to sleep to as close to 7am as possible as we get ready before she gets up and we couldn't face getting up before 6am everyday! The nursery have offered to rock her to sleep etc, but we said no way and besides she would probably scream at them as she likes to be left alone to get comfortable and go to sleep, She'll only sleep on a person if poorly. Can you suggest how we could structure her sleep taking into account the fact she won't sleep very long at nursery at lunchtime?
My daughter has had an overwhelming amount of colds and coughs and in four months has had five lots of antibiotics including a trip to children’s ward, I believe that this is because she is so run down and tired. I'm not happy with the amount of antibiotics but feel we haven't had a choice as we have seen different doctors and they all have said she definitely needed them.
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My son is now just over 10 months old and I am considering dropping his morning nap as he takes a while to settle, doesn't always sleep for 2 hours in the afternoon and is often awake and playing at 6am. Would this be the thing to do?
Also how do I manage his routine when British winter time kicks in at the end of October? That means we gain an hour in the morning. Do I ignore this change and continue things with the new times or do I make some sort of adjustment?
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I really need to know how to rearrange the routines for my 10-month-old baby. Once a week my hubby and I go to a religious meeting in the evening between 7-9pm. Normally the baby falls asleep on the way but as she's getting older it's getting harder and harder to keep her asleep. We usually put her in the car seat, she falls asleep on the way there and then we put the car seat on the pram and leave her at the back where she sleeps peacefully till we get home and transfer her to bed.
As she's getting older, however, she's falling asleep on the way there but the noise wakes her after 45 minutes, and she wants to know what's going on around her! There's no way I can keep her asleep so I need to know how to restructure her routine for one day a week so she can stay up in the evening. She is almost out of her car seat and we are going to have to get a big one for the car and I know we won't be able to take her in and out of it without her waking up!
How can I re-arrange her routine on that day so she won't be too cranky if I keep her up? Please help... I'm getting desperate!
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