Good sleeper turned bad!

[fifitot]

Well quite good sleeper. DS was a terrible sleeper until he hit 12months and then somehow began to sleep through the night more or less. if he woke, a quick pat would get him off. Hooray I thought. Pah! Now has hit 15 months and is worse than ever! Won't go down with pat/shush as he used to. Stands in cot screaming with arms out. I pick him up, cuddle him, he relaxes and seems to be asleep. Move him into cot and instantly awake again. DH can get away with just putting his hands on him but he waits until DS breathing changes, moves his hands and instantly he is awake again!

Have tried leaving him to self settle and he screamed the house down for what seemed like hours.

Don't know if it's teeth, though no sign, or separation anxiety - does it kick in now? We really need to go back to basics but it is complicated as he now stands up and so we are exhausted just doing put downs all the time.

Would gradual retreat work? Should I just cuddle him to sleep and wait a longer time before transfer to cot? Should I do cc? Though he is relentless with the crying and suspect it won't work for him.

Am so pissed off as thought we had cracked it. After 12 months of hell we have had around 4 months of relatively good sleep and now this! ANY advice or suggestions please?????????????

Desperate bump................

I'm having a similar problem with DS who is 8 months. He used to sleep through but hasn't for the past two months. Someone on another post gave me this advice that they got from a sleep consultant;

Whitey, am back! OK, gradual retreat. We got this programme from a sleep clinic for DS1 (he was that bad). They told us to do each step for 3 nights, each time DS1 woke in the night (that was the hard part), and for naps too. In reality I did it at bedtime, and probably night wakings until about 3 am, and not really for naps. It still worked for DS1, beautifully. He slept through as soon as he started going in his cot awake. For DS2 I have been doing this for bedtime, 1/2 naps a day (the other nap(s) he'll have in the buggy) and after night feeds (so he wakes, I feed him (but not to sleep), then I follow the step that we are at). It has worked in terms of him learning to self settle, but hasn't got him sleeping longer at night (although he is taking much longer naps). We're only 6 days in.

Step 1: Rock, rather than feed, to sleep. Place in cot asleep.
Step 2: Hold (no rocking) to sleep. Place in cot asleep.
Step 3: Place in cot awake, stroke, pat, shush etc until asleep (we use "sleepy words" i.e. "time to sleep, DS2, snuggle down now", repeated over and over...)
Step 3: Place in cot awake, put a hand on your baby until he is asleep (don't stroke).
Step 4: Place in cot awake, sit on a chair next to the cot until asleep.
Step 5: Move chair about a meter away from the cot.
After this you keep moving the chair away, by about a meter each time, until eventually you are at (and then outside) the door.

With each of these steps you are meant to stay in the position you were in when your child fell asleep for 15 minutes, to make sure that they are in a really deep sleep, before you leave the room.

I haven't tried it yet as DS's top two teeth are coming through but am going to give it a go when they have. DS can self settle with a dummy but I'm going to ditch it and see if that is part of the problem. If it doesn't work I'm going to se a sleep consultant.

Thanks for reply. Looks like a big time investment but worth it if it works. Sometimes DS is still awake after 15mins but suspect that is when his teeth are hurting.