17mo wakes so often at night... It's driving me up the wall!

[Charltonangel]

So. At dd's 12 month health check, the HV asked if she sleep through. No. Do we feed her when she wakes? Yes. "Ah, well thats why she doesn't sleep through." so we braced ourselves, and for five days, had tears and tantrums and almost no sleep. Then, on the sixth night, she slept through, and we thought we'd cracked it.

Since then, she wakes 2 - 3 times a night and has to be patted back to sleep. In the last couple of weeks, this has happened more and more, to the extent that we now end up getting up with her every 15 minutes for an hour, then she sleeps for a couple of hours, then repeats the cycle. I work ft and look after her in the evening, DH looks after her during the day and works evenings, so the night is the only respite during the week!

We have a two week christmas break coming up - do we just go cold turkey with the patting in a hope she learns to self soothe?

What have other people tried that has been helpful?

Hi I don't have any constructive advice just handholding! We also seem to have replaced picking up during the night with patting on the back with DD 20mo, and also we get a lot of wide awakeness during the middle of the night, esp. if we dare leave her before she's DEEPLY DEEPLY asleep. Also every attempt at consistency gets interrupted by sickness at this time of year. Will keep an eye on this thread for constructive advice!

Ah well it's nice to know its not just us! And we may be getting some teeth through which would explain the turn for the worse...

I'm just soooo tired!

tbh I'd just feed at first waking and see what happens. If it works you can gradually reduce/phase out that feed in a few months.

We don't actually feed her when she wakes any more, we stopped at a year, and she's not crying for food, but still wakes up...

I was just wondering if it was worth a shot - i know it seems like a backwards step, but if she only wakes up once and then sleeps through?

Otherwise, if you think it's teeth do you give her any pain relief?

It probably is just habit, so perhaps something to just break the habit? Wake to sleep can work (but is a pain in the arse to do!).

Hi there! No advice really, as we're still going through this (my DS is 19 months). Just wanted to say that there is typically a major developmental leap at around 18 months and a sleep regression often follows suit.. I just posted a similar thread quite recently on the Sleep-board (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1626462-18-19-month-sleep-regression)...