10 month old routine - help!

[jsth1979]

Hi all, my little boy has just turned 10 months. We have a great daily routine and bed time routine but he hasn't quite cracked the 'through the night' sleep thing. We've had a couple of one-offs where he has gone from 7pm til 6am but generally he is still waking anywhere between 10pm and 1am for a feed.

He eats really well during the day and gets plenty of milk (formula) and I have already introduced whole milk into his diet.

His routine is generally this:

Wake around 6.30 has 4-5 ounces of milk. An hour later breakfast 4/5 ounces milk mixed with weetabix and banana.

Between 9 am and 11am he usually naps (not always 2 hours as I am trying to cut this down to encourage more sleep at night).

Wakes around 11am might have a little snack (fruit or biscuits) and some water to drink.

12.30 lunch. A 'meal' plus dessert! Includes pasta, meat, veg etc whatever we have cooked recently.

Somewhere between 1.30 and 3pm he naps again for about a hour. He used to sleep 2 hours up until 4pm but he has recently needed to go to sleep earlier and so I make sure he is up and about again by 3.30 at the very latest. He will then have a little drink of water.

4.15-4.30 tea. Smaller portion meal, sometimes scrambled egg and toast or a bit of cheese. Also a little bit of yogurt. Drinks water with his tea.

We then play or he opens and closes the washing machine while I prepare dinner for me and hubby!

Bath time at 6.30 and bottle at 7 (about 6/7 ounces) the he's usable in bed by 7.30 at the latest.

We were 'dream feeding' at about 10.30pm for a while but we stopped waking him for this a couple of weeks ago. Like I said he has gone through a couple of nights but it is still unpredictable.

What are your routines? How did you crack the full night sleep?

Any stories or suggestions shared would be appreciated!

[tazmania]

I think there are two options here: either make do with it for the time being (he's actually doing pretty darn well for a 10 month old to be sleeping as well as he is, believe me!), or sleep-train him out of it. Clearly your little one can self settle if he sometimes sleeps through and if he is sleeping from at least 1am to 6am (he will 'wake' several times in this period but must be putting himself back to sleep unaided). Therefore in my opinion he does actually need the late-night top-up milk when he asks for it - otherwise he wouldn't bother asking for it. So personally I would just wait for him to outgrow it as I don't think it will be long until he does, sounds like he is eating well and a fabulous sleeper so the time will come soon. Or the other view would be that he has simply developed an unnecessary habit - the only way to break this is through some sort of sleep training, e.g. controlled crying - when he wakes for the feed offer a drink of water and then say its sleepy time and kiss goodnight, leave. He'll cry for a while and you can keep going in and offering water, kissing goodnight, leaving longer and longer between your visits until eventually he gets it and gives up. I would reckon that after a few nights of this he'll stop waking for milk. Then after you have cracked it, if he ever does start waking again you can feel confident that it's probably down to teething or something like that. I hope this helps. x

[kerry1607]

We used the babysleepsite.com for our routines.

All I would say is don't wake up from naps. Sleep breathes sleep and the better they nap the better they sleep at night. Im sure there is a sleep regression coming up for you too so might not be the best time to sleep train

[Hopeful15]

The fact your child sleeps is a miracle. My 11 month old is a nightmare night screamer unless he's in our bed. Relax. You've got it good.

[Muminspire1]

My little girl is almost 11 months old and still waking for breast milk. She eats well in the day time.

7:30 /8:00 wakes up and will have breakfast/ porridge or weetabix or yogurt, any 1 of those as sometimes she is picky and a drink of water, Mums milk

11:00/ 12:00 Mums Milk and then Nap time for 45 mins to 1 hour

13:00 Lunch time; varied diet, she eats everything the family eats e.g potatoes, veg, chicken, yoghurt and a drink of juice/ varied diet

14:00/15:00 Nap 45 mins to 1 hour

16:00 Snack, fruit/yoghurt/ Mums Milk

18:00 Bath time and relax

19:00 Dinner/Mums milk and off to bed

She eats very well in the day time and she is a big girl weight wise but is still waking up, for at least two times for Mums milk and goes off straight away to sleep. So sleeps 7pm to 7: 30 or 8:00 am with two wake intervals to drink Mums milk and goes back to sleep pretty much quickly.

When she started crawling and standing up@ 7 months, then bed time was out of the window as all she wanted to do was crawl and walking holding onto things, now the excitement is tapering down, we are pretty much back to normal.

She is baby number 4, all my kids have probably done a similar thing, I am not too strict with routines and sometimes she only has one long nap instead of two. I am not concerned as when they are ready they will sleep straight through, it is only a matter of time. Dont worry yourself, let your baby lead you, that is what I would say to you. In the end they all get there. All the best, you are doing great Mum XXXXX

[pritsko2011]

Hi ya!

He might be trully hungry to be honest.

How about to change the routine a little bit.

How about little snack after afternoon nap(or even bottle) and move his dinner for 5-5.30?!

Just a thought from nanny with more than 9 years of experience.

Good luck! X

[jsth1979]

Thank you everyone who responded. Amazingly just after I posted this things changed... For the better. We've had four nights in a row where he has actually slept through. I mean 11 hours without waking for anything!!!! I am not taking this for granted but am enjoying it (mostly - if I wake in the night which I frequently do I lay there for a while listening out for him lol!).

Anyone out there who is in a similar position just have faith!

He is still having the same food and naps so I guess he knew when he was ready.

This parenting lark is tough! But rewarding as he took his first steps last night too!

Have a good day/ week everyone 😉