DD2 is nearly 1 and sleep has been a nightmare since 5 months when she began teething. She began refusing to go back into her cot after the 11pm feed - still crying after an hour, often - so we started co-sleeping from whenever she wakes up till the morning, DH and I usually taking turns, and him bringing her to me if she needs feeding.
This worked ok while she would cosleep happily - and sometimes she will sleep through until 2, 3 or 4am in her own cot - but lately when she comes into our bed it is just a recipe for her being awake for hours, thrashing around, clawing at my face and pulling my hair, crying and screaming. She cries if I pick her up and cuddle her, she cries if I put her down next to me and shush her. Feeding calms her momentarily but she cries as soon as I put her down. This can go on for 2 or 3 hours at a time. Some nights are better than others but most nights are like this, and it's been going on for months. We give her Calpol or infant nurofen if we think it's teething related (when her cheeks are really red or she's rubbing her ears) and this gives a bit of respite as she will usually sleep for 3 or 4 hours unbroken after that.
I can get by on not enough sleep for a while, but my DH really struggles without sleep and I worry about his stress levels. And if I've done most of the night shifts during the week he lets me sleep in at weekends, lovely for me, but it eats into time we could spend all together as a family and means he doesn't get much downtime either after the working week. And not fair on DD1 (3) who has tired grumpy parents all the time.
I have wondered whether to try and enforce more daytime napping if the problem is over-tiredness, but she resisted the afternoon nap for quite a few months now, and when she does sometimes sleep in the afternoon (eg on a long car journey) it seems to make no difference to the nights.
Beginning to be at my wits end. She is close to being a toddler but at nights it's like I still have a newborn!