Help - my 18 month old has stopped her sleep routine!

[fasuman]

Hi there, my 18 month old daughter about a week ago completely stopped her bedtime routine? Previously at 6pm it was PJ's and book with a bottle of milk & bowl of porridge, followed by In the night garden at 6.30pm. Always between 6.45 & 7pm we would take her up to her cot with her comforter - daisy & put her down. She would be awake and even say bye, we then closed the door and she would sleep through till 5-6am!

Then about 7 days ago we went to put her down as always and she screamed - we left her for 10 mins, then went in to reassure her and give her her dummy back (she had thrown it away), but she would not settle or calm down. My hubby ended up laying with her for an hour on the floor but to no avail, we ended up bringing her down with us and she did not fall asleep till 10pm.

We have put her bedtime back an hour, as she seems wide awake, but this has not helped. She seems not willing to be apart from us? She has also started waking around 3-4pm and won't settle even if we stay in her room, and I fear I've made a fatal mistake and started putting her in bed with us!!! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, we both work full time, and its beginning to take its toll!! Thanks

18 months is classic sleep regression territory. And we're in the same club, nap and bed time lots of yelling and wriggling and crying. I'm ordering more gin and repeating "its a phase, it'll pass" constantly. Do whatever you can to make things as easy as possible on all of you for the time being, you can always try going back to the old routine in a week or two.

We had this about 17 months. He had always let me leave him and he would self settle, then one day he just cried and cried if I left so I started having to sit and hold his hand while he fell asleep. after a few weeks I started leaving for a few minutes and coming back to get him used to being on his own again. then one day as suddenly as it started it stopped. I left one night and he didn't cry and just went to sleep and has bee. back to self settling ever since. not much help to you at the moment, but hopefully it's just a phase for you too!!

Thanks ladies, that's reassuring to hear. Like you say hopefully its a phase that won't last too long! Like the gin suggestion ;)