Toddler Sleep

[SisterA]

My 18 month old wakes up every night crying. I take him into bed with me because I work full time but he never really settles. If I settle him in his room that can take an age and he never really sleeps well after his first stint of sleep.

being there doesn’t seem to bring him any comfort.

has anyone been through this and was there a solution that helped? I don’t want to leave him to cry but he cries anyway so I would just like to do something that makes there nights easier for him.

currently I lie down in his bed and breastfeed - sometimes he feeds to sleep sometimes he unlatches and we chat and cuddle before he drifts off. He knows it’s his bed and happily gets into it at bedtime.

[Mumofweemissy]

Hi! I could have written this myself. I completely relate. My daughter over the past few weeks has been waking so upset, and nothing I do settles her. Until eventually she falls asleep pulling my hair! Are you still struggling through this? Would love to know if you have any change.

[Devilsmommy]

My 18mo has started waking in the night again after finally sleeping through for a couple of months. I've been told they have a regression and separation anxiety at this age again 😭 I can usually get mine back to sleep with a bottle but that's only if your little one still has one I suppose.

[SisterA]

I did end up just leaving him when he first woke up and not going through immediately. It eliminated the first wake up for us within a couple of nights. He does still wake up sometimes but not always and usually not until 3am onwards now so we’re all having bigger chunks of sleep, better quality and he’s a lot happier to wake up.

I also loosely went by the rule of - if he’s just crying and rolling around I’ll leave him to it, but if he’s calling my name I’ll go through it him. He wasn’t calling out for mummy at the first wake up but sounded more ‘awake’ at subsequent wakes.

it did go against all that I’d ever thought I’d do but instinctively felt like what he needed and it did help.

hope this phase doesn’t last too long for anyone else!