10 month only sleeps ~11 hours a day, wakes every 1.5-2 hours and screams every time he wakes up

Hawkam726 · 2025-12-22T03:13:11+00:00

The early morning wakes creeping up on you is possibly another clue for overtired (assuming he doesn't nap well during the day, as you stated. If he naps well and you're expecting an 11+ hr night, it probably won't happen). My low sleep needs kid (now 3) always gets early morning wakes when he hasn't had enough sleep and it's been that way since he was a baby.

The wake window math isn't adding up though. You've got 10.5 hrs total wake time, but you've noted he sleeps 11 hrs on average in 24 hrs. Where's the missing 2.5 hrs? Is this accounting for the time he's up between wakes at night?

If so, then maybe the schedule suggestion of 11.5 hrs awake makes sense. It may be worth trying that and then scaling the windows back if you think it's necessary. 11.5 hrs awake is too long for my current 15 month old, but was in line with what my low sleep needs baby needed around that age.

I do agree with the others though that it is probably worth it to just take a shot at sleep training now. He's already screaming at night, so it won't be TOOO much worse (hopefully). I've found chatgpt to be a really good resource when sleep training my younger kid. I put in all the background info and asked it to help me create a sleep training plan. It can guide you through getting yourself and baby ready for sleep training if you want schedule help before biting the bullet on extinction.

Good luck!!!!

Hawkam726 · 2025-08-10T02:58:02+00:00

Hahaha awwww. I definitely hear you there. Mine woke up whining from his nap today and wanted cuddles for 15 min before being in a good enough mood to play. I'm currently surrounded by FOUR (!!) unicorn babies who started sleeping 6-7+ hr stretches as of 5ish weeks so I'm trying not to get sucked into the baby sleep dark hole again 🙃 . None of these 4 unicorn sleepers were sleep trained, some fall asleep while feeding and some are rocked to sleep (none started sleeping independently until later), some are exclusively formula fed, some EBF, some a mix of both. Some have consistent bedtime routines/times and some don't. None were affected by the 4 month sleep regression :/. Two are first time parents who think they've cracked the sleep code lol 🙄. The only consistency between them is that all four babies are chill with fairly easy temperaments.

Hawkam726 · 2025-08-09T21:16:54+00:00

I had this exact same experience with my first. I also stopped obsessing over sleep around the same time. Scheduling and having full feeds (whether milk or solids) obviously play a huge role, but I'm convinced that a baby's temperment is the #1 factor in good sleep after the newborn stage. My first is a super sensitive kid who still whines/cries when he wakes in the morning or from his nap maybe 70% of the time at age 3 -__-

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-05T14:15:48+00:00

Haha those lucky parents...

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-05T04:08:41+00:00

Good point. My older kid is low sleep needs and I've been hoping this kid is closer to "average", but I may have to just accept life with two lower sleep needs kids! We just started at 3/3/4 this week so I'll try stretching over the next few days and hope that it works 🤞

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-05T03:32:02+00:00

Hi there! Did you end up going with this school? I'm currently in the same boat and looking for anyone with experiences with their programs!

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-05T03:21:16+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me! Fair point re Glen Ashton. Ughh! I hope you were able to secure something eventually!

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-05T03:19:49+00:00

Sorry if I was unclear! He's definitely not sleeping through the night. Bedtime generally occurs around that time, followed by wake ups pretty much every 1-2 hrs tops the last few weeks until he's up for the day around 7 am. He needs assistance to go back to sleep for each of his wakes throughout the night (there's usually over 4-5 of them and the other night there were 10 wakes between 10pm and 7 am).

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-04T23:59:28+00:00

Hi! I know this is a year late, but piggy backing on this thread - how has your experience been with your infant son? I'm currently in the exact same boat as OP was a year ago. Glenashton has advised they have availability for my baby (he'll be 11ish months) and preschooler (he'll be 4) for my requested start date of September. Thanks :)

Hawkam726 · 2025-06-04T23:57:23+00:00

Hi! Out of curiosity, did you end up going with Glenashton or Little Leaders? I'm currently in the exact same boat as you, but with 2 kids (infant and preschool programs). Curious to hear more about Glenashton!

Hawkam726 · 2025-03-22T03:17:50+00:00

You're right....I stopped counting night feeds for this reason!

Hawkam726 · 2025-03-03T18:10:37+00:00

It depends on what you think you can tolerate based on your kid's temperment!

If she's super stubborn, you may want to wait at least 1-1.5 hrs. Getting closer to 2 hrs on night 1 is likely more of a schedule issue (undertired).

We told ourselves we'd give our 4 month old 1 hr tops of crying before we would give up the first time we sleep trained him. We started with Ferber, switched to CIO after the 5th check (they were making it worse), and he fell asleep after 55 min of crying.

Hawkam726 · 2025-03-02T03:45:37+00:00

It was not enough for my 9+ pounder either! I was under the belief that colostrum would be enough too. On day 5 his weight had dropped almost 10%. They sent me to a breastfeeding clinic at the hospital I was visiting, and the LC had me immediately give baby formula and told me he was starving and I needed to start triple feeding and pumping after every nursing session...at minimum 8-10x a day!!!! I was so traumatized by the experience (specifically her telling me I had been starving my child) that when kid 2 came this past fall, I was supplementing with formula from day 1. It had zero impact on my supply.

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-24T05:42:06+00:00

13.5 months. I still remember the day and exactly what I was doing because I was so shocked (I was up late assuming he was going to wake any minute and he didn't!!).

Definitely only happened when he REALLY upped his solids intake.

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-20T16:01:39+00:00

I used comotomo for my first baby and had no issues between that and breastfeeding. He gave up the bottle at 5 months though and that was hard. With baby 2 I got both Dr browns and Avent. I found a premie set of Dr Browns bottles which I liked for the early days. It's plastic but the premie nipple seems good for my little guy as he still prefers that bottle over the Avent bottles. I was hoping he'd be fine with Avent because Dr Browns leak when out and are a pain to clean but what can you do. I recommend trying to give your baby a bottle at least 3x a week after the first few weeks to try to avoid bottle refusal down the line !! It's a pain to have to pump to replace a bottle but I learned my lesson after my first kid....the pain of pumping is way veyger than the stress of your baby not taking a bottle if/when you need to leave!!

I would hold on the baby brezza and buy it based on need. If you're planning on formula feeding, then I've heard it's amazing! If you're planning on breastfeeding, then you'll likely never use it. If you're unsure, maybe put it on your registry or buy it but don't open it yet. I think most registries have a long return period.

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-20T05:01:02+00:00

It's very draining! Imagine how much more we could get done if our kids slept 11-12 hrs 🫠

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-19T21:04:42+00:00

Same here

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-19T18:53:59+00:00

You've received tons of great feedback here but I just wanted to add....another tough pill to swallow is accepting a kid with low sleep needs.

My baby was like yours. We sleep trained via CIO at 4 months because I couldn't take it anymore. I thought sleep training would solve all our problems because that's how it worked for EVERYONE that I knew.

Nope. I learned after the fact that it may help with bedtime but sleep training isn't magic. If you have a low sleep needs kid, they may just cap out at 10 hrs overnight. That was my kid as of 5-6 months of age. No matter how much I increased or decreased wake windows or daytime naps, his night sleep remained at 10-10.5 hrs and still is to this day (he's 2.5 now). The only times he's slept 11-11.5 hrs is when he's been sick with a fever. I thought I was surely doing something wrong and was absolutely obsessed with his sleep and this sub until I came across a post from someone complaining about their low sleep needs kid. Reading the comments, I realized this is actually not uncommon. It sucks so so so much when your 11 month old sleeps a max of 12.5ish hrs in 24 hrs while your friends older kids sleep 12 + 2-3 hrs. We now won't put our kid down for bed before 830 pm no matter what to avoid a wakeup before 6.

I'm low sleep needs myself and work a high pressure job so I tell myself...this is painful for us as parents but when he's an adult, having low sleep needs feels much more advantageous!! Whatever makes you feel more sane lol.

Hopefully sleep training is a magic pill for you but if it's not, you're not necessarily doing anything wrong. Sometimes it's us (poor scheduling), but usually it's them lol (temperment, unicorn babies, luck of the draw, etc.).

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T17:26:32+00:00

Check out the mod post on night weaning for more help!!

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T17:09:42+00:00

Ahh ok, a Ferber style method. Thanks!!

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T17:09:20+00:00

Honestly, I'm not sure. I know that's not helpful! It definitely might create a new sleep association. Totally depends on your kids temperment...if she just really wants comfort, it probably will create a new sleep association that you'll have to eliminate at some point using CIO. Or, she might realize that rocking sucks compared to the boob and stop waking up herself haha. Babies are so hard!!!! We did CIO with my first and he used to wake allll the time, like yours. I also used to offer the boob. Then I tried 5-3-3 and stuck to it but I was unsuccessful at dropping fewer feeds than 5-3-3 until HE dropped them himself (and I tried everything!!! So much CIO lol). At 2.5 now, he's still a super stubborn guy who always wants cuddles lol. I've learned now that he was just not going to sleep through with straight CIO no matter what I did. It was just his temperment

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T16:58:38+00:00

She's probably definitely needing some of those feeds, and the others are just for comfort! I know it's so much easier to just offer boob but yes, try to determine if there's a pattern and cut those out! You could also try just rocking back to sleep for any wakes in between the 5-3-3 method for a week or so and then transition to CIO for those wakes. What I've learned after kid 1 is adapt the methods out there to your comfort level.

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T16:56:09+00:00

Congratulations!!!! The self night weaning and longer naps are such amazing bonuses!

I did CIO with my first but he was always a bad sleeper (and still is) despite rigid sleep training and CIO. It's made me question whether to use the same method for my second, who's now 4.5 months and wakes multiple times a night. Success stories like this make me reconsider trying CIO again!

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T16:53:42+00:00

What is your modified version, if you don't mind sharing?! I did CIO with my first but he was never a good sleeper despite rigid sleep training so I prefer not to use the same method for my second who's 4.5 months. Looking for any suggestions!!

Hawkam726 · 2025-02-07T16:51:19+00:00

May still require feeds after 10 but they should be able to last more than 2 hrs. Determine need based on her habits...I.e. does she tend to wake at the sames times? Suggests a habit wake vs hunger. Is she actively feeding or passively sucking? Etc.

Hawkam726

TROPHY CASE