10 month old sleep disturbances

[Em_325]

I know this is just another phase but as I'm sitting here feeling insanely sleep deprived I just need a little reassurance that this too shall pass.

DS is 10 months old and for the past month his night sleeps have completely changed and he is very unsettled through the night then waking up with the sunrise between 4.30 and 5. It started when he was cutting teeth which is understandable but it's still going. Basically he goes to bed at 7 will sleep for an hr then wakes up screaming. He will not resettle in his cot at all so I usually cuddle him till he is in a deep sleep and put him back down. This pattern continues until around 10.30 when he gets really upset and I am up with him for a while (and he has taken to wanting a bottle at this time) When he falls back asleep I go to bed as well and on his next wake up (usually 2 hours later) he comes into bed with me. At this point I stop checking the time- he wakes frequently but at least I don't have to get up then come sunrise and he is awake and there is little chance of resettling him. On the odd morning I get lucky and he will resettle and sleep till 6 but the lack of sleep is starting to catch up on me. I can't help but worry that maybe I have created a rod for my own back by rocking him to sleep but prior to this he could settle himself and was mostly sleeping through the night. He eats plenty of solids through the day so I don't think it's hunger, I've tried dressing him warmer and cooler to see if it's a temp thing, I've given him pain relief incase it's teeth etc but nothing makes a difference. I'm going of get the back bedroom windows tinted to see if it helps with the waking with the sun issue but is there anything else I should try? Or do I just need to keep reminding myself that he isn't going to be a 20 year old still needing me to rock him to sleep

[Andie78]

Haha... that's what I tell myself too - 'he's not going to be 20 years old & sleeping with mummy, breastfeeding to sleep etc'

Around the 10 month age, ds's sleep went bananas too (he's 14 months now). He was waking all the time & really hard to settle. Previously I would bf him, lay him down, say 'night, buddy', walk out & within 10 minutes he'd be asleep. No crying, fussing etc. I thought I'd won the lottery!

I think it was around 12 months things started to get better... by 13 months I could leave him to put himself to sleep again. I think in the end he just needed more comfort, with me being there with him. Holding his hand while he was laying I his cot, extra feeds during he night, cuddle in our bed to get to sleep etc. It was an intensely tiring time, I was so, so exhausted. It was taking at least an hour to get him to bed at night, to then have him wake 40 mins later. Then 2 hrs later etc. I didn't remember being that sleep deprived when he was a newborn. Eventually I noticed that me sitting with him was actually keeping him up, and I started leaving him again. Surprisingly he went to sleep by himself again.

Anyway, hopefully this phase passes soon for you so you can get some sleep. Xx