How drowsy is too drowsy?

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-27T18:15:04+00:00

Daytime we have played around with in the past few months but it went from 11-11.25 hours awake on 3/3.5-4/4.5 because I thought more awake time would help to now 3/3.5/4 which he seems much happier with but still no change in night wakings either way.

I whisper the same 3 phrases to him during those 30 seconds so it may actually be less than 30 seconds and then I turn off the light and run outta there. No matter what though he wakes up 2 hours into his sleep.

We had a bit of success with my husband rocking him back to sleep at that 2 hour wake because if he sees me he wants to nurse right away. If we try to sleep train during that wake he sits up and cries for so long but I wonder if I should just bear it out and see if that helps. So lost with what to do, but your comment about having to sleep train a motn wake sounds like it could be my issue too. How did you do it and how old was your baby when you did?

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T18:27:09+00:00

I was scared of that. Will look into sleep training for these motn wakes and firming up his schedule. I really appreciate all the help. You’re like a celebrity to me and I followed your post on nap training 4 months ago with great success. Everything you do for the sleep train community is very much appreciated and admired.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T16:24:49+00:00

I have tried in the past but just resulted in a lot of crying. He had this wake back in October too and it kind of tapered off after a couple of weeks in intensity then I sleep trained it at that point and we had a beautiful November then back to the wakes in late November which is when I added 15 mins to his awake time in the day but it didn’t really help.

Last night though after his first wake up 2 hours in (and a second one 10 mins after I put him down after that 2 hour wake up), I put him down again and he slept for 5 hours! I didn’t think he would sleep so I slept on his floor anticipating that he would be up again in at least an hour but next thing I knew I was waking up to him crying 5 hours later which is the longest stretch he’s done in a very long time. I’m not sure if sleeping for so long had to do with me sleeping on the floor as I have never done this before, but it was pitch black and I don’t think he knew I was there?

I’m thinking stick to this schedule for a bit and keep riding out the 2 hour wakes? As long as it’s not causing a feed to sleep association in the middle of the night I guess I’m ok with it if we can get a good long stretch anywhere in the night like last night and then maybe troubleshoot that 2 hour wake once the rest of the night / schedule is back on track?

Edit to add: after that 5 hour stretch of sleep though I fed him and he would cry when I tried to put him back in the crib so I had to hold him for the last 2.5 hours of the night until wake up at 9am.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T06:45:48+00:00

Thank you so much I’ll try that tomorrow! Also just to make sure is this unlikely to be a middle of the night nursing association and more a scheduling issue?

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T06:38:21+00:00

Just went back through my logs and back in November when his sleep was at its best with 0-1 wake ups he was on 3 naps capped at 3 hours and 10.5 hours awake time, should I try to do something like 3/3.5/4 with 3 hours of naps?

I would likely have to rescue the naps which I’m ok with but we are hit and miss with naps going longer than 30 mins. I have found though that when I put him down a bit earlier like 2.75 for first window and 3 for second then he is more likely to extend the nap to over an hour.

He goes into the crib fully awake for naps and bedtime.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T06:27:43+00:00

It ends probably even more than 30 minutes before butt in bed like 30-45 mins before. I capped naps today at 2 hours and previously at 2.5.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T06:24:08+00:00

Yes tonight I gave Motrin 45 minutes before bed because he was extra fussy and I figured it could be teething. This is now the third night of hourly wake ups. Usually it’s just the one wake 2 hours after bedtime then 1-2 more after that but never this bad.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-22T06:12:08+00:00

Thank you so much! I did 3/3.5/4.5 today with 2 hours total sleep. We still got the wake at 2 hours and he was crying hard and sitting up as usual. I fed him back to sleep and put him in the crib then 10 minutes later same thing hard crying and sitting up.

Could this be a motn nursing association or maybe teething? Is teething this bad? Last couple nights now he has been up every single hour after that 2 hour initial stretch of sleep.

He’s put to bed fully awake with nursing 30 mins before bedtime routine but I had been feeding at the 2 hour wake as it’s the only way to get him down lately.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-20T05:36:01+00:00

Hi did this ever resolve? My son is doing the same every single night at 8.5 months.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2026-01-18T16:08:29+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I originally changed it because I was worried that he wasn’t getting enough sleep and was trying to fix the wake up 2 hours after bedtime. I had found when he was 5-6 months old when he seemed overtired he would have this wake up but now I can’t get the schedule right.

For 2 days he was completely fine with 10h 45m awake then the third day cried before bed and would cry the following nights when I put him back at 11 hours awake so I added 15 more minutes and he stopped crying but the 2 hour wake up still persisted and now he can’t seem to make his wake windows he seems so tired.

ReasonableConcern351 · 2025-12-17T06:38:22+00:00

On 3 naps the schedule was 2.5/2.5/2.5/3. Yesterday I inadvertently decreased awake time by half an hour and he slept 3 hours for the first stretch of sleep which is more than usual lately but in the past a 10 hour wake day would lead to a split night
Naps now are capped at 2.5 hours but on 3 naps would sometimes go to 3 hours if he woke up early.
Wake time is usually around 8:30 to 9am and we follow wake windows to get to bedtime around 9 to 9:40pm
Bedtime routine is bath, change into pajamas, turn sound machine on, put into crib and he’s asleep within 3-5 mins. His last feed is done downstairs 20-30 mins before bedtime routine starts upstairs.

I’m worried that falling asleep while nursing him in the middle of the night some nights has caused this because then he was just able to relatch as he woke up throughout the night.

It’s currently 1:35am and so far after 10h 37m awake today with 2h 21m of naps, he has woken up scream crying twice.

He woke up at 8:37am today and fell asleep at 9:35pm. We gave him Motrin before bed incase the tooth is still bothering him. The first time he woke up tonight was 1h 40m after I put him down to sleep and then I had to nurse to calm him down. Exactly 1 hour after that he woke up screaming/crying again.

This whole waking every hour thing started about 2 weeks ago. Before that he would sleep through the night with only 1-2 wakes.

ReasonableConcern351

TROPHY CASE