My 18month old won’t sleep and I’m almost broken!

[Significantudder]

Any tips/hints/advice for getting an 18th month old to sleep...all night...in their own bed?

My dd has always been awful but is getting progressively worse. I work full time and I’m just about at breaking point.

We’ve tried lots of things, I won’t go into specifics and I’ll be here all day. She currently goes down, unhappily and once every so often will sleep until 5/6 but mainly will wake up between 12-3 and refuse to lie back down in her own bed. She screams so loudly and I really can’t have her waking her sister so I’ve been cosleeping from that point or from 5/6 when she goes that long but I don’t sleep well like that and I want to be able to go out for the evening, or have a glass or 2 of wine. Basically I don’t want to carry on cosleeping so please don’t question that or tell me that’s what I should do. I can’t go on like this!

Is she tired out by the time it's bedtime? Do you have a consistent routine? We play for an hour before bed then it's time to wind down with a bath and a book before off to bed. She's 16 months and we've had the same routine for a while. We stick to an 8pm bedtime every night so she knows it's time for bed. Have you tried the 'Stay in bed technique'?

www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Parenting-Skills/-/Routine-and-Teamwork/Getting-Toddlers-to-Stay-in-Bed.aspx

I do this when DD is grumpy, tired and needs a nap. It's hard when she's determined she's not napping but you just have to be even more determined to follow through.

Napping? My DD dropped all naps at
18 months

Does she nap at nursery or with the childminder? I’d be wanting to know details of when and for how long. Might be time to start cutting that down/out? Sounds super frustrating.

Always has a nap at lunchtime but length varies from 30-90mins. Tends to nap for longer with childminder. The length of the daytime nap doesn’t seem to have any bearing on her nighttime sleep. She is literally falling asleep in her lunch some days so I don’t think she could drop it yet.

Bedtime routine same every night, apart from the one day I have to go and get her sister from gymnastics at 6. Where we have a short car adventure after bath time! She’s always in bed by 7. Some days out during a cuddle before we put her down, some days resisting it. More and more resisting at the moment.

She has a very busy little life and is such a happy baby (as long as things are as she likes them!) She’s a delight, loves people, always smiling. She’s very advanced for her speech which I think may have some bearing. She’s also still only got 6 teeth so again may have some bearing. But she is so happy during the day & it doesn’t seem to affect her then.

When she is with me she is quite clingy towards me which I think is compounding the issue. She’s waking up and wanting my company and I’ve made it harder for partial night co sleeping for so long.