Oh, it's been such a hard slog. 12 months of dreadful sleep, breastfeeding frequently in the night, early mornings, poor and unpredictable naps.
For 6 months it's been improving. He learned to self settle and could get himself to sleep on his own after a feed. I stopped night feeds at about 15 months and he had his last bedtime feed at Christmas, so no longer bf at all.
Until a week ago, he's been going straight to sleep after a story and sleeping about 12 hours, or a little less. One daytime nap, around 11am for up to 2 hours (rare to be this long, but haven't managed longer or two naps since about 8 months old).
For the past week... Screaming at bedtime. Takes about an hour to get him to sleep, returning at intervals. As soon as I go in, he stops crying and tells me what he wants (he's very verbal. He wants downstairs, or daddy, or a particular song or toy, or to say night night to pretty much anyone he can think of. When he's calm, I put him back in his cot and he starts again immediately.
Why oh why oh why?? And what should I do? He's not teething (has the full set except two back molars) and is well although a bit snotty.
In addition to this, he's waking earlier than usual and it's not happy waking. It's whiny, whingey, fussy waking. Not what you want at 5.30 am, obviously!