night time sleep problems

[missbolam]

Hi, please please can somebody help me? my 15 month old daughter has never slept properly, sometimes we have nights were she might only wake once or twice for a quick drink then back to sleep. but the last 3 weeks have been dreadful. she is waking after about 2-3 hours full sleep crying, giving her a drink doesn't help, milk doesn't help, cuddles don't help, she eventually goes back to sleep, sometimes with the aid of the hairdryer but then wakes again 30-60 mins later and starts all over again, it is like this all night. I am at a loss. she sleeps with me and her dad and has done since she was around 4-5 months old. even being with us in bed doesn't comfort her. what can I do? her bedroom isn't decorated so we cant put her in there and practice the controlled crying. besides we tried that when she was around 3-4 months old and she will just keep going longer than we can! we both work full time and need our sleep just like she does, please help us!!

At 15 months old your daughter really should have a bedroom read and waiting for her. So maybe focus on getting it decorated and ready?

If being in with you is not helping and not comforting for her, she may really want the quiet sanctuary of her own space in her own room.

when we have the funds we will be getting her room sorted. but to be honest I am not convinced that is the problem, you see we might go a week maybe two of sleeping really well just waking for a drink, then we go back to the horrendous every hour or so waking...anybody else have any comments or advice?

Is there space in your room to put the cot in? The weather is getting warmer now could she be getting too hot with all 3 of you in the bed maybe? Is there anything that's happened in the day when she 1st has that bad night? Is she too overtired on that day leading to a disturbed nights sleep or has she eaten something on them days that could be disagreeing with her?

the cot is in our bedroom, I can put her down to sleep in there but she still wakes crying then struggles to sleep much after that, I assume she is worried when I put her down she will be on her own again. I don't know if she is overtired or not, she has her nap as normal in the day, most of the time she only has 30-45 minutes. she used to sleep a good hour or so on her nap but she doesn't now. and will only have the one nap unless we have to go out in the car then she will sleep again then. I try to put her down to bed at 8pm every night, sometimes it is later depending on whether she has had a second nap or napped late in the day on her first nap. I think this is how it is going to be with her until she is old enough to tell me what the problem is and I can try and persuade her to sleep on her own (hopefully by then her bedroom will be done)

What sort of crying is it? at this age my DS, who had always been a bad sleeper, went serious down hill. We eventually figured out he had CMPI and once we eliminated dairy from his diet things improved dramatically. Have you noticed any link between the really bad nights and her diet? Might be worth starting a food diary.

this is how she has always been, she has never slept very well. it doesn't seem to be a painful cry, more of a whingey cry, but sometimes can sound quite bad as if inconsolable. she is on cows milk and has been since just before her first birthday. we do sometimes have a few nights where she sleeps very well and wakes up maybe just once after a good few hours full sleep. she does have wind a lot when she is sleeping though, not sure if that is to do with the milk though.

I think I'd start noting down what she's eating and comparing to sleep, just in case. It might be nothing but we went through 14 months of hell with DS before the penny dropped!