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18 month sleep regression and controlled crying

3 replies

Besom · 10/10/2009 07:38

DD has suddenly started waking 3 or 4 times a night again after at least 10 months of sleeping 12 hours right through.

She is quite obviously having a developmental spurt at the moment and is also sitting with her hand wedged in her mouth a lot of the time, so teething I think.

I have been picking her up and feeding her in the night, and then putting her back down. She does not feed to sleep and she self settles with no problem at the beginning of the night and most nap times.

DH wants to do controlled crying. But I'm not convinced it will work because I thought it was mainly to teach them how to self settle, which she can do. I don't want to put us all through it if it won't work, but on the other hand I don't want to go back to waking up every two hours.

Has anyone been through this, tried cc, or tried other methods which have worked?

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ches · 10/10/2009 13:53

She is no doubt teething her molars which is very painful, as evidenced by the fact it's waking her up. I would try medicating her teething pain before making her cry. If you give her calprofen before bed and she doesn't wake up for 8 hours, then you know pain was the reason for her waking.

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bethylou · 10/10/2009 14:00

To reassure you, our 18 month old is doing exactly the same things. Also has 'loose' nappies at the mo so I too am sure it's teething. Think I will try the medicating before bed idea to check.
We haven't given DS any milk in the night but on two occasions he was hungry and had some biscuits! I think teeth are stopping him eating as much as usual in the day which can have a knock on effect at night - he is then hungry early.
We are very lucky that he does go back to sleep once we have consoled him. However, sometimes, he's just crying out in his sleep, needs nothing but wakes us up all the same - it's infuriating, especially as I'm 5 months pregnant and struggling to sleep anyway!

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Besom · 11/10/2009 08:00

Thanks for replies. Gave her meds and she only woke up once last night so not so bad.

Also she took her first steps yesterday so I'm sure this has got something to do with it.

I'll leave it a while and see what happens.
Bethylou - I hope you get some sleep soon.