Sleep problems associated with starting nursery/separation anxiety

[MerrillyMarchingOn]

First time poster, long time reader so pls bear with me!

Advice desperately needed from more experienced mummas - my DD (12 months old) started nursery this week and I went back to work full time. She's not slept more than an hour at a time since she started. We're putting her to bed in her cot at 7ish and she's waking within an hour, every hour. In desperation DH and I are taking it in turns to co-sleep (from 8pm often with no dinner!) but even sleeping with one of us she is waking every hour and often taking over an hour to get back to sleep. All 3 of us are exhausted and at breaking point after only a week!

DH wants to try CIO but I feel like if its caused by separation anxiety CIO will make things worse but we don't seem to have any other options.

She picked up a tummy bug during the settling in sessions which was directly followed by a bad cold which meant we kept her home the first week and started properly this week, though she still has a cough. I'm pretty sure she is also teething - though seems to have been teething for weeks now.

I completely understand that this is a huge deal for her and sleeping through is unlikely when she's dealing with so much but waking every hour is just not sustainable. I keep telling myself "this too shall pass" but reassurance and any experience on timeframes would help! I'm not the first working mum to go through this but anyone who tried CIO or anything else that worked would be really helpful.

Thanks :)

Poor you. I haven't got great advice but wanted to commiserate. Ds about to start nursery so we may be in same boat.

However, I do think CIO wld be difficult for you to carry out if ther is any doubt in your mind that it it is the best thing to do. It is counter-productive to start it and then cave in. Have you tried gradual retreat? Much gentler and therefore easier to carry through. Will take a few hard nights but then should begin to work. If you need to know how to do pm me.

You poor things. It sounds like it is to do with separation anxiety, in which case I certainly wouldn't do CIO... surely you'd want to make your DD feel more secure, not less? (Don't mean that to sound judgemental). Co-sleeping sounds like a good way to go. Isn't there a huge developmental leap around 12 months? This combined with being poorly, teething, new experiences at nursery... it's unsurprising that her sleep has gone bonkers.

Hang in there! (btw, I'm not a more experienced mum, so I have no idea re. time frames... plus my DD has never slept through.....)

DS had a run of really bad nights after starting nursery. He was a bit older - 20 months - but it was definitely separation anxiety compounded with picking up bugs. It lasted about six weeks although the really bad patch was probably only a week or so. We have done CC in the past, reasonably effectively, but didn't want to try it for this bad patch as it was clearly anxiety waking him and he needed reassurance. After a while he went back to previous sleep, well until his little sister arrived but that's a different issue!