Everything has gone haywire

[bexandlucy]

Hey,

My DD is almost 13 months old now and we're having big problems. She is tired and tetchy constantly and I haven't seen her smile for a long while  :'(

Naps are all over the place, (we managed with a really good easy before) I think she is starting to transition from 2-1 but she is nowhere near ready for 1 yet. We are STTN and getting early mornings (between 5.30 and 6.30) which I guess I just need to get used to. But she's tired an hour after waking sometimes and will literally meltdown in a tantrum if I don't BF her then falls asleep. This isn't just in the morning, can be any time of the day, and even once was straight after a huge nap!

I had been trying to give her a shorter morning nap 45 mins then a longer pm nap 1.5hrs previously, but right now I'm just letting her sleep and not waking her because she is just so miserable and tired. Yesterday she had a 30 minute nap after swimming (fed to sleep then napped on my shoulder while still at the pool) at 10.30 (after waking at 6.30) then I put her down to bed at 14.45 and she slept till 17.30! Bedtime then got really late (nearly 2100) but she went down beautifully. I realise this is a long day but I don't know what to do. She woke up at 5.45am this morning and we had a meltdown at about 8am and eventually put her to bed at 8.45 and she's still sleeping now at 9.45. I feel like we're in a vicious cycle that I can't get out of and I don't know where to start.

Wake up is usually 0530-0630 and bedtime is usually 1900-1930. But all bets are off at the moment.

I've also posted on the BF forum because I'm not sure where the route of our problems lie

 
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=213473.msg2264703#msg2264703


She's not her usual happy self at the moment and I just feel like crying.

[sianie]

Hi there..

Sorry you are having a tough time!

It does sound like the 2:1 transition but also LO's do go through a big developmental leap at around 12mths old too. Is she teething at all? Can she sleep independently or is she being fed to sleep?

I think you need to try to get some consistency back into her routine as this will hopefully help stabilise things a bit. It does sound like she's OT. I would maybe do a 30min nap at 9.30am (regardless of WU stick to this time as doing too early a nap can make the EW worse) then PM nap 1.30pm (cap at 1.5hrs to start with to help her catch-up) then BT around 7.30pm.

What do you think?

[bexandlucy]

Thanks for your reply.

Teething - yes, she's been showing all the signs for weeks but we never seem to see anything so who knows?! But she doesn't teeth easily.

I will definately try what you suggested, I feel if we get a little more structure then things will be better. She doesn't normally feed herself to sleep she self settles well so long as she isn't OT/UT and if she is then we attempt a self settle then if it doens't work we cuddle her to sleep. Doesn't happen that often thankfully.

I'm all set to try it today!! Although last night was the first night we've had disturbed sleep for a long time, she was awake at midnight for about an hour and a half, cuddly and chatty and wouldn't go back to sleep. We ended up cosleeping (which we've never done before) and I had to feed her again. As well as a developmental leap is there a growth spurt around now too? Oh and should say she just had jabs last week as well which probably didn't help.

Thanks for your reply, I think having someone just listen makes me feel so much more optimistic about things! x

[sianie]

Jabs can effect LO's for up to a couple of weeks afterwards so that could be part of the issue. There is also a GS at around 12mths too.

Have you tried giving meds before sleep if it could be teething? What teeth is she due to get through (at her age it could be 1st year molars which are known for messing sleep up!).

I would try & stick with those nap times for a few days & then let me know how things are going!