Is it normal for a 16-month-old to always wake up at the same time no matter what?

Question

I have a 16-month-old daughter. I'm 5 months pregnant with her baby brother. No matter what time I put her down for bed she wakes up at 12:30 am. I've tried putting her in bed at 7 pm, 8 pm, 9 pm, 10 pm and even as late as 11:30 pm and no matter what, she's up at 12:30 am screaming. I have the monitor on by my head and I'm a super light sleeper so I really don't sleep, any noise in her room wakes me up. She only gets 1 nap in the day and that's 12 pm to 2 or 3 pm but that's it.

I don't think daylight savings effected anything - no change, she still wakes up at 12:30 am. I've tried letting her cry it out when this started and she would cry for 10 min then go to sleep then wake up again half an hour later, stand up in her crib and scream again for another 10 minutes. After the 5th time we sat in the living room watching food network (nothing too exciting ).

It used to be she would wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning and I would hand her a bottle and she would fall right back to sleep but now she wakes up and won't take a bottle. When she got sick I gave her some Zarbees Night Time which is supposed to help them sleep, but she still woke up.

Is this a problem? Is it normal?

Answer 1

Since the time change didn't seem to affect the behavior then the cause is likely man-made. What I mean is, whatever is causing her to wake up is based on clock-time, not the natural environment.

You say you have a baby monitor, so that MAY rule out sound. But it might be a light from a delivery truck that drives by at the same time each night, for instance.

There might be a sound from something that occurs outside that isn't picked up by the monitor.

In short, you should follow nischi's original advice and investigate by staying up and directly observing the room. It sounds like you aren't getting much sleep anyhow...

One other thing, have you tried moving the crib into another room? If she falls asleep and doesn't wake up then there is definitely something in that room that wakes her.

Answer 2

With our child, we have often found that the key to having him sleep longer/later is actually to go to bed earlier. It sounds counter intuitive, but I suggest trying earlier bedtimes. Additionally, don't try a new bedtime for one night only, choose a new bedtime and establish a consistent routine around that bedtime for at least a week or two.

Also, at 16 months, is she starting to notice when she needs to pee or poo? Is it possible that she is holding it in her sleep and the urge eventually wakes her? If you think that's possible, consider moving the final bottle of the day further away from bedtime, allow enough time for her to go & be changed before she gets put down.

With our 3 year old, we retroactively realised he had been waking up at the same times every night due to needing to pee, but it was only when we started potty training (around 2yrs 3mos) that the pattern became obvious, we never would have guessed that was what was waking him when he was in diapers, we just assumed he wanted a bottle or wanted to cuddle with us.

Finally, our guy still wakes up at least twice most nights, these days it's to use the potty. Generally around 10:30pm and again between 12 and 2. All people have their own patterns, so this 12:30 am wake up may not go away any time soon, it might just be part of who your child is. You can try working on strategies to see what gets her back down the quickest after waking to minimise the disruption to your sleep, and trust that one way she will be bigger and she will sleep the whole night.