At the end of the road....help please

[MrsMoosickle]

Hello

My DD is 22 months old and has never ever slept through the night. The longest she has gone in 1 stretch is 3 hours. For 21 months we co slept and I was able to mimimise the length of the nightly disturbances by breast feeding back to sleep ( I know, I Know) Anyway, DH was complaining more and more about DD in bed, time it was taking to get her to sleep and lack of space etc...

So, for the past 3 weeks we have put DD in her bed in her own room and I have continued to feed her to sleep ( still a battle and can take up to 2 hrs) and then travel nightly between my bed and her bed. When she wakens she screams for me and will just keep going until she sees me. I now find myself in the position where I work full time and often have a long drive in the morning and now find myself utterly exhausted.

Will she ever self settle? Will she ever sleep for a longer period of time? All suggestions more than welcome.....

Hello! I have no suggestions, just sympathy. My 11 month old DD is very similar. Breastfed too. Currently screaming the place down in her cot cos it's been 2 hours since I breastfed her and she wants to be in my bed. I've resettled her 9 times since 7pm. Husband working nights. I start back at work on Tuesday after a year off. We've never really co-slept, just fell asleep when feeding through necessity and exhaustion a quite a few times. She's standing up in her cot so it's not like even leaving her to scream would result in sleep.

I hope things magically improve for you soon. X

Hi GracieGirl,

ahhhh me too. Its very hard and I kind of dread the 2 hour + nighttime routine. daily napping all but gone....DD just doesn't seem to need that much sleep and when she does sleep, she needs me there.

Thanks for posting x

MrsMoo, you have got into 'bad habits' like we did, we were putting our DD into her cot when she was asleep for ages and I reckon that's why we've had to resort to controlled crying
because she won't settle.
However we did do other things to try and break the feed/sleep association. DD has milk while watching CBeebies rather than in her bed/in our bed. We gradually cut down the cuddle we gave her in our bed before putting her in her cot and now having to do the CC thing, but it appears to be working (cross fingers).
I think you may need to sort the naps out, but I'm not the best person to give advice on this, because our DD was so bad at napping.
Like you am full time, hoping other MNetters have advice as you'll wear yourself out. x

Hi Smartie,

I agree. We are in a terrible routine and this LO is ruling the roost. Tonight was a good night as she was exhausted ( just a 30 min nap at nursery) and after dinner and bath was breastfed for 30 mins and asleep by 8.30pm.

DD is in her own bed now and I feel I am playing the waiting game until she wakens followed by the next awakening and the next.

I could deal with the battle to get her to sleep but its the constant stirring throughout the night that is most draining.

Thanks so much for posting x