Sleep

[MotherOfLittlePeople]

I've posted before about DD2s sleeping.

Last week we thought we cracked it!! 2 whole nights where she slept from 6pm till 7am then BOOM we are now back to she goes to bed at 6pm and me and DP then spend from about 6:15pm till 10pm running up and down the stairs trying to settle her back to sleep. From about 10pm all through the night she is up and down like a yo-yo.

I've stopped all afternoon naps but it still is not working. Most teeth are threw and it doesn't look like any more are coming at the moment. We are extremely tired and nobody can have her over night to let us get sleep (my parents busy and his just not bothered). Stuck at what else we can try? Any ideas welcome 🙏🏻

How old is she?

@Clettercletterthatsbetter she is 15 months old.

Has she always been like this (apart from the couple of nights you mentioned)?

Sounds normal to me. My one sleeping top is cosleep.

What about putting her to bed a little later? Say 7/7.30pm? Maybe she's just not ready for bed at 6pm

Sounds like she’s napping at 6pm and then wide awake.

Surely she still needs a nap after lunch?

Yeah, agree with PP - I'd try an early afternoon nap and then a later bedtime.

Though I say that as someone who hasn't had a full night's sleep in 19 months.

If we let her nap in the afternoon she does not go to bed till 9-10pm. She has a big sleep in the morning, then awake all afternoon. At 6pm she is absolutely knackered. It's not like she is awake when we have to settle her she just screams and screams. If we put her on our bed she will settle and go back to sleep. Through the night though if even in our bed she wakes crying.

@HiyaSonicItsMe she's been like this since 6 months old. Slept through most nights till then.

Could it be a sleep regression? bellalunasleep.com/18-month-sleep-regression/

It says in that article the 18-month sleep regression can start as early as 15 months. A possibility

Oh sorry, just read you said she's been like this from 6 months. Ignore my previous post. Does she have a bedtime routine? E.g. supper, bath, bedtime story and then sleep?

@Nic165 yeah we do tea, bath and pjs then they get to spend a bit of time with DP when he gets home about 5:30 then bottle and bed.

Could she be overtired by bedtime and so too wired to get to sleep? I don't know any toddlers that age who do a morning nap instead of a lunchtime/early PM one.

At that age mine napped around 12.30-2.30, then bedtime at 7 and woke up around 6.30ish.

@TequilaMockingbird0 she's normally asleep on a morning by 9am (after the nursery run) but like this morning, she's been up so much in the night she is absolutely shattered and really needs the sleep.

Could you maybe try waking her a little earlier from her morning nap? Then she might take an afternoon one which would help her stay up a bit later before going to bed and she wouldn't be overtired from going so long between the morning nap and bed

@Nic165 that's what we were doing before but then she doesn't go to bed till 9pm-10pm and then she continues to do the same throughout the night. We have also tried Johnson's night time cream and the ASDA sleep spray but they haven't helped really.

I think realistically 15 months is young still to be expecting a child to sleep through. What would happen if she napped during the day and had a later bedtime? A 15 month old still needs to nap during the day in most cases. My youngest is 19 months and still has two naps a day. Usually more high quality daytime sleep means less disrupted nighttime sleep. If he's home with me, he'll have a short nap in the morning (10 ish) and then again about 1pm. Maybe 1.5 hours of sleep total during the day. Then he goes to sleep around 8-9pm, wakes usually once or twice during the night, and is up between 6-7am. We co-sleep after the first wake up so that we all get as much sleep as possible and his wake ups don't fully wake us up and have us running around the house in the dark, meaning we get as much sleep as possible. If she doesn't go to sleep until 9-10pm, it could be it's just too early. You may want to try more daytime sleep and a later bedtime. She will certainly be needing naps and that might be why she isn't easily going to sleep at night.

I disagree with PP that 15 months is early for kids to sleep through - my DD went through from 12 weeks and my (bf) DS has been sleeping from 8/9 to 5/6/7 from about 8 weeks. However I appreciate all babies are different and I know plenty of people who still have 2/3 y.o’s up at all hours of the night.

Agree that she needs a nap at this age, and it sounds like she should be plenty tired enough for bed by 6. What is she actually doing when she wakes at night? You said DP was running up and down to get her back to sleep so I assume she must be crying/distressed? If not, leave her and she might settle herself. Or if she’s thirsty leave a sippy cup in bed. It’s probably just a habit you need to break, you’ve had a couple of good nights though so keep going and you’ll get there

@Youhavewonaprize she just wakes up in absolute hysterics screaming. So we try to settle her back to sleep. Which works as long as we put her on our bed. It just continues throughout the night though even if she is in our bed. Yes I have an older DD who was an amazing sleeper but now not so much because little sister wakes her up now on a night. We are all just constantly knackered. Trying to get her to have a sleep now but she's fighting it and clearly not tired 😓.

@MotherOfLittlePeople sounds like you are doing everything right, it’s just not working. What are you doing to settle? You could try to reduce what you’re doing eg stop picking up, just pat/shush, or go cold turkey and CIO. It’s tough and controversial but from what I’ve seen does work. I think reducing your interventions is the only way to stop the waking - she has to learn that nighttime is dull and boring and waking up won’t achieve anything, but it’s v tricky if she’s got to the stage where she’s getting distressed.

If she doesn’t want an afternoon nap you can’t really force her. Not sure if you could push back the morning one as it sounds like this is happening quite early in the day? Might make her less overtired by bedtime rather than having a very long awake time in the afternoon. Going out to an early toddler group/park/swim etc after nursery drop might help keep her up and reset the schedule?

I really think you need to push that morning nap later. I'm surprised nobody else has said it. At that age her nap needs to be closer to lunchtime. Keep her awake until 11 and see if that makes a difference. If you can get her to 12 even better but if you have an older child that might not work with school runs. But your biggest problem is that morning nap. It can be tough at first to get them to push through but her body clock will adjust

She's had a bit of an afternoon nap. Not in a very good mood though lol after I woke her. Can't leave her to cry because just wakes up my eldest and then they are both awake and keep each other up. Unfortunately she falls asleep most mornings just as we get back from the school run

But you will have to try to keep her awake. Play. Even TV.
A long morning nap and a short afternoon nap might be too much at that age. One 2 hour nap in the afternoon is average at that age.

She has about 2 to 2 and a half hour nap on the morning, a bit shorter today. She then had the afternoon nap. Is now running round the living room like crazy playing. She was tired between 4:30 to 5:30 but as soon as daddy came home she brightened up. Now won't go to bed.

Last night was even worse so I don't think an afternoon nap is a good idea.

She went to bed at 8:40pm. By 9:45 (as soon as we got in to bed) she was screaming. She was then up and down all night screaming every 30 minutes or so (that was even in our bed). She is knackered this morning as are we and is already trying to sleep.