Hi Emami
Thank you so much for your message. I think separation anxiety could be the cause because she cries whenever she isn't with me at the minute - I'm a stay at home mum. She has always been left with her grandparents since she was a newborn and apparently is fine as soon as I've gone but even at home she will cry if I go into the kitchen to get her a drink. I have been told it's just a phase - I hope it is!
Her day usually looks like this - wakes about 7.30, bottle and weetabix with milk for breakfast, we play and then a nap from 9.30ish, her naps are hit and miss anything from 45mins to 1.5 hours. Snack when she wakes up, more play/story/go out for a walk, lunch about 12.30, nap about 1.30 again anywhere between 45mins to 2 hours. Wake up and has a snack then more play or a walk (depending what we did in the morning) tea about 5, quite play and stories after tea then bath about 6.20 bottle and then bed at 7pm.
Yesterday after reading the baby whisperer in the morning, I kept her awake a bit longer in the morning so she napped from 10am for an hour and a half. She had her lunch at 1pm then napped 2.20pm to 4.10pm! She went to bed great at 7pm.
Last night we had three wake ups - 9pm but she went back to sleep herself before I got up the stairs to her so that was good. 1am - I did PU/PD for 40 mins and then she went off to sleep. And 5am I did PU/PD once and she went back to sleep.
I'm not sure if I did the PU/PD right for her age? I laid her down when she was crying and standing up and put my hand on her back when I could - she was very wound up so pushed me away a few times so I took my hand away then and just stood next to her cot talking gently and saying it was sleep time. When she was getting tired of standing up but was still crying sitting in her cot I picked her up and held her for a second until she calmed down and then laid her back down in her cot and kept repeating this, is this right?
I am worried about today as we had an appointment this morning and nobody to look after her so she came with us and couldn't sleep in her pram so missed her nap. Her grandma is having her for the rest of the day as I am ill with flu. I am still going to do the PU/PD tonight but just hope she naps enough today.
Her morning nap is probably the most irregular part of her day because there is a group on a Tuesday at 10am which we go to and my little girl loves it so I don't want to stop going. She usually either misses her morning nap on this day or has a short nap. She does usually sleep for longer in the afternoon.
I agree with you that I think that I have become a prop for her to go back to sleep because she will go straight back to sleep after our cuddle, she just chews on her snugly rabbit and goes to sleep. We were giving her ibuprofen at bed time for the teething pain but i got worried that she was having it too often so now we just give it when she seems distressed with her teeth in the night but I don't know if this is the best thing to do either? We are confused and just want to do what is best for our little girl. As you can probably guess she is our first!
Thanks again for your help and sorry for the long reply!