18 month sleep regression or something else??

[popgoesperfection]

Looking for a bit of advice to help get my ds sleeping better.
Ds is 18 month and we follow a loose routine of:
Up between 6:30 - 7 am
Nap at 1:15 pm for up to 2 hour
Up to bed at 7:30 pm, read a book and have a cuddle, lay him in his bed, say night and leave.
Generally he goes off straight to sleep independently. However, through the night he wakes numerous times crying and whinging, I leave him for a few minutes to see if he'll settle himself, then go into him, lay him back down and leave. I do this every time, I never bring him out of his cot or speak to him until morning when it's time to get up. Yet he continues to do it every night and I'm starting to struggle with the constant wakings. Can any one offer some advice or anything that I could try?

Same here. The fury and the meltdowns. We’re hiding next door listening to a full hour of on and off whinging. It doesn’t help to cuddle or to be nearby. Next to try is bringing him back in with us. But he’s a really big boy- 17kg and he wriggles like crazy.

Hang on, it’s just gone quiet. 🙏

Spoke too soon. Slept for 45 minutes and now yelling and throwing himself around. It’s scary. Is he in pain? Is he just hot? Cross? He normally sleeps pretty solidly. DH has taken him out in the car to see if a Change of scene helps

Hey @MKCH
No improvement here unfortunately.
How's your lo feeling? Have you both managed to nap today?
@Angliski how old is your lo? Has he settled now?
I've been out for my first work meal since having lo and dp has taken him to bed tonight and he settled for him, about right eh 🙄 so maybe daddy doing bedtime will become a more frequent occurrence!!

Just popping on to say hang in there!! The 18 month regression can last 6 weeks.. it's relentless and shit and you think it's never gonna end but then it will! I genuinely thought our baby was broken and we would have to start again with sleep routine but after many long weeks it just stopped.. the screaming, the 4 hour wake ups.. all gone! For now..

Not a brag AT ALL I promise I'm just saying try not to change up too much as if it's a phase they should come out of it themselves..

Waiting for the next one now

@popgoesperfection well last night was possibly the worst yet!

She woke up just before 2am and didn't go back to sleep until 4.50am 😩 and then slept until about 6.45am.
So we have a tired itchy girl on our hands.

I feel so bad for her, her hands are all blistered and her soles of her feet hurt so she's trying to walk on her tiptoes.

I have to say that we massively relented last night and ended up bringing her downstairs as it was just torture trying to keep her upstairs.

Tonight - no more mrs nice mummy. 😂

@ELM8 Thankyou for your reply. It's been going on about 6 week now so hopefully we're nearly at the end.

@MKCH how are you and lo feeling this morning?
What's your plan of action for tonight?

@popgoesperfection

Tonight... DP will not get involved. He is too soft!
I think I'm going to try gradual retreat. I know this may mean I am awake quite a lot but that's seemed to work previously. So no removing from bed, I'll just put a stool next to her cot and sit there and stroke her back until she falls asleep. And repeat ad nauseum.

I feel bad at the moment as she's ill so will probably end up with her in bed in the spare room (away from softy DP) but I think that's going to be my initial plan!

Hopefully yours comes to an end soon...

@popgoesperfectionhe DS is 18 months exactly. He was a pretty amazing sleeper earlier on in life but since nursery he’s had cold and coughs and now a bit of sick/ upset tum which has disrupted sleep. I’d say from about theee weeks ago he started reissuing his structured bedtime- loved his bath but then yelled for ages after 7pm settle. Now it’s escalating. He finally fell asleep at 8.45 for half an hour then up till 10.30 then up again around 1. We tried the drive which did stop him yelling but in the end I put him in with me and excited DH and that seemed to do it. We’ve both been 50/50 on the bedtime and the daycare so I can’t even leverage dad as novelty! I broker the news to DH that we may have a good 4 weeks of this left. I think he was happy to be driving to Italy this weekend leaving us home alone till we fly out to meet him and our camper. Maybe the novelty of being elsewhere will help and at least were not working for a bit so can nap when he does. His day scream was so bad yesterday that I invited a neighbour who is a nurse to take a look at him. She said, yeah, they scream a lot at this age and said her son was the most determined screamer of her three! Woe is me!

Name change fail! Oh well!
@ELM8 thank you for giving us hope.
@MKCH poor little dote. The combo of being ill, hot and a toddler seems an explosive one!!

I’m currently sitting in the car while he nods. Stuck here for an hour at least now! But a nod is a nod!

@MKCH good luck for tonight. I hope all goes to plan!!
I've given up on what to try next, nothing seems to be working! If only these little people came with a manual haha.
Can totally relate to the determined screamer @SeeSection. Hes definitely head strong my ds!!!

Good luck tonight guys.. hoping you're near the end. Tonight could be the night!!!!

Can i join you all. 18 month old here never been a great sleeper. Currently lying here holding his hand. Been trying to cut that tie and move to just saying night night time to sleep etc worked well the other night but tonight he isn't having it and must be holding my hand to fall asleep. I've just found out I'm pregnant so need to crack this in the next 8 months as can't be doing this and sorting little one out. I've brought a projector thing with vehicles on it to help him distract from me.. worked the other night I only has to sit near his cot. So stressful!

Hi @Sticklebricks444 welcome! You're in great company 😂
Tonight DD has uncharacteristically - well, for recent times - gone straight down at 7pm with just one little whinge and me having to stroke her tummy for about 30 seconds.
I fully expect my reverie to be interrupted in the wee hours.
But she barely slept really last night and only napped for 1.5 hours at lunchtime so I'm not overly shocked...
but please all cross fingers and toes. I don't think my relationship will last another night of no sleep 🤪🥴

Decided it must be teething and gave him some burp feb and teething powder after an hour and a half of yelling and POW! Fingers crossed!

Nurofen not burp feb!

I posted a thread on the same situation back in January for my DS who at that time was 21 months. He used to be an absolute dream at bedtime and throughout the night. Down for 6.30pm sleep 12 hours without getting up and have a 2 hour nap around 10am.

In January it started with naps becoming difficult in that he didn't want to go into his cot for a nap. I kept trying and eventually he would go to sleep but it was a struggle to get him down. He would cry etc. Then after 1 week of the naps going bonkers his nighttime sleep went to pot one night when he was staying at his grandparents for an overnight and decided to climb out of the cot in their house and fell and was crying. Prior to this time you could put him in the cot walk away and leave him and he would send himself to sleep but all it took was this one night. After that we tried sleep training for 3 nights but I just couldn't bare to listen to him cry. He would get himself so worked up and every night he would be crying for an hour at least before going to sleep. I was also 8 months pregnant at the time and desperate to get help as didn't want this carrying on when baby arrived.

Eventually I gave in and every night sat by his cot and held his hand while he went to sleep. He would go down no problem while doing that and now I don't need to even do that. He is back to being able to send himself to sleep but his bedtime is now later and I wonder if that all happened as a result of him needing less sleep.
Don't know if we r lucky that he has went back to good sleeping habits but tbh I couldn't bare what it was doing to him or the house for that matter. I really didn't mind holding his hand for 10 minutes while he went to sleep and it hasn't done any lasting damage.

I will point out though at the time this happened we had taken away his dummy completely a few weeks prior and I also think he had some separation anxiety going on.

Hope everything resolves itself and it doesn't carry on much longer. We were about 2 months before we could leave him on his own again going to sleep

Nice! Ashton & Parsons? I swear that stuff has magic in it.
Here's hoping it does the trick all night!

Welcome @Sticklebricks444. How's lo slept so far tonight?
I have everything possible crossed for you @MKCH 😂 I'm currently putting off going to bed even though I'm knackered 🤦🏻‍♀️
@SeeSection magic stuff that, may have to give it a go haha

Aka seesection here.

I feel terrible. I gave teetha granules and nurofen and he has slept like a baby. That means he was in pain and I ignored it :(((

Now I look at it, the signs make sense. Happy until lying down- when blood must flow to the gums I guess. Drooling all day uncharacteristically, but not the ruddy cheeks of earlier teeth ( he has all teeth bar molars) and when eating, he’d suddenly cry with frustration/pain.

Totally off his milk. Sulky and reticent in the day which just isn’t him at all. Lots of cuddles required which is it’s own penicillin isn’t it?

I feel bad because this week has been so busy with work and with preparing to move to our Italian house for a bit. That means DH was doing most of the care so I wasn’t pattern spotting in the day. He’s been asleep all night since the nurofen. Poor sausage.

We are flying today so I am going to try giving some regular doses and see if it improves mood, eating and general disposition.

How’s everyone else doing? Anyone got a win to share?

@ Angliski Hope he improves.
Can you get him checked by doctor prior to flight in case ear infection. Ear infection s are common at this age but that will be very painful during flight due to air pressure changes

@Angliski don't feel bad! You weren't to know. This is the problem when they can't express themselves properly :) at least you might have figured it out now!
Last night was a dream compared to recent nights - bed and asleep by 7pm (only 5 minutes of back strokes necessary), woke at 12.50am and back to sleep by 1.15am (again, a few back strokes and me standing by the cot for a bit), but then woke up at 4.50am. But I can deal with that!

Only issue now is that she napped from 12pm to 3.45pm...!! So now when do I put her to bed?! 😩😂 I usually go by 12 hours from wake up but obviously that isn't happening. So maybe I'll try in 10 mins to go and do bath etc?! I don't know! Might bugger it all up again!

@MKCH they do mega naps at tones don’t they? dS napped from 1-6.30 the other day but went down at 10.30 which I thought was quite reasonable considering! What’s the plan? There’s yelling here atm, going in for a a back stroke and a teething powder in two minutes.

Last night was up alot but I realise it the temp drop and once I shut the window he slept through till 5.30am then in bed with me till 7am. I don't mind early morning cosleeping just need to break the all night.

@MKCH I find my 18 month old needs 5 to 6 hours of awake time after a nap. Couldn't see how old your little one is. Hope they go down soon for you!

My little one is teething badly and this always affects his sleep. Even when with me wakes up crying. We give him meds to help but do people find the teething granules work better and longer overnight?

Hppe everyone has more successful night tonight!

@Angliski 1-6.30!!! Blimey! How was the flight today? All ok?

I do love it when she naps for ages (I got a good 2hr nap in today as well!!) but then stress about the knock on effect.

We did tea and bath a little bit later and she was in her cot by 8pm, and I was able to leave the room by about 8.10pm so it seems ok at the moment.

@popgoesperfection how are you getting on? And you @Sticklebricks444 ?