22 mth brilliant sleeper suddenly crying at bedtime, night wakings and early waking

[thorners]

this is a first time post for me and hoping that someone can offer me advice at how to get back on track with my 22 month old.

DD has always been great at going to bed, couple of stories, milky drink, kiss night night and she went straight down, turned over, thumb in and off to sleep. Rarely woke in night and if she did would cry out turn over and go back to sleep. she slept regularly until 7 -7.30. 2 weeks ago we stayed with my sister in law and dd slept in her travel cot (never usually a problem, and she naps in it when at MIL), but on second night she wasn't as tired due to late nap in the car, and she suddenly started crying, wouldn't let me leave the room, wanted me to stay by her while she went to sleep. every time i tried to leave the room, or did leave the room she cried and it got more and more hysterical. this went on for an hour until DH came in and took over, sent me away (!!) and took her out into another room to talk to her, calm her down and eventually got her into bed and sleep. since then I have real trouble getting her to sleep. cries and stands up when I leave the room. sometimes she will go after 5 mins if I tell her i;m pottering around and go and make lots of noise so she khows I'm there, but mostly she just cries and gets up. She will eventually go to sleep if I stay a bit with her and then creep out. She also wakes once, maybe twice in the night now, and again I have to stay until she's asleep and she is now waking at 4.30 or 5am and won't go back down. I can't leave her to cry as it gets very desperate and she has 7 month old baby brother in with her. Obviously there is some kind of insecurity thing happening since that night away, but I'm aware that we're facing a crossroads of me becoming a kind of prop now and I want to try and avoid that. Any one out there experienced this sudden change too and what do you think is the best way to get her back on track.
any similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. i go back to work on monday and am very bleary eyed and generally a very grumpy wife!!

Dont necessarily think its an insecurity thing. i think dd has just realised she can manipulate you ! I mean this in the nicest way. I would just go back to old routine and be firm. Its gonna be hard as she shares room with brother. I used to find with mine that the younger one didnt wake up with the crying of the older one but you may not find that. It will only take 3 nights if you perservere and dont waiver from your routine. When you do go in, dont talk or make eye contact, just stroke forehead til she eases slightly then leave room. It will be tough but she'll get the message. Good luck

We had a very similar thing with ds1 (22 mo) recently. He's always been a brilliant sleeper but at about 20 mo started to wake in the night calling for one of us, and was much more difficult to settle at bedtime - crying when we left the room, demanding more songs and stories. We had a couple of really terrible evenings when he just screamed the place down each time we left the room. He was also gettign up really early (between 5 and 6 most days).

The way we dealt with the bedtime thing was to do the usual going to bed routine and then just sit in the dark in silence in the room until he fell asleep, as it did seem to be some sort of insecurity thing. The night wakings we just went in stroked him and told him everything was OK and he did then go back to sleep OK. We had just resigned ourselves to the early mornings.

Well, good news is that he's stopped doing it and is back to his usual brilliant sleeping self . We don't have to stay in the room any more until he's asleep, and he's stopped the night waking too, and is sleeping until 6.30/7 most mornings.

FWIW, I think it might be just a phase. The one thing that really seemed to help with us was that we went on holiday - I'd feared it might make matters worse, but I think all the fresh air and running around and generally relaxed vibe meant that he just conked out every evening. Does your dd get loads of fresh air every day? I think that does help, and I also wonder whether they just get a bit more energy that needs expelling at this age?

Fingers crossed for you.

Blimey, I do go on don't I?

I try to take dc out every night. We live 2 mins from the beach and the sea air works wonders. But if i dont have time to go there, i just make sure they have good run round in the garden. There's lots of other sleep prob threads going on at the moment, have a look around as i dont know how to insert a thread here for you to click to!!

thanks for these ideas - really nice to get support and encouraging stories. weekend wasn't too bad, i gritted teeth on fri night and put her down as usual then left, she went beserk, i went in, quick cuddle, put her down, left, hysterics. this ritual carried on for 45 mins until she eventually lay down herself and went to sleep. last two nights she has given a small wimper, i just reassured her i was nearby and left, and she has gone straight to sleep. so looks like she was "playing me" - in a nice way of course!!
had one 3.30am wake but she settled relatively quickly with only two re-visits.

thanks for ideas - will let you know how it goes.
as to fresh air - yes she loves busying about in the garden and we are lucky enough to 30 mins from a beach which she loves. so lots of running about on the cards for the next week or so!