A usually 'good sleeper' started waking at 1year

[Bellyrub1980]

She wakes up suddenly. Very distressed and will take a good hour to settle.

I'm picking her up and cuddling/singing etc.

Slightly concerned this is become a bit of a habit now...

What could be causing her to wake? Also what is the best strategy to help her back to sleep? Should I offer water maybe?

I've been leaving her initially for 10 mins to see if she can self settle. That used to work on the odd occasion she did wake before. It's like she has forgotten to self settle....

Why?!

What does she use to get to sleep at bedtime and nap time?

A comforter (very soft cloth with bunny head attached) and a dummy. Both things seem to have lost their appeal over the last few weeks. She used to giggle with excitement when seeing her comforter.

I also leave her monitor playing lullabies and a light show for about 15 mins.

Falling asleep initially is still fairly easy, but the self settling during the night has gone AWOL!

I assume she can find her own dummy and bunny in the night? Do you limit these to sleep time only? Dummy = sleep in our house because the only time DD now gets access to her dummy and comforter is in her cot (my DD is 15 months).

I'm not a fan of lights and sounds things because I think they are stimulating rather than relaxing, but if your DD likes hers then is she able to switch this on herself when she wakes.

So assuming she can recreate her independant soothing mechanisms without your help, then she should be able to get back to sleep without you.

If that's the case - could it be temperature? The weather in UK is much warmer than expected at the moment, could she be too hot? Could it be pain related like teething?

Could it be nappy? My DD is fine going 12+ hours in her nappy overnight. But that's because she generally doesn't wake up. When she does wake up, my DD sometimes finds it difficult to go back to sleep and I have figured out that it's because she doesn't like to lie down in a full, heavy nappy. She'd be fine with a full nappy in the daytime when up and about, but evidentially hates to lie down in a heavy nappy. If I change her into a dry nappy, she goes straight back to sleep.

Just to add as well that at this age it is right to leave her for 10 minutes or so when she wakes up. She may well have a whinge, chnge positions in bed then go back to sleep. But if you go in straight away not only are you stopping her being able to do this, you are also waking her up more by your presence, making the whole situation worse.

Thank you for your reply FD.

The lullaby and light show are controlled by me on her monitor. I agree, they seem they a stimulating thing but quite honestly she falls asleep easily with them going. I will look into buying one she can control herself as that makes sense.

She has woken 3 times last night. On the third time I brought her into my room for a cuddle in bed with me (never done this before). She fell asleep in my arms quickly and within a few minutes appeared to be having a nightmare.

Amy tips on preventing nightmares??? Amy particular foods which aggravate this? She's obsessed with satsumas at the moment so please don't say it's them!!

Tomorrow night I'll change her nappy!!