11-12month sleep regression?
Our baby boy is an amazing sleeper. He slept through the night from 8 weeks old and was sleep trained from 4 months of age (to help with day naps). He has only ever had sleep struggles when needing a routine change. Other than that, he has been incredible.
At around 11 months of age, he started screaming when he knew we were getting him ready for bed and once put down in the cot for both day and night sleeps (this is extremely unusual) and needed us to be in the room patting him to fall asleep.
Usually, this means a routine change so I attempted one nap (I tried putting him down at 11.30, 12pm and 1pm over the course of a week) rather than two naps (two naps were 3.25/3.25/3.25 although last nap became shorted to an hour recently)
However, for the first time ever, progressing to the next routine didn’t help. In fact, I think this only made things worse as he started early waking and a few night wakes from being overtired).
He is teething on and off but he has never struggled with this. I know for sure his molars are coming through so it could be that? I have even taken him to the dr to ensure he’s not unwell. However we have had no luck.
Returning to 2 naps has helped and this week, he has been able to fall asleep solo twice. We currently leave the room, let him cry for 2 mins and re-enter (this is what we were taught by our sleep trainer (and after 2 mins you increase to 5 min intervals etc but jt rarely gets to that). He ALWAYS then falls asleep with us patting him once we have re-entered.
Once he is asleep at night he sleeps through to the morning. The day time naps are anywhere from 1-1.5 long (they used to be 1.5-2).
This inability to fall asleep on his own has now lasted nearly 2 weeks.
- is this just a clingy phase?
- is he getting used to us patting him and becoming reliant on it?
- could he currently be in the middle of one and two naps?
- could it be the molars? He is a little clingy when awake but seems perfectly normal. Also giving him pain relief hasn’t helped.
- do we need to let him cry for longer?
Any suggestions? I know it’s not the biggest issue as he is eventually falling asleep after being patted but bed time is starting to become really anxiety inducing and this is so so rare for our baby boy. I also dont want it getting worse. Just wondering if anyone has any insight or tips/stories?
THANK YOU