Baby frequently wakes after bedtime

Hi everyone Hoping for a bit of advice or solidarity. Bedtime with my almost 13 month old consists of feeding to sleep and transferring (sometimes unsuccessfully!) into his cot. The problem is he will often wake within 15 mins of this and we have to start again. Sometimes he will go an hour, very occasionally two, but we are never getting any reasonable length evening. By around midnight each evening he's in our bed which I don't mind but eventually I'd love him to be more settled in his own cot. I don't want to sleep train, I'm keen to let him get there when he is ready, but also wondering if there are things we could improve to help him along. He is currently between one and two naps a day (earlier bedtime if one nap) and there is no pattern between number of naps and how he sleeps at night. Thank you

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So we haven't sleep trained as such but we actively make sure she goes down awake into the cot-she can now self settle and put herself to sleep but at first we assisted with settling her to sleep in the cot so she got used to that idea. On good nights she will sleep 9 hours solid, but generally will do about 4-5hour stretches and require another resettle. I used to BF to sleep and was getting wakes like you were describing. The change to longer stretches was instant from the first day of putting her down awake. Hope that helps :)

Thanks Hayley, that's really helpful. When you say you assisted with settling her to sleep in the cot, could you give tips as to how you did this? I honestly think if we put him down awake he would just cry or try and play as he wouldn't understand it was bedtime!

No advice but a similar situation here. We put our girl to sleep in her cot and stay with her until she falls asleep. However, within 40 mins, at best a few hours, she wakes up crying. She ends up in our bed before 2 am every night

Hi Ornela, sorry to hear you are in the same situation but it is refreshing to know we aren't alone! I expect there are a lot of people who end up cosleeping and just don't talk about it!

Sorry no advice but just to say I’m in the exact same position as you!!! Wow! I felt like had been doing something wrong. I’m trying to do some gentle sleep training with my LO as I was having to rock to sleep. That seems to be showing some signs of working but he’s still waking after 2/3 hours sleep and will only settle if he’s in my bed knowing I’m right next to him 🙃.

Hi Sonia, I think a lot of the apps and Instagram pages will have us think we are doing things wrong but the reality is all babies are different I guess! And it's nice to hear of others in the same situation xx

It is definitely reassuring when you hear from others in the same situation. You are absolutely right about apps/instagram. I’m starting to believe that they are only little and will find their way when they are ready to sleep independently. If it’s working for you then there’s nothing to fix. I’m now enjoying and making the most of the cuddles I get and he’s like my little hot water bottle 🥰 xx

That's so lovely 🥰🥰🥰

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