I'm really hoping some of you can give me some advice. My now 17 month old was a pretty good sleeper until recently. Christmas and New Year have completely screwed up her routine, but I figured she'd soon get back on track. Yet, here we are 3 weeks later and things have gotten worse rather than better.
She would normally nap in the afternoon from 1.00 to 2.30 while either with me or with her childminder. Prior to Christmas, bedtime was around 7pm and she'd sleep through until around 6.30am. Maybe the odd wakening in the night, but nothing major. Since Christmas and as mentioned in my title, bedtime has now become a huge battle.
Whereas previously she would have just lay down in her cot and gone to sleep, she's taken to screaming the place down. I tried letting her cry, checking on her every couple of minutes, but she's been getting herself more and more worked up to the point of nearly getting sick and making things even worse. I've had to take her up from her cot again for another half hour and try again. Most times she'll kick off again and so the cycle continues - into cot, scream house down, out of cot, back downstairs, back upstairs and repeat up to 4 times. Of course, this has started to become a 'game' for her and we're lucky to get her settled before 9 these nights.
The result of this is an overtired toddler every morning and evening and an extremely frustrated mother. So ladies, what to do, what to do?