New hell with 22 month old

[sunflowerandivy]

Hiya,
My 22 month old has always been a terrible sleeper. We've had it all - long split nights, early waking, multiple wakes. Over last 3 months things have improved. I stopped breastfeeding in May and she has been happy to be plonked into her cot and goes off by herself. She's done this for naps and bedtime. Now she's absolutely refusing to go into her cot. She won't even co-sleep. She goes mental. She only wants to be held, screams for cuddle and then when we try to lower her down she goes nuts! This has been going on for 10 days now. She sleeps in a bag in her cot in her own room since 8 months. Any advice please?

Is anything going on for her at the min to make her more unsettled? Teething, started a new nursery, cough/ cold/ virus?

Drop the nap.

But she's not even 2?

Lots of toddlers drop their nap around this age.

Could you possibly switch to a cot bed? Just thinking, you could cuddle up in bed together and slip out when she's sleeping or dozy?
That way she still gets her cuddles without that feeling of being put down...

No advice, but plenty of solidarity ✊ I could've written your post. DS turns 23 months tomorrow, always been a terrible sleeper but has improved considerably since 14 months. He'd been sleeping through more often than not, but over the last 2 weeks he's waking up multiple times and going mental the second we try to put him back down again. I've suspected it's to do with the drop in temperature and I've got a 3.5 tog sleeping bag arriving this week. I'll let you know if it makes any difference 🙏🏻 I really hope it does because neither myself nor DP can manage full time jobs on this little sleep!

We take it in turns to co-sleep with our toddler in a big bed and then leave when she's asleep. The cot is teddy storage!

I have a 21 month old who has never slept well. We ended up hiring a sleep therapist (I was sceptical but was recommended her and we were desperate). That was over a month ago. He's been sleeping through every night bar two on the first two nights and another when he wasn't well. She was an absolute miracle worker. We told her we didn't want to do cry it out in any form, and she listened. She catered to our specific life and living situation and honestly it was the best money we've ever spent. Can't recommend it high enough. We are finally feeling normal again.

Grinchydoodah please can I ask out of interested what she did to help ?

we have a 19 month old and he is starting to get upset at the idea of bedtime and worked up

I think the advice would be different for each child and he set of circumstances but for us, we reduced his nap to an hour (he was having up to 2.5 hours), upped his iron intake, reduced his milk intake, and changed the bedtime routine completely. The only way he would (seemingly) sleep before was in the pram. But she explained that he needed to get to sleep in the cot, by himself. So some book reading and cuddles before placing him in the cot and sitting on the floor with our hand on him through the bars of the cot. If / when he had a wake window in the night (he used to have between 2 and 6 hour wake windows in the middle of the night) we were told not to pick him up (we used to put him in the bed with us) but to sit on the floor until he fell asleep. Luckily he didn't cry when he did have those wake windows and so it was relatively easy to get him used to it.

He sleeps from around 7om to 6am every night now! It's heaven! He used to stay awake until 10pm some nights!! It was an absolute shit show.

The sleep therapist empowered us. We didn't think we could do it. We thought it was impossible.

Hope I've explained that right I'm about to drop off myself.

The thing is, I did sleep train her around 7 months, a bit of pick up / put down, gradual retreat and then merged into controlled crying (one night needed only and about 5 mins crying). She has been going into the cot awake and putting herself to sleep for a year! She is still acting bonkers. My husband is only one that can put her asleep now. She doesn't want me at all despite me having done it every night until about 2 weeks ago. Nothing happened! I haven't been cross, accidentally hurt her or done anything worrying. We've tried reducing nap and that has helped a bit but it's not a given. On Friday night she screamed from 2:30am until 4:30am. We gave all the painkillers going and anbesol! Her canines are cutting through. She's had one pop up every weekend for the past three weeks. Just waiting on the 4th. Could it be that?!

Drop the nap and our twin girls hated being in the sleeping bags after a year. They are actually 2 since last month and since 15month have been sleeping end to end in a normal single bed. They just decided one night they didn't want the cot and dived into the guest bed and that's where they've been ever since. We have a cot mattress running alongside the bed incase they ever did fall out lol but so far they've been fine. The naps neither nap they wake around 7:30am and go bed around 6:30pm..we went thru a few bad nights around 13/14 months then not sleeping someone said try no naps and it's great now sleep every night.

Just wanted to see if you got through the rough patch? My 2 yr old is on a 10pm bed time!