Our dd is 16.5 months and has always had high sleep needs. We recently went on holiday locally for 5 days. The room our dd was in had blinds and hence these problems started.
Prior to the holiday her routine was:
Between 7 and 8am awake
9.30am nap for 1.5 hours
11am to 3pm awake
3 to 5pm sleep
7pm bed
Total sleep = 15.5 hours. No complaining at nap times, no time spent awake at night. A very tidy pattern.
Now it is:
5am awake, squealing and rattling the sides of her cot until 7am
7am up OR back to sleep for 1 hour and up at 8am
Try sleep 2.5 or 3 hours after she get's up. At best does 40mins. After 3 hours up she is very in need of a nap so we can't extend this out. Generally, if she goes down after 2.5 hours up she is more likely to do 1.5 hours sleep. After 3 hours up she is overtired.
Up for rest of the day. Try nap around 3.30 / 4pm plays in cot until after 5 then goes to sleep. Tried keeping her up until bedtime but she is just a disaster zone.
Have to wake her at 7pm for dinner etc
Bed at 9 after a very unsettled awake time
Awake from 2am to 3am approx squealing and rattling her cot
She is a touchy / grumpy child and when awake has to be kept very very active in order to stay happy. Her development is great and her language skills are advanced. She is a picky eater often not eating much of anything. She is going threw a full-on phase of frustration / tantrums at the moment.
It's crazy as I know heaps about routines, naps etc but I feel totally trapped by this situation. We are exhausted from all the time she spends awake at night (her room is right through the wall from ours).
What can we do to fix this? One of the bigggest issues is all the hours and hours she is spending squealing and rattling her cot sides in the night...help!
