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Toddler sleep habits when ill

2 replies

Aurora94 · 30/12/2024 22:09

My 12m old has never been a great sleeper but not terrible either, he’s always needed rocking or cuddling to sleep, has a bottle before bed and then one in the night (all of which I am fine with for the moment but we are working on the bottle to sleep). However whenever he is ill both sleep schedule and habits go completely out the window, I’m happy to do whatever he needs when he is ill as obviously it’s more important that he gets the rest he needs, the issue is getting back to good (or better) habits and schedule after.
Before he became ill recently he was sleeping 7:30pm-7:00am with one wake up at 11:30. He’d nap 1.5-2hrs after lunch which would be in his cot at home or at nursery or his pram if out.
on Boxing Day the whole family came down with illness (we think Covid) and he has been slightly unwell with a fever and not eating as much as usual. Otherwise he seems fine in himself other than he is having 2 naps in the day instead of one and he won’t sleep in his cot AT ALL, in the past 3 days all the sleep he has got has been on me, he is awake for hours in the night and he will only sleep in short bursts. I know this can be typical since he is ill but the problem is it will now take weeks to get back to any kind of normal which is so difficult since he seems to catch everything at nursery 🙈
we had 2 weeks of ok sleep before this illness and now it looks like I’m not going to sleep again for another couple of weeks 🙈 and it is also stopping him from getting enough sleep.
He is also a very fidgety sleeper so contact napping doesn’t really work which is stopping the both of us from sleeping.
I have tried waiting longer before transferring to his cot, warming up his mattress, trying to settle whilst in the cot but nothing is working.
Any advise on how to get some kind of normal back or any kind of sleep 😅 for either of us? Or is it just one of those things I’ve got to wait out?

OP posts:
marmaladeandpeanutbutter · 30/12/2024 22:21

If his cot is in your room can't you situate It next to the bed and then just put him in it? If he can hear you, he'll calm down soon enough, perhaps?

MarigoldSpider · 31/12/2024 08:32

It’s difficult but I can’t really see anyway round it. He needs you more when he’s ill and that includes at night. This won’t last forever.

I remember reading that we should expect it to take at least the same amount of time as they were will for for the sleep to get back to normal afterwards.

One of mine would never transfer into a cot. A floor bed helped us as it meant we could settle her to sleep as if we were co sleeping and then sneak away after she was asleep.

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