15 month old night wakings- eyes wide open for hours?

[BabyGoesToMarket]

Has anyone else had this? My DD is very nearly 16 months. For the past 2 weeks she's woken up in the night (1/2/3am) screaming and crying. I've gone in and picked her up and sat on the chair and cradled her. Normally this would be enough to send her back to sleep, or perhaps offer water. However, for the last 2 weeks whenever I've tried this she has remained wide awake with eyes wide open for 2-3 hours! A bit of crying / wriggling but mainly just lying there looking up with her eyes open.

Of course I've tried putting her back down but she immediately screams a lot and cries, so I pick her up again. The only thing it seems I can do is sit there in the dark holding her for 2-3 hours! 😖 Eventually she falls asleep.

I have tried giving milk but she just drank it and remained wide awake, and same with calpol.

Has anyone experienced this at this age?

Sounds like my 13 month old,just lying awake in my arms for hours. No idea what's going on!

Oh no! I can't cope!

This is probably a silly question but are you sure she's awake? I used to know someone who could sleep with their eyes open.

Yes definitely. She's looking around at things a bit, sometimes at me. Also as soon as I go to put her down she's aware straight away.

We had this and contacted a sleep expert. They said it was the day time sleep that was causing issues with long night time wakings. It's called a split night I think.

We’ve had phases of this, although never as long as 2-3 h that sounds so tough!

When and how long for is she napping during the day?

For us I think it’s usually a combination of separation anxiety plus working on a new skill. Waking up with a bang and wanting to be held +++ definitely happened in the run up to walking, for example.

Mine did this when he was having 2 naps a day. I cut him down to one nap of 2hrs and it solved the issue straight away.

Whats her daytime sleep like?

She has one nap which is usually 1.5 hours. Then usually sleeps roughly 7-7.

She's walking now but maybe it's another developmental thing? Her talking is getting there so perhaps it's that?

The other thing to check for is ear ache- viral or infection it hurts so much more when you lay down.

Cut her nap down to 45 minutes and see if it makes a difference.