Hello,
DD was never a great sleeper, from the start, she has been fighting and screaming nap and BT, sometimes/often for up to 1h30, anyway, fast forward 3 years and we've made progress but still struggling. Her bedtime routine is HUGE, it takes forever, it's way too long, no screaming though, but it's taking longer and longer. She has dropped her nap in the last couple of months, but will have the odd one here and there (mainly at nursery...). At first it was great, no nap meant an early and easy BT, but now she is pushing it back again, even though we can tell she is tired, every night we have "but i don't want to sleep". I stay with her and talk and sing and leave when she is calm and she goes to sleep on her own.
WU between 6 and 8
Nap (rare) 12.30 (1H30)
BT between 7.30 and 9.30
She still wakes up at night (she has rarely slept through, and had some recurrent breathing problems for 2 years, that seem to be finally under control). She has an agitated scream in her sleep around 2 hours after falling asleep, and usually 1 wake up or another shout in her sleep later in the night. The unpredictability is very hard for me, I am ill for life (and have been since she was born, bad luck) and the unpredictability is very hard for me, even though my partner is the one getting up at night most of the time, I wake up and don't go back to sleep, the lack of sleep is really getting to us.
Anyway, is there anything i can do to help her, and do i just have to bear it until it gets better on its own? thanks