excellent sleeper but it's all gone wrong!

[firststeps]

My ds is almost 17 months and was an excellent sleeper - 7-7 usually with a short spell of early morning waking which we solved with a bit of advice on here about moving naps. BUT... it's all gone wrong in the last couple of months - he used to go to sleep at 7 without a peep, but it's now taking up to an hour for him to go off, with me going in 3-4 times to settle him - also he is waking in the night and taking an hour or so to get back to sleep. Also he isn't settling for his lunchtime sleep either. I have shortened this to about an hour and a half wit a wake up no later than 2 depending on when he went down. He has been teething recently and I had been giving him bonjela and medised to help him sleep if he woke in the night. He definitely isn't teething now. Do i just let him settle himself? he doesn't really do full scale screaming, just winging so he isn't all that upset - he just refuses to sleep! Any ideas would be gratefully received as I am 11 weeks pregnant and shattered!

My dd did exactly that (although she didnt actually have any problems teething)

she slept through the night at 6 weeks, but then at about 9 months started waking up about 5 times a night, just moaning for about an hour each time

we were living in a flat at the time so i was very aware of the noise as it was waking up the neighbors, so i tired everything to get her back to sleep, but nothing worked, and i couldnt just leave her to make noise

About 2 months after we moved to a bungalow, and when she woke up, i checked on her, and then i just left her to go back to sleep

obviously when she started to properly cry, i would go in again and give her head a little stoke, but i never got her out of bed or talked to her

after a few nights, she started to sleep through again (bliss) but i made sure that she didnt have any sleeps in te day, unless we were out in the buggy

i dont know if this will help, but hope it does

good luck

Oh that sounds familiar!

Our son is 17 months old as well and went through almost exactly the same thing about three weeks ago. He used to go down at 7 without a peep but then literally out of nowhere he started taking over an hour to go off with lots of settling plus whinging/ crying as soon as you tried to leave the room (even if he seemed dead asleep). We've never really left him to cry but equally didn't want to get into a situation where we had to sit with him every night til he dropped off.

What worked for us was going in to see him but giving him the minimum of attention and decreasing it over about a week or so. i.e. first night or two, went in, said "it's okay honey", "lie yourself down" that kind of thing and stood by his cot shhing him occasionally til he went off and you sneaked out (sometimes took bloody ages!).

Over the next week or so, just reduced the attention, e.g. stand near cot, without looking at him, saying the same thing more quietly. Then nearer the door etc. By the end of the week, you could just stand in the doorway, say "lie yourself down honey" etc and turn your back and he'd whinge himself to sleep. He stopped doing it at all a couple of days after and has gone back to dropping off straight away.

He sounds quite like yours (didn't flat-out howl just whinge and cry a bit) so was probably bit easier to deal with than others maybe. Not sure why he started doing it - maybe separation anxiety but nothing had really changed though. Just one of those things.

Not sure about the night waking I'm afraid but I guess it could be linked... If he's getting used to being settled at bedtime maybe he just fancies the same in the night when he wakes up and can't get to sleep straight away. Hence sorting out bedtime may help with night time. Either way, good luck with it!