Is this sleep regression?

[sallycinammonbun]

Dd is nearly a year old and has always been a good sleeper. She'd go down well, often wake for a feed in the night but then go right back to sleep. We've been really lucky.

However she's been unwell recently and has been waking up a lot more in the night with a cough or sore throat pain. She's all better now but still seems to be waking up lots more (a new habit maybe?) and once she's awake it takes her forever to get back to sleep again. She doesn't necessarily cry but she will shout and thrash about and just when you think she's nodded off she'll start again.

I'm finding it really hard. I actually feel anxious in bed because I'm waiting for her to wake up. When I get up in the morning I ache because I've been tensing in the night. I don't function well without sleep and this is all very new to us with her having previously been so good. It's probably worse than when she was a newborn! Does this sound like sleep regression and will it get better? Is there anything I can do?

Bump

Sounds like her illness may have started a new sleep pattern. Do you have a bath and bedtime routine, storybook ect? That should help get her back in a routine, could take a while though.

My son had a noise triggered projector in his room for when he would wake up until about 3 years old and he loved it, it would send him back to sleep. Could be worth a try?

Yes we've always kept to the same bedtime routine - bath, bottle, bed. She seems to be going down ok still and sleeping soundly until about 1am but then she wakes up and after that it's nearly hourly until morning. It's so strange as she never did this even as a newborn!

Unfortunately I have other dc otherwise I'd turn in at 6pm when baby goes to bed and at least I'd get a good 7 hours then!!

My son did the same at about a year old. He would wake and throw all of his dummies out of his cot and just make shouting noises, when we came in he just wanted to play. We would just put them back in and put his projector on so he had something to look at and we watched him on the camera. It usually did the trick but he would be awake for a while. Their brain starts to get much more active from 12 months so they do sometimes wake up “full of beans” in the night.

Does she sleep well in the day? We found our son wanted to have a really long deep sleep then in the afternoon so we also cut that short so he was a bit more tired in the evening. It did last a few months though.