2yr old sleep hell! Help!

[Vialarooski]

My DD1 has slept through the night since 10 months old. She would rarely get upset at bedtime unless teething or poorly. Routine would be, bath, pjs, bottle, bed. Took about 45 mins, always asleep by 7pm. This was our normal way of life up until about 4 weeks ago.

All of a sudden, literally over night, she's gone from being a dream, to an absolute nightmare! She screams bloody murder when we try and leave the room, then will jump out of bed and crack open the door and just stand the other side wailing. Crying for cuddles, or covers, or anything else in her room that she can use to get us back in.

I've tried everything! I've tried talking to her before bed to get her nice and calm, I've tried reading stories, I've tried being firm, I've tried comforting her, I've tried being silent and just putting her back in her bed and leaving, I've tried saying I'll come back and check on her in 10 mins. Sometimes they work, mostly they don't. But eventually she will go to sleep, but then wake up doing it again at 2-3am and that can last a couple hours. I don't understand and I'm getting to stressed and upset about it. Is it a phase? Regression? HV didn't seem much help, she suggested night terrors but my DD is awake at all times when this is going on so I'm not so sure.

DD2 is only 4 months old so between the two of them, me and my hubby are exhausted!

Anyone got any advice? Or comforting words?!

I have no answers but came to see if anyone else did as my 20-month-old dd is doing the same. We have no idea why. She's always been such a good sleeper. Last night she was up for 4-5 hours. It's exhausting but you must find it even more tiring with a 4-month old

It’s a phase. Mine did the same at that age and it was EXHAUSTING. Nothing we did seemed to work. My advice is just to ride the wave! It will pass

Similar situation here. I sit with her at bedtime until she goes to sleep, whereas before I used to leave her. No advice about middle of the night but I've just bought a 2nd hand gro clock to try.

I’ve just commented on two threads in the past week - everyone having similar issues. I have a 23-month old and a 4-month old. Both going through sleep regressions, the 23-month old has been doing the same as your little one for the last 3 weeks. He’s also stopped napping and takes 2-3 hours to drop off. I can’t wait til this passes for both of them!

Yep been there and I'm sorry to say in our house it has lasted forever! But it coincides with greater sense of self, control etc. We could always bath milk book bed and leave the room then boom......just didn't want us to leave anymore. In a honesty were only just starting to get through it at 3 & abit but I think that's as we just hadn't found the right thing to help but starts to use audio books after the normal routine and to ight for he first time in as long as I can remeber he said 'mummy go downstairs now' and drifted off to zog! Maybe try that, reassuring voice when your not there may help x

I'm up right now. We're on our 6th or 7th night in a row! DS is 2 years 2 months. He started needing us to sit by the cot until he went to sleep about 4 months ago, which isn't so bad (one of us stays and reads and he's asleep by 7.30) but his naps are now hit and miss and we're on night 7 of DH having to sit with him for 2 hours at 1am. Please someone tell me this will pass - I'm not coping with lockdown on 6 hours of broken sleep.

The 2 year sleep regression, it lasted around 2-3 months for us iirc. Absolutely nothing helped, we just had to ride it out. He seemed to be going through so much brain development that he just couldn't calm down enough to sleep. It did go back to normal after that, though.

We had a success last night! Left the big landing lights on and she slept through! Or at least re-settled herself. It was ridiculously bright but seemed to help.

Oh dear... won't go to bed at all tonight, screams every time we leave the room. Got desperate and tried leaving her to cry for a couple of minutes but she climbed out of the cot and appeared downstairs with her teddy 😱

Could she be teething maybe getting her molars I went through hell with the molars, my son only slept through again when he had all his teeth aged 3

No advice but my 3-year-old is doing the same thing and it’s torture 😢 we have a 7-month-old too who isn’t a great sleeper so we get no rest at all. For us it started when she went into a toddler bed, she was always fine in her cot. Just praying it’s a phase as I can’t take much more of this, she’s rarely asleep before 9.30pm these days 😫

Grit your teeth and ignore. It will take about 4 or 5 nights.

It seems to be that their brains are having a huge leap and just cant turn off as easily, the more you interact, the more it wakes them up and then they really cant get back to sleep. Even just seeing you or having you in the room when that isnt what they are used to is enough to wake their brains up (even though they are actually shattered)

We used to gut their rooms of anything stimulating or dangerous and then put a stair gate across their bedroom door (the dc that climbed we put two across, one above the other) and then sit on the top of the stairs around the corner so we could hear if they got into big trouble but they couldnt see or hear us. After 4 or 5 nights they just re-learned how to self settle and then they just went back to sleep and stayed asleep. It was the same with all 4 of my dc. The age it started varied slightly but they all went through it.

My son is now 26months, and from 24months we lowered his cot into his cot bed...before then I’d take him to bed give him his bottle kiss him goodnight and that would be it from him until 6-7am...since the cot has been lowered one of us had to sit on the floor until he was asleep...it then got to a point when I was 8months pregnant laying on the floor so I thought right I’m gunna start giving him a kiss and walking out and if he gets up walking him back ect...this lasted just a few nights where he wanted me there but now he will lay down with his bottle and go off to sleep himself...the problem now is when he wakes up in the night and comes to his gate and calls for me I walk him back with minimal communication but he won’t go back to sleep for like 2hours...he has now started wanting a bottle which I think is settling him to go back to sleep but I don’t want this to be a replacement..I’m now 3 weeks away from having my 3rd baby and I’m freaking myself out I’m not going to get any sleep at all as I’m going to be torn between my newborn and my son...please any advice, tricks anything would be appreciated 🤞🏻

Update:

So I felt a little reassured after reading that other people are having similar experiences, made me feel more confident that it was perhaps a sleep regression.

Things have settled and she's almost back to sleeping through the night again. She does most nights, but once or twice through the week she'll briefly wake up and I've had to go in a and tuck her back up into bed.

A couple things we've been doing:
Try and keep the hour before bed nice and chilled so will sit and have her milk whilst watching Night Garden. I bought some rescue remedy drops that I add into her milk just to help her feel relaxed for bed.

We bought a Gro Clock (recommended by a few mums on here), and read her the story in her bed and do the whole routine of turning the sun to the star etc. She really loves that.

And we've also put a stair gate up at her door so even if she gets out of bed, she can't get out of the room which just relieves a bit of the worry for me. And it hasn't bothered her that it's there either.

I've also stopped fussing over her if she begins to play up. I'll kiss her goodnight and tell her to stay in bed for nun nights. She will try her luck for a couple minutes once I've left the room but then she just lays down and goes to sleep herself. If she's really distressed or upset I obviously go back to comfort and settle her but haven't had to do that for about a week now.

Fingers crossed she's settled into this new routine!

Thank you to everyone for all the advice and reassurance!
Who knew kids were so challenging lol!

Oor DD did this, for a good while DH cuddled her until she fell asleep then snuck out of her room and when she woke crying did the same again (unless he fell asleep). He spent a good few weeks doing full nights in there while I was dealing with our newborn. She's fine now, still likes a cuddle, but let's me or DH go before she falls asleep so there are no tears. An earlier bedtime has also made the world of difference.