Moving House - sleep disruption, any suggestions?

[Tillysmummy]

I need some advise on sleep again from you wise ones. We have recently moved house, unfortunately we didn't move straight from our old house to this house but had to stay with my PIL for a few days and my mum for a few days. It has been a very disruptive few weeks for dd (19 months). We moved into our new house last Wednesday and dd seems to love it. She is very excited about her playroom and bedroom and we concentrated on getting those straight first with all the familiar things so that she would feel at home.
The problem is her sleep. I think she has been quite good on the whole considering she has had so much upheaval the last few weeks and she has slept in all the places we've stayed, albeit not for as long as usual (her normal sleep pattern would be 7 till 6, 6.30 or 7 at the latest).
I now have two problems:-
Firstly, she is not sleeping well at night, she wakes at least once, has trouble going off (I put her to bed at 7 but she takes at least 40 minutes to go to sleep) and then wakes at 5 or 5.30 and won't go back to sleep. In our old house we would always leave her for a few minutes when she woke and she would go back off to sleep, we never got her up until after 6. But I feel mean leaving her to cry because I know she is still getting used to her surroundings.

The other problem is that she asks me to stay with her to go to sleep and goes mad if I leave her. I have to sit by her cot. I have been doing this for a little while and then telling her I need to go to the loo and then leave her - she screams for a few minutes then normally settles down but sometimes doesn't and I have to go back and sit with her.

I feel really unsure as to what to do. I know that she must learn to go back to sleep on her own and I think that's half the problem but I feel mean leaving her to cry when I think she may not be entirely settled yet although she seems fine during the day and I don't have too many problems with her lunch time nap. I am desperate for her to start sleeping until 6 again. We are both so tired and there is so much to do but we don't have the energy to do a lot of it.
I don't know if it's the house move or just a phase she has had phases in the past of very early waking but we've just left her and she goes back to sleep. She doesn't seem to want to or be able to do that at the moment.

Am I being too soft or too hard, I don't know if she's playing up or is genuinely unsettled.

Help !!!!!

Sorry to be a pain but I thought I would bring this up to the top in the hope that someone would have some great advice for me

WE have done alot travelling and recently settled and have experienced the same problems with my Ds aged 2.
Waking up earlier was due to fact that more sunlight came into the room earlier. Blackout blind solved this.
As to going to sleep. Have left him cry a few times and then went in and then back out again and after around a month is confident that I will still be around in the morning. Also made sure favourite soft toy was always next to him when left him.
Hope this helps.

Hi Britabroad. Thanks so much for that. Dd has bunny who she always sleeps with. Her room is really dark in the mornings, she has blackout blind and curtains. So do you think I should give her a bit longer to settle, it's only been a week I guess.
Its just so frustrating because before we moved she had been regularly sleeping till 6.30 but normally 7 or sometimes after and now it seems we are back to square one with the early wakings. 6 is fine, but anything before that is too early

My Ds was waking at 5am!!!
Does your DD have nap in afternoon ?
See how it goes after a couple of weeks?
Now he just wakes a 6 ! That's his time doesn't matter if he naps or not just always wakes then. We have just adapted our routine to his. He sees light says its morning and that's it!!

She is regularly waking at 5 or 5.30. It's such a pain isn't it ? The thing is that her room is darker in the morning than at night when she goes to sleep so I don't know how she can know it's morning. I think I will just give her more time. I know she is and always will be an early riser but 5 or 5.30 is soul destroying !

Yes she does still sleep, 12 till 2 - do you think I should cut this out ? She's 19 months.

imho cutting her nap so early is unlikely to be the answer. By all means try it but if she is anything like our dd being overtired just makes her more difficult to settle at night.

Is your bedtime routine the same as it used to be ? Are there any toys that she may associate with the security of her old home that may make her settle better - having the familiar lullabies from a mobile or toy may help, even if long discarded. Could it be too dark ! nightlights are cheap to buy and useful later on for night visits to toilet, so it may be worth trying this now. She may then be able to reorientate herself when she wakes if she can see the familiar things around her.

I'm sure things will settle down with time. It is easy to underestimate the feelings of small children to these sort of moves especially when they cannot express their anxieties except through behaviour. Even our 3 yr old was very unsettled by moving, despite all the preparations we made together and the excitement of travelling. Remember your dd has not had the anticipation and planning that you have had and possibly thinks that you will be moving on again soon.

Do hope things get better soon - good luck

LIZS thanks for your help. I think you are right about the nap thing. I will not cut that. It is often the case that the more sleep she has during the day the better she sleeps at night.

As far as familiar things go she always has her bunny which she loves and all the toys from the old house that she also loves are all in her room. We have even laid her room out in the same style as the old house so it feels familiar. I am sure you are right and it is just a phase and she will get used to it. I guess we just have to be patient and give her time.

I always leave her door slightly ajar to let some of the landing light in (always leave this on) so she is not afraid. I don't have any exposed plug sockets available unfortunately - maybe I shouldn't leave this light on though, maybe it's too bright coming through her door.

I guess we will just have to wait and see and hope she settles. The annoying this is that when she wakes at 5 or 5.30 she is so tired by lunchtime and is grumpy all morning and teary whereas when she has slept later she is in much better spirits.