12 month old waking hourly!!

[Sleepdeprived921]

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice please. My DD has never been a great sleeper and me and my husband have always shared the night wakes and resettling. However she is currently waking up every hour! Sometimes before the hour is up and we are both so sleep deprived I don’t know what to do. When she wakes she isn’t crying, she just shouts out for us and stands at her cot bars and by the time we pick her up and sit down for a cuddle she is straight back to sleep. We then wait ten mins for her to be in a deep sleep and then put her back in her cot. We have tried co sleeping, she sleeps great but myself and my husband don’t sleep so that’s not an option for us. She used to at least do 3-5 hour stretches but it’s like she can’t anymore and I don’t know why. Her routine is still exactly the same - nothing has changed in her little world other than she just can’t sleep past an hour at night anymore!
Any advice or tips will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you x

Anyone got any advice? X

Don't pick her up. Try leaving her and see if she settles herself down. Otherwise, go in, lay her down, 'shhh', leave. And repeat.

I would say don’t pick up too- it’s just become a habit.

Any new developments?
Have you recently gone back to work?

But honestly if she's not crying I'd just leave her for abit.
If you go in, it's literally in and out 'ssh, or sleep time, it's night time' whatever you fancy and out the door.

We went through similar at this age, there is a sleep regression around now. They had previously slept through the night.

I would suggest trying to leave her to see if she resettles, or going in after a few minutes and then leave it a bit longer and so on. Might be painful for a few nights but can be very effective.

Also look if there are any reasons for waking up, room too hot / too cold etc. We found a nightlight helped and at 2 years old we still use white noise (we have a newborn so helps drown out any noise).

I hope it gets better for you

Yep, she’s now used to you picking her up to get her to go to sleep, so she’s unable to put herself back to sleep

You need to gradually get her used to falling asleep herself, starting with not picking her up from the cot - shush and pat her to start with

Thank you everyone for your replies, I really appreciate the help! We’ve always picked her up and she falls straight back to sleep even when she was only waking once or twice through the night so I thought that would still be okay/wouldn’t have affected it now to an hourly waking. I did try the other night just trying to lie her back down and see if she would resettle but she just stands back at the bars of the cot and then starts to get weepy, but maybe I need to be persistent with the shush/Pat and going back out the room etc and see how that goes! Seriously at the stage where I’m happy to try anything new for a few nights etc cause I’m getting next to no sleep at the minute anyway! I don’t return back to work until March and she hasn’t started childcare yet or anything. Her routine is the same as always has been, there’s nothing that has changed that I could pinpoint. She is close to walking, so don’t know if that could be impacting her sleep?
@tiredmummy198 that’s interesting I didn’t know there was a regression at 12 months too did you have to make significant changes to help get your little one to sleep through again or did you just have to ride it out? Xx

Sleep regressions can happen when there is a lot of change going on in the brain so if she is getting ready to walk that could well be it. I think they like to practice at night.

We just rode it out, we found when there was a regression the ability to self settle was also lost so there would be screaming at bedtime etc. once the regression ended it all just went back to normal.
What are her day time naps like as this can impact night sleep as well?

@tiredmummy198 that’s really good to know thank you! And quite reassuring that you were able to just ride it out, fingers crossed we will too and it goes back to normal soon! She did do 2 hour stretches last night so I’m taking that as a positive
She has 2 naps during the day one usually around half 9 till half 10 and then one at 2pm till 3-3:30 - the second one can vary x

Honestly you will drive yourself mad thinking it’s your routine- often these disruptions go as quickly as they arrived.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers that’s so true! It’s so hard not to go down that rabbit hole isn’t it! Thank you for the reassurance x

My DD2 - 14 months started last week being hysterical at bedtime, no idea why- going to bed gone 9pm as opposed to 7.30- this week back to normal!