Are These Sleeping Issues Normal??

They have a book that is a no-cry sleep solution, could be worth looking into :) I would think about cutting out a nap. My daughter only took one nap at a year old from 12-2ish and she would play hard all day and sleep all night a majority of the time. Maybe he is excited about your BIL and sister being there or not tired. If he is napping at 3 or 4 then he is waking up around 5pm? He may not be tired 4 hours later at 9 even with all the play.

Sounds like he's dreaming about being active! Yes, I think it's normal. But it doesn't mean it's easy at all. I've had a variety of sleepers out of my four.

My current baby (13 months) went down to one nap a couple weeks ago. She gets up around 7:30am, goes down around 11:30-12noon, and she'll sleep anywhere from 2-3 hours. Then she goes down around 7:30. She sleeps solid through the night.

Prior to this, she was not napping well. She also was taking FOREVER to go to sleep at night, but she was still sleeping through the night. She is my only one to have sleep through the night. But my others co-slept with me. She doesn't co-sleep well! (so strange...)

I can tell she moves around a lot in her bed while she sleeps. I've found she wakes up less often if I clip her pacifier to her pjs at the shoulder (so she can lay on her tummy and not have the clip press into her at all). That way if she wakes up at night, she might fuss for two seconds, but she grabs her pacifier and puts it back in. We used to not clip it, and she'd lose it in her bed, and she wouldn't settle back to sleep.

Kids are all different, though. What works for one, definitely does not mean it'll work for another.

As for crying it out, I know you need to do what feels right for you...but I can't do that. I can let her fuss for a minute or two...sometimes five minutes (not screaming, just fussing) because often she'll fall right back to sleep, and if I go in there to help her settle, it's 1-3 hours to get her back to sleep! So, I avoid going in there as much as possible.

If you look at babysleepsite. com (minus the space), there are sample schedules/routines to help you know how much your baby will likely need to sleep per age (can differ per kid, though!). I found it quite helpful. My baby had been sleeping quite poorly prior, and so reading up on her age at the time and how much sleep she should be getting, etc, it really helped tremendously (which was good since I was surprise prego with baby #5 when she was six months old!). It's been a relief that she's been my best sleeper.

I've totally rambled. Point being, yes it's normal. And, yes, you might want to try to alter his naps...some kids aren't ready for that until closer to 15 months, though. But it might help him settle through the night better. and that site I listed above might have some ideas to help get him sleep better.

ADDED: If he doesn't do well going down to one nap, then I'd suggest limiting two naps to being only an hour long each. I did that with my daughter because she would sleep SO MUCH during the day if I let her...leaving her not enough need to sleep long enough at night. With a few other kids, I really needed them to all sleep similarly so I could get enough sleep too. So, that's an idea if you're not already doing it. Limit the length of the naps. But if you go to one nap, you can probably let him sleep however long.

Of course, knowing you're in the room he's going to try and get your attention, it will be different once he's in his own room.

I'd try shortening his naps for now, it may do more damage if you cut one out entirely and cause him to be overtired at night and make it difficult for him to go to sleep, and upping them each by about an hour to 10 am and 2 pm. Make sure there's no activities going on at bedtime to get him keyed up, like TV, roughhousing, or tickling, keeping it all low key and relaxed, speaking in quiet voices ~ if not this can contribute to his waking up.

It's OK if he wiggles a lot throughout the night, my daughter went ALL around the crib from the time she was a few days old, I used to say she was travelling ; ) But it's time to take the bumpers out as they can pose a danger for moving little ones, and once they begin to stand they are climbing (and falling out of the crib) hazards. For one of my grandsons who hit his head on the crib we put a lightweight beanie on him when putting him to bed to cushion his forehead.

Who knows, once he has his own darkened room, an extra protection diaper for nightime, some quiet music from a CD...he may not even CIO. And if he does just go in, leave the lights off, don't pick him up even if you have to change him, soothe him, talk quietly and leave. ❤

When my daughter reached the wriggling stage (which lasted until just after 2 y/o) - I'd sleep with her in the crook of my arm/shoulder/armpit. I'd hold her close and we'd fall asleep this way and my Mommy brain was able to hold onto her most of the night and readjust as needed during the night while still mostly asleep myself.