Sleep Problem..please any help??

[hollyboosmum]

Hi
Just wanting some advice from you expert mums out there.
I have a 1 year old daughter who up until about 2 months ago was an excellent sleeper. We used to lie her in her cot awake and she would fall asleep herself (no crying) at about 6pm and wake up at 6am in the morning great!.
Then she started to wake at 2am then again at4am and then at 5am she will not go back to sleep at all and wants to go downstairs. She even points to the door and cries. I thought that she might be having problems being in the cot so i changed it into the bed with a guard and it has not improved. She is now terrible and will not settle on her own, we have to be with her till she falls asleep and she is waking about every 2 hours until it gets to about 5am and then she wants to be up. I have a good routine with a bath, milk and quiet time then bed but she screams if she is left alone. Any ideas on how i can turn her around??

my ds (now 4!) went through major separation anxiety at around 11 mths and his sleeping went totally haywire. We went with it to an extent, as we had loads of advice that said (and our instincts told us) that trying to fight it would make it worse. So I went back to rocking him to sleep, cosleeping etc and it passed really quickly, he seemed to feel more secure and happy to go to sleep by himself. We read Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution too, which talks about how to gradually teach them how to self settle with you there, then gradually withdrawing so they don't become upset at all but over time learn (or re-learn) to feel secure and put themselves to sleep.

If all else seems to be failing at least remember it's a phase and will pass! Is she very clingy at other times of the day?

Thank you for your message. She is not really clingy if we are in the house but she will not settle at any one else house and likes me or dad to be around. She has never really stayed at nans etc and does like her familiar surroundings but has started that me or dad have to settle her to sleep and i think she wakes up when she notices we are not there and can not settle herself back to sleep. I dont understand why this has changed as she used to settle herself to sleep when she was younger? Would you say that co-sleeping is ok at this age?

Co sleeping definitely OK!!! Especially if she gets comfort from it. It really worked for us! It does sound like a wee bit of separation anxiety, if she's a little unsettled without you visible, but it WILL pass. Nurturing it will help her feel more secure more quickly, fighting it will make it worse.

Hark at me - I am an expert in precisely one baby, but that's what we found!

Also - we found that every few months a shake up of ds's routine helped him to settle better. I think he just kept outgrowing his daily patterns and shifting them slightly seemed to help. Going free-form for a few days and finding when she's needing her nap/how long etc, what times she's hungry, then over a week or so moulding that into a new pattern might help?

Thankyou so much for your replies. I will go with the co-sleeping and see if she grows out of it. Dont like the CC route and this way at least we will get some sleep instead of us all being awake while i try to settle her in the cotbed.

You're really welcome, hope I was able to help! Good luck, and enjoy the cuddles We also felt CC was really not for us and ds did/has grown out of it. He's now 4 and a very happy secure little chap who loves his own bed although he does still come padding in at 4am for cuddles sometimes!

Good luck x

one little thought just wondered if she napping in day and doesnt need as long any more..

Last night was great she woke at about 2am and we put her in our bed and she slept while 7.30am this morning bliss! plus the cuddles were really nice. Thanks again xx

another thought, is she more hungry now?