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DD 2.6 not settling at night

5 replies

moremilkmummy · 22/03/2012 21:58

Have named changed as I am a little ashamed that I don't know how to handle this !

DD is 2.6 and has always been a good sleeper. Would wake occasionaly in the night but a back rub and a small drink and she would settle again.
The last 6 nights she has gone down OK at about 7.30 with a small bottle of milk. By 9pm she is crying for me and demanding more milk, or another story, or some cuddly toy. She screams absolute blue murder, and I mean screams, sobs, crys, more screaming. She finally settles with another small bottle.

She is a really light sleeper, so when we go to bed she always stirs but usually goes straight back off, but for the last 4 nights the stirring has escalated to her calling for me, then crying then screaming & sobbing. The ony thing that calms her is more milk.

Obviously this is very upsetting emotionaly and I really don't know how to handle it as I have never had too.
Over the last few nights we have tried going in and trying to settle her with a drink and a cuddle. But only milk will do which is not ideal and she really doesn't need 3 small bottles of milk a night and it is not a habit of we want to get into.
Last night at 11.30 pm when she kicked off DH insisted we leave her to it but after 45 minutes of her screaming and sobbing I went in, which again we don't want to get into the habit of running to her every time she crys.

She was going mental, screaming at me, throwing her covers off, shaking her head, refusing a cuddle. Milk calmed her

Tonight she has kicked off at 9pm and it was milk again.

Help ! Do I just continue to ply her with milk ?
Do I just let her cry (luckily we are detached as you would have thought she was being murdered last night) ?

OP posts:
omama · 22/03/2012 22:09

Re plying her with milk - TBH I would try & avoid if possible, or you might find she'll start waking even more & demand milk every time.

Can I ask what her daytime routine looks like ATM? Does she still take a nap? If so when & how long for? Just wondering if it could be a case of too much daytime sleep so not tired enough for bed.

HaveToWearHeels · 22/03/2012 22:17

omama thanks thats what we thought about the milk :( She wakes around 7.30am and naps for around two hours 1-3pm. However the worst two nights we have had were when she only napped for 30 minutes, so we put it down to her being over tired. BuT we had the same yesterday when she had 2 hours at the CM's 12.30 to 2.30. So confusing ! She is in bed about 7.15pm with a story and milk and we leave her around 7.30, but we hear her chatting to her teddies until around 8 ish.
She has pretty full on days and if she doesn't have a nap she gets really cranky and all her co-ordination goes.

HaveToWearHeels · 22/03/2012 22:28

She has just started kicking off again :(

HaveToWearHeels · 22/03/2012 22:32

Whoops back on old name ho hum !

omama · 22/03/2012 22:40

I don't know if this helps or not, but my DS is 19 months & we have just started capping his nap back a bit. He certainly couldn't manage without it completely, but I have been finding that if he naps 2hrs 12.30-2.30 then he's no longer tired for bed at 7.30. And he wakes at 6am. We capped at 1h 45 initially but have cut it back further to 1.5hrs, although I'm not sure yet on how successful it'll be as he's taken ill on day 2 with a sickness bug!

Anyhow, I know you are apprehensive about cutting the nap, but think about it this way - if you do, then she will likely settle to bed much more easily, without all the drama you are currently getting, and at her regular bedtime rather than 1-2hrs later. And she will likely have a longer night. And once she has a few longer nights under her belt, she will cope just fine with the shorter nap.

Perhaps you could start by capping at 1.5hrs? I suspect it may need to be 1hr absolute max for you to get a decent length night though.

HTH.xx

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