Over it - what is wrong with my 14 month old?

I am writing this because I am so over our lack of sleep at the moment. :frown: Our 14 month old son hasn't slept a full night in nearly two weeks and has stopped going to bed at his usual bedtime of around 7.30pm. (He never really slept a full night - maybe 3 nights he would then a couple of nights he wouldn't). I don't expect him to sleep the whole night everynight but after about 11 nights straight of waking screaming blue murder then not wanting to go back to sleep I am at a loss with what to do with him. We put the first few nights down to teething but it is still going on and he fights bedtime like you wouldn't believe.

We have done everything suggested in all the books etc about a bedtime routine, bath, soft lights and music while getting him ready for bed, reading a story and giving him a bottle. We have done the same routine everynight for months with the same calm lead up to bed and he still fights sleep until my husband rocks him for half an hour or more back to sleep. Then he is up again either at around 11pm or 2.am or 4am and sometimes all three. And getting him back to sleep at these times is near impossible.

I would like to know if my experience is similar to anyone elses at the moment? I feel like my whole life consists of trying to get him to nap and trying to get him to bed then trying to get him back to bed once he wakes up. He rarely sleeps more than about 1 to 2 hours during the day all up.

I don't think he is in any real pain when he wakes during the night because as soon as we pick him up he stops crying and starts talking and pointing to things wanting to play. The minute you put him down in his cot he has a fit, screaming and throwing his body around until you pick him up again. If he is in real pain eg teething we can tell because he doesn't stop crying until we give him panadol or something but most of the time he stops crying when we pick him up. I have tried to put him in bed with us when he won't go back down in his cot but he just sits up and plays in our bed and tries to get off the bed and hit us in the face and laughs:eek: .
:dunno:
Is this just a phase that will pass??? :confused:

Cindy, we experienced this with our ds 1 and sadly like you, I could not find any real reason for it to occur. He actually started doing this after we moved him to a bed prior to no 2 coming, but like you he was fine if we were in the room, but screamed as soon as we left and some nights it would be for 4 hours at a time.

I wish I had some suggestions for you, but we just found that we continually put him back, and sadl,y had to let him cry and scream, but eventually he got the idea and started to sleep longer, or if he woke, did not take as long to settle.

Now he can still get up a few times a night, but it is generally no more than putting him back to bed and he goes back to sleep.

Hugs to you hun, cause I know how awful it is feeling like the nights will never end.

My son Nicholas went through this at roughly the same age, we ended up taking him to our gp because we were at our wits end and he said he was having night tremors, which apparently are very common in little boys.
He grew out of it, but still has the odd one now and again

The only other thing I can think of was what we went through with Matilda at 13 months and that was she dropped a day sleep. As soon as she dropped the day sleep, the night sleeps worked out. HTH

I had the same thing with millana at this age.I followed the same routines and if she woke in the nite and wouldnt settle i would sit beside her bed not talking and she would lie down and nod off.If she was real bad i would sleep on the floor.She stopped after a couple of weeks but everynow and then will do it again for a few nights.This week being one of them.I am sure its dreams as she will say nana and pop and other stuff inappropriate.
My Sil had the same thing with her son and slept beside his bed for 5 weeks! But he is fine now.Same thing with dreaming and then waking up screaming.

It could be night terrors? I think you'd need a GP diahnosis for that as Naomi suggest.

My son , whos almost 14 months, has starting waking more an night, screaming - not necessarily crying - and does the throwing his body around as well, but he does it in my arms not just in bed. Once I calm him down he is usually OK to go back to sleep though.

With the teething issue - I also thought that if it was teething pain Milo would still be upset when I picked him up etc, but for him it doesn't necessarily work that way - its more that when there are no distractions and his body can relax, he noticed the pain more than when someone is there or theres something else to do.

My Kat has night terrors too and Needs a night light on. If she wakes at night without one, she screams blue murder and is terrible to try to resettle. She's fine with a nightlight on. She started this about a year ago. She'd wake up screaming and then she'd cling to us when we went to calm her down. We worked out she was having bad dreams and she'd not want to go back to bed. I found that after a few weeks of her waking and us going in and cuddling her and giving her some time to get over it and then putting her back to bed and telling her we were right next door etc, she started to know we were there and the fear slowly left her a bit. The nightlight def helped too. Now she only does it if her room is completely dark when she wakes. Once again, 30mins of cuddles and kisses away from her room and she seems to go back to bed ok as long as she knows were are near and will come to her rescue if she needs it..

Thanks to everyone for your responses. After thinking about your comments I think it could be a combination of bad dreams and probably needing to drop a nap during the day. Athough having said that my husband is in his room rocking him as we speak to try to get him to sleep and I can hear him gurgling and talking not sounding sleepy to me and I know he only had one nap today in the morning!
I guess like eveything else this too shall pass!
Thanks so much for your posts it helps so much to know that others have gone through similar things and come out the other end!
:-)

I have a 14 month old daughter, and I know it can be DREADFUL trying to figure out why they are crying! Just wanted to add to the other suggestions that you could bring him to the doctor to have his ears checked. When Marieke has an ear infection, she is miserable when lying down, but OK when she is upright. She never has a fever or any other symptom, so it's really hard to tell. Hope things improve over there soon!

hi Mama of 2, thanks for your response. I actually did check his ears out with a couple of doctors on two separate occassions and they both found nothing. I am happy to report though that he has now slept the past 4 nights from 7.30/8.00pm to 7.00am - without waking once - ABSOLUTE HEAVEN!!!!! I hope it lasts but just have to expect that sometimes this just happens and no one knows why! I am trying to cut down his day time sleeps so he is more tired at bed time and this seems to be working.

And I can tell you after some good nights of sleeping through I have an angel on my hands - he has been such a pleasure! Amazing what a good night's sleep does - for everyone!
Thanks everyone for your advice and input!
xx

Hurray! Good to hear things are OK over there! :)

I am glad things have been going a bit better for you on the sleep front Cindy.
I hope my Milo follows suit!

I find that my 19mo sometimes sleeps better if we co-sleep. He always starts off in his cot, but if he wakes most of the time he will go straight back to sleep in bed with me. The alternative is rocking him for about an hour and even then he'll often wake when put back in his cot. Co-sleeping ensures i get more sleep and i love it!

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