Hi all, i am just after some friendly advise as I am so down this week..
so about 7 weeks ago i started to day wean my breastfed 18 month old which went better than expected and she has taken to it really well and no longer asks or tries to get into my top at all during the day.
Last Monday night I took the decision to stop feeding her at bed time & during the night/wake ups as it was started to get to me and I had just basically hit a wall with it all.
The first two nights, there was a little resistance at bed time but went down ok eventually. She was pretty cross during a night time wake up(s) but she came into our bed and had cuddles and went back to sleep.
Then we had 3 really good nights, went down perfectly, woke up once but resettled with a cuddle and went back down in her own bed. Success.. or so I thought!!
We have just had the 4th night from hell however.. again going down like an angel, no issue at all but she is waking up around 2 hours later and going absolutely ballistic.. horrible, horrible tantrums.. screaming, crying, thrashing. If i try to pick her up and cuddle her she goes rock solid and pushes her self away from me and the screaming gets worse. The only way we have managed to eventually calm her down is to turn the light on and attempt forms of distraction, or i took her downstairs on 2 occasions and we sat on the sofa and stroked our cat for 5/10 mins (as soon as she saw him she instantly calmed).
Once calmed, she comes in the bed and eventually will settle back to sleep after a little more thrashing/moaning/crying.
Its really upsetting me and after 4 nights of this, it feels like this could be our new norm. I don't want to start her getting into the habit of this and waking up/getting to go downstairs etc. but the screaming is just horrific and she works herself up into such a state.
Just after some reassurance or if anyone else has experienced similar with their little ones.
thanks is advance everyone.