major sleeping problems

[lovezara]

hello fellow mums hope u are all doing well.

i have an 18 month old girl who is having MAJOR sleeping problems. she has always been a good sleeper until she turned one, it was touch and go for a while but for the last two months me and DH have been going through hell.

So her routine goes something like this: she has her nap fine at day time usually lasts for 'bout an hour. she goes to bed at 7.30pm, she drinks her milk reads her story brushes her teeth and i put her in her cot and pat her till she sleeps . usually takes about 30 mins. she would sleep till 12am or 1am if im lucky then wake up and would want to sleep next to us. i usually try to pat her back to sleep in her cot but its useless even if she does go back to sleep she wakes up after 10 mins. So i bring her to our bed and she sleeps next to us for the rest of the night. now I have made my peace with that really, and i actually dont mind it cuz i miss her so much at night!

now the real problem is that for the past two weeks, she refuses to sleep at all after 12/1am!! i bring her to sleep next to us and she'll just stay awake! i usually just ignore her and try to sleep but she'll just keep fidgeting for hours. It is becoming very frustrating because she is up all night which keeps me worried so im up all night! I am very very tired of this and i dont know what to do, it's really getting to me and it is causing a lot of problems with DH. I have told him many times to try out the CIO method but he just wont let and doesnt like hearing her cry - in fact i have tried it before but he'll just come in and pick her up after an hour and all my efforts go to waste - so CIO is definitely not for us. I have also tried not to pat her and just stick around the room for her to self-settle but that didnt work either. I have tried longer naps at day time, shorter naps, late bed time , earlier bed time, wearing her out during day so she's tired, NOTHING works!! she'll always just wake at 12am and fidget about in our bed till 4am or 5am, then she'll sleep but by that time i'm so knackered and frustrated i end up staying awake trying to think of where i went wrong and try to look for solutions online! unfortunatly i didnt find anyone who has this problem so decided to ask myself.

I really dont know what to do, i am also a 3rd yr med student and i have exams so i really need my sleep :(

anyway sorry for long post i just needed to let things out, i'm really getting depressed and feel like im completely useless :(

Our experiences are ridiculously similar, even down to the what your OH says etc etc etc! So yeah our dd had been coming into our bed at 12 then sleeping soundly which was great ( although not as goo as pre 12 months when she would sleep all night in her cot!) and then yes, the fidgeting started! Along with a refusal to go to sleep initially as well, lasting up to 2 hours! I'm a teaching student and was knackered too and I'm preg which doesn't help. Turning point actually was when my OH decided we had to do something about it - we were both tired, were getting really irritable and I was stressed I was failing uni. Also he started getting colds all the time he was so tired. So yes, we basically had to sit in her room, holding her hand until she went back to sleep in her own room. Made no eye contact. Once my OH sat there for an hour and twenty, just drinking beers and staring into space :) so it seems to have worked after a week or so. Worth it in the end! We didn't fiddle with nap times or anything , (she has one 2 hour nap at 1pm till 3 and goes to bed at 7.45).

Well it's nice to know I'm not alone!! Do u mean u would stay with her in her room even in middle of night till she slept? Doesn't she wake up after u or ur OH leave the room ? If it's helped you then I will try it at the moment I'm ready for anything I'm already up might as well do get her to sleep on her room! Thanks for the advice