ARGH! We had it cracked! She can't change the rules now.... can she???

[MrsTittleMouse]

DD has always been a lousy sleeper. It took us a long time with the same bedtime routine and controlled crying to get her to both go to bed, and to stay there asleep. We have always worked with her body clock (bedtime is 7pm which is when she gets tired) - and she was demand BF for the first 7 months (because I was concerned that before that she could be physically unable to go through the night). Anyway, when she was a year, we finally cracked it and DD would go to bed without fuss and sleep through for 11 or 12 hours - hurray!

Except, now that she is 18 months old, everything is going pear-shaped again. We've just had a period of waking in the night, where we've given her milk and Calpol in case she was ill (she seemed a bit "off" in the day). And now she is complaining a lot when she goes to bed. She will get changed into her pajamas with no trouble, climbs up the stair without complaint and drinks up her milk. DH puts her in the cot, and she's fine. But once she has to go to sleep, she cries. She has one daytime nap of between 30 and 90 minutes, and the length doesn't alter whether she cries or not. She doesn't seem quite as tired at night sometimes, could we be playing with her too much after dinner (which she has between 6pm and 6.15)?

Please help! I'm pregnant now, and exhausted and we need to crack this before the new baby arrives!

Bump!

Has no-one else been through this?

Bump again.

Crikey - this could be me!! We ended up delaying bed time by half an hour to an hour and that seems to have made a difference. We start the process at 6:40 if she's having a bath and 7 if not, which puts her in ed by 7:30ish really.

We do dinner at 5-5:30 ish and then a small snack at 6ish or just after (lighter food that she has as much as she wants of) - we don't sleep well on a heavy belly and I assume they're the same?

We definitely find that she drops off more easily if we have quiet time between dinner and bed - some rough playing but then for the last half an hour, just books and gentle stuff +/- a bath.

The other thing is that she could be teething? It's the time for their canines to creep in and they are nasty.

Hurrah! I'm glad we're not alone (well, obviously I wish that your DD slept well too, but you know what I mean. ). I do think that I can see her canines coming through, so maybe that's it. We were hoping not to delay her bedtime, as to be honest, it's difficult for me to get dinner, eat dinner and do anything and still get to bed early enough, now that I'm PG. Even half an hour would really eat into "adult time". But if we need to, we need to.

It's been a bit hot and stuffy recently hasn't it so maybe she doesn't like the summer nights?

If you're sure she's not ill and isn't teething or etc... I'm afraid the only thing that really works for us when dd2 does it is cold turkey. If she cries, she cries. long as you know she's not injuring herself or something, just take a deep breath and leave her to get to sleep her own way.

My DS (who has been a fantastic sleeper since birth really) went through a phase like this at about 18 months. He would wake up in the middle of the night and want to get into our bed (which we went along with for a while) but then it became ridiculous - at the same time, he suddenly started crying when we put him in his cot so we went back to letting him fall asleep on our bed and then moving him

Anyway, after a few days of this, I decided enough was enough and I did go down the controlled crying route both at bedtime and when he woke in the middle of the night to come into our bed (I also introduced a night light aswell) - within 2 days where, tbh, he only cried for about 5 minutes max, he was back to being a fantastic sleeper. That was in January this year and since then, we have had no problems - he goes to bed at 7.30, goes to sleep in his cot without any problems and we necer hear a peep out of him all night. He does tend to wake up a bit early for us (usually between 6-6.30) but never ever calls out for us - he just plays happily in his cot with books that I leave in there until 7 when we go and get him.

I know I have been extremely lucky but maybe the controlled crying would work again?

I know what you mean about the adult time - it's something that I crave each day! I'm PG too and I find I die if I don't have any me time each day. It may well be a controlled crying thing again. DD does sometimes start getting playful / shouty at bed time for no apparent reason and we just go through the process again and she's as good as gold.

It looks as though DD isn't going to have a nap today. She's had two opportunities when she would normally drop off, but nothing. So maybe I do need to drop the nap. That would be a shame, as it's the only time that I have to sit down and rest a bit and I find that I'm struggling to make it until DH comes home! But night-time sleep is the most important.

We have tired Calpol at bedtime, in case her teeth are hurting her, or she has a bit of a virus, but it's not making any difference.

Cold turkey it is then, I think.

Good luck

It is all impossible isn't it? You may find that she misses a nap on the odd day and has them on others? I thought they kept going with substantial lunch time naps for a while yet....

According to my Mum I gave up my daytime nap at DD's age, so I've been wondering whether she will. She went to bed with no problems last night, but she was absolutely exhausted after dinner and quite grumpy.

DH was really excited that she was basically asleep by the time that he put her in the cot, and couldn't understand why I was so sad, but I really missed her daytime nap! It's the only time I get to either get anything done or to have a cup of tea and put my feet up. Oh well, I suppose it happens to everyone sooner or later. Please keep your fingers crossed that this next baby is a bit of a better sleeper for us.