Toddler sleep issues now we have a newborn

[LIG1979]

My little girl (2.9) has always been a good sleeper and we never had to work hard to get her to sleep. (Luck rather than anything we did.) She was probably sleeping 13+ hours a day including a nap and rarely woke in the night unless ill. If she did wake she usually wanted to go straight back to bed and would put herself there quite happily.

I now have a newborn (1 month) and her sleep has gone horrendously wrong. She won't go to bed and needs resettling lots before finally falling asleep at gone 8pm. She then wakes when he does also wanting milk and crying lots and will be awake for over an hour. She then wakes up early before 6am.

She doesn't seem tired in the day but she is quite naughty which often happens when she is tired. (But could just be due to get trying to get attention from the newborn.)

What can I do? It is exhausting for me. I have tried talking to her, cutting down her nap and nothing works. The baby is on a different floor already so isn't that loud and not sure I can make him any quieter .

Thank you!

Her world has been rocked by the arrival of a new baby. She can't articulate as in ' mummy needs to sleep and would like me better if I was quiet' as she is only a baby herself.
Something awful has happened to her, a new baby has appeared. She can't rationalise and is responding with raw emotion.
Hard as it is on you, I am afraid you are the adult here and she is the child. This horrible phase has to be waited out with patience.
It will pass as everything does. Eventually she will realise that you are going nowhere and neither is the baby and you love her as much as ever. She will calm down.
If you count ten, try and relax as much as possible and respond to her with calm and patience it will pass more quickly.
She is frightened and possibly jealous. Her whole little world has been rocked.
Treat your Dcs as you would like to be treated, with love and respect and you can't go far wrong.
Your patience will be rewarded in shedloads when they grow up and remember the wonderful childhood you gave them.

Or alternatively stand at her bedroom door and shout at the top of your voice 'SHUTUP ' and then cry through exhaustion, and knowing in your heart that you have behaved badly.

Sorry, as it is b+++++ hard as you are so dog tired and we have all been there! Hugs

You are completely right. I was hoping I could somehow reassure her and speed up the process. It is just so tough and at times they are both screaming and I have to leave the newborn screaming so I can properly attend to my little girl or take the baby with me and then try and deal with them both. During the day I use the sling a lot but at night it is much tougher....

I think at one month old you can't really expect much of your newborn in terms of a bedtime etc...
Give it a couple of months.

AwLig1979 it is so hard.

I had loads of Dcs and I remember some of them had whooping cough and it lasted for 10 weeks. Constantly sick, up all night etc. I was utterly on my knees. I remember bathing two of them at three in the morning to get the sick out of their hair. Two trying to cling onto me at once for comfort. I then got covered in sick. My DH getting the beds changed, yet again. He had such a demanding job. Luckily I was a SAHM.

We eventually got back into bed and almost cried with exhaustion and we both thought' what have we done?

Our lovely life of leisurely mornings, reading the Sunday Papers in bed. Maybe even breakfast in bed. Making love in a leisurely way in front of a log fire, etc etc. was GONE.

However, it is now all a blur. A grown up son came home alone last week for a rare visit ( when they get married you don't see them alone much as naturally they bring their wives and DCs) and swept me off my feet and said ' I love you so much Mum', Mmmm priceless. Well worth being covered in sick.
Well worth the effort of giving him the best childhood I could.
You have one shot.
Someone said' life is not a rehearsal' and it is so true.
Xx hugs. I know things will improve.