Sleep issues in 16 month old

So, I need some thoughts on DS's sleep issues. He has never been as good of a sleeper as his sister, but they have been STTN since they were 8 or 9 months old. Since he was about a year he would have episodes where he would cry out, usually about 2 hours after he went to sleep, and if you checked on him he would still be laying down like he was asleep. If you let him go, he would stop crying after about 5-10 minutes and sleep the rest of the night. Recently (3-4 weeks), he started to cry louder, more shrill, and if you check on him he is either sitting up or standing in the crib. Because it was different than his previous crying, we started to go in there and rub his back. We found that if we rub his back, he would quiet immediately and fall asleep within 5 minutes. He never asks to be picked up, he never says mama or dada, never really interacts. We thought maybe this is nightmares/night terrors and just left it at that. Then, in the last two weeks or so, he started doing it during nap as well. It is almost like clockwork that 30 minutes into his nap we have to go in there and rub his back to get him to fall back to sleep. Through all of this we let it go because it would happen early enough that it wasn't bothering us and he would sleep the rest of the night. The last 3 nights or so, it has gotten SO much worse. Last night, we went up there 2 times before we went to bed and 3 times after we were in bed!!

So, I guess my question is if any of you have been through this. If so, what did you do? It doesn't seem to be separation anxiety because he never wants to be picked up. I don't even know if he is actually awake but I haven't tried to talk to him to see because I don't want to wake DD up. He's not sick, he can't be teething (he already has 16 teeth!), he acts happy and fine during the day...Do I just need to do CIO? We did do CIO for them when we first taught them to go to bed on their own but have never had to do CIO for night waking before. I am very confused at what could be going on.

 

Could be a little overtired. Have you tried an earlier bed time for both naps and night time? I know sometimes my girls do this when they're overtired. If they wake during the night like that I usually let them cry for about 5-10 minutes before I go in and settle them back into bed where, nine times out of ten, they will fall back asleep with no problem and sleep through the rest of the night.

 

Jack has always been my worst sleeper, and when he wakes during the night he always stands up and cries for us. DH or I will pick him up and rock him for a few minutes in the chair in their room (he and Nate share a room) and then softly tell him that it's still nighttime, Mama and Dada need to go back to sleep so it's time for him to go back in his crib. For some reason Nate is a very heavy sleeper and doesn't wake through Jack's screaming or us talking to him. ardon: This almost always works, and he'll lay back down and sleep the rest of the night.

After my guys turned 1 I figured they were old enough to understand what I was saying to them, and it has really helped with night-waking!

Good luck, and I hope you find something that works SOON!!

 

I agree with Christine, I would try an earlier bedtime to see if helps and then if it's still happening, I would then try CIO. Good luck!

 

my girls went through an awful period of night wakings between about 16 - 20 months. we pretty much just waited it out. we would usually wait a couple of minutes to see if they would settle on their own. if not, we would go in, give a quick cuddle & back into bed. we kept the interaction to a minimum. there were some nights though that they would be awake for hours & i would feel like clawing my eyeballs out from exhaustion. we talked about doing CIO, but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it again. and while some of the nights were brutle, the vast majority of them were just quick in & out visits to soothe. i think i felt up to that & so we decided to keep doing that. now they STTN most nights, although one or the other wakes at least once 2 - 3 times a week.

i think how you handle this is really just up to you. CIO will work, but if you don't feel up to it again & feel like the night wakings are more of an annoyance than a full blown issue, continuing brief night time soothings would be fine too. i think the key with that though is to keep it low key & businesslike. for me, i will do CIO if it seems like the girls just want to play or if it seems like me going in is winding them up rather than bringing them down. otherwise, i don't mind going in for 30 seconds for a quick retuck & back pat, or whatever they need.