I was hoping for some advice on my 12 month old dd's night time sleep, which is going through a rough patch at the moment.
She was sleeping through the night from 9 months old and was never a bad sleeper before that (bf back to sleep once or twice). However, at about 10.5 months (coinciding with her starting at nursery 3 days a week), her sleep has deteriorated dramatically. Although she might sleep through the night one night a week, most nights she wakes up crying anywhere between once and 15 times. Each time, she cries hysterically and sits up looking for us. She settles back to sleep fairly easily with my DH going in and talking to her very briefly, laying her back down and then leaving the room. She seems to relax and slump back ready to go back to sleep when she sees him, which makes me think this is separation anxiety. She gets more upset if I go in to see her - maybe because she associates me with milk (I'm still bf in the day but we night weaned some time ago).
We have a good bedtime routine and she settles herself to sleep at night without any problems at all.
I thought that this might just be a phase but two months on, it seems to be getting worse rather than better. My DH is at the end of his tether with it and has suggested that we try cc, which I'm not keen on. I feel it would be unfair to leave her to cry when she's clearly upset at being apart from us in the first place.
I don't understand why some nights she just sleeps through without any problem and then other nights are so awful.
Has anyone been through this and come out the other side? Just hoping for some reassurance that this will pass or, if not, some suggestions of how we could gently persuade her that she doesn't need to get so upset at night at our absence?
Thank you!