15 months and waking about 10 times a night!!!!!

[Ladybird]

my 15 month old has NEVER slept through the night but now we are at the point where she wakes up approx every 30-45 minutes, I am back at work and am in serious danger of having an accident due to extreme exhaustion...and am starting to get depressed (had post natal with both my girls so know the signs)

She has a routine in the day but its not set to time because she is between me and the child minder who has a 2 year old and she has extreme separation anxiety which is to the extent that she doesnt eat at all for the sitter all day, (she only eats very minimally for me anyway)

I try to feed her up as much as possible during the day which means giving her little tiny amount every hour or she wont eat at all. she is on lactose free milk as she would never take a whole bottle now she will with lactose free

she gets up at about 6:30 for about 2 hours then back to bed for about 30 mins (sometimes she just cries and cries and then the nap is ruined)
back to bed around 12-1 for about 1-1.5 hours depending on her
bed time is around 7 depending on if she slept during the day

she has a soother, and when I go in in the night its in her hand, or mouth and she is crying anway so its not like she is waking because she cant find it.

I am seriously at the end of my tether here....and not enjoying being a mum!!!! I have a 3 yr old who refused to nap after she was 2 so I don't get sleep during the day even on my days off work

[Sarah Owen]

hi new to these message boards,

Sorry to hear about your hard time

my little girl is 15 months and has been a good sleeper 11-12 hours a night since 6 months old.  She has always been a poor eater also, wieght less than 17lbs sometimes eats and sometimes she doesn;t.
Recently afer being ill a rough 2 -4 weeks with tonsilitis, teething & having injections etc she has been waking every other night or so sometimes everynight for 1.5 - 3 hours approx (usually between 1;30 - 4.30am ish) for about 2-3 months.

I dont know what to do as her routine in the day is fairly stable and is is in bed by 7;30-8pm and goes to bed well but I have Just been reading that ear or throat infections/problems may stop them sleeping, does she snore when she does sleep? a problem here could make her wake frequently??

[Layla]

Ladybird - sounds like she might be ready to transition to 1 nap... you say you put her down 2hrs after she wakes up... alot of toddlers at this age could probably do more like 3-3.5hrs so her crying when you lay her down might mean that she is not tired enough.

I would try something like this:

6:30 - wake up
7am - milk
8am - breakfast
9:30-10am - morning nap (wake her up 30mins into her morning nap)
10am - snack
12pm -lunch
1:30-3pm - afternoon nap
3pm - snack
5pm - dinner
6pm - supper & milk
7pm - bedtime (put her down about 6:45pm so that she is asleep by 7pm)

IF she has not slept well during the day then put her down around 6pm
IF she has not slept for her morning nap & is not asleep by 10ish for her morning nap then pick her up & try for 1 long nap around 11ish am...

She could also be waking up because she is hungry as you mention she is not eating well during the day.... how many meals does she have? You might want to try & spread her feeds out so that she is hungry enough for a meal rather than feed her every hour? The schedule I posted was the one we used for my dd until she went down to 1 nap.. which worked really well for us...

hth & let me know what you think
Layla

[Ladybird]

thanks, I will try that. She is yawning her head off and rubbing her head and gettting cranky 1.5-2 hours after she wakes which is why I try to put her down. On Wednesday when she was crying a lot I just got her back out and abandoned her nap. she went down and 11:20 and woke up again about 12:30.....couldn't get her to settle off for longer - she ate the best she has ever eaten as well, but I had the worst night I have ever had!!!!!

I will keep at it though, maybe its the fact that she has had a cold, she is better but still has a cough

[Layla]

If it happens that she only sleeps for 1 hour when you put her down around 11ish (which is something that did happen with us as well) then rather than keeping her up until 7pm put her down super early.. .as early as 5.30pm. I had to do some seriously early bedtimes when my lo was going through the switch... so don't be afraid of an earlier bedtime!

Good luck & keep me posted