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Not sleeping at nursery

2 replies

Amylouise9090 · 10/01/2025 10:13

Before nursery our 12 month old was pretty good at self settling, we'd put her down at 730, would maybe want milk once at around 5am but sleep until 730. Occasionally she'd wake and cry for 10 seconds but she'd go back before we could get out of bed. She's would usually have a 45 min nap at 10am and then 1.5 hours at 2.30pm.

She's been in nursery for two weeks and her sleep has gone all over the place - she rarely sleeps more than an hour at nursery in total - yesterday it was 2 x 20 minute naps.

Her night sleep has gone terrible too - she wakes several times in the night now and struggles to self settle. She's waking for the day at 5am now. Last night she was awake from 3am to 4am and took milk, rocking and patting to get back off which we haven't done since newborn days. We've tried putting her to bed earlier at 6pm but it doesn't seem to make a difference!

We're exhausted and struggling in the day with broken sleep and early starts. We've got sleep training guides but they all rely on decent naps which are out of our control at nursery.

Any advice for a very tired mum?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
SErunner · 10/01/2025 10:20

It's early days with nursery, you need to give it time. Assume you've discussed it with them and they're doing what they can to facilitate longer naps? Unfortunately some sleep well at nursery and some don't. For most it does get better over time. We had the same to start with and it took several months for it to settle down.

As I'm sure you know her night sleep is crap because she's overtired. Could she have more short naps at nursery to help with this if long ones aren't happening? You just have to work with nursery as best you and they can to get her having more sleep there, whilst accepting it is always going to be a bit of a challenge when not in a 1:1 setting.

SErunner · 10/01/2025 10:21

All said with a huge amount of sympathy - my first 6 months back at work were hell with relentless bugs and no sleep. It does get better, I promise. Batten down the hatches and drop expectations in all areas of life, and accept it's just a nightmare phase you have to survive rather than thrive.

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