night waking and very early waking

[Etsy]

hi. Been awhile as things have been going well until now .my daughter will be 18 months in a few days. She is in day care full time. She has one nap of one and a half to two hours a day. She still has three bottles has breakfast lunch and dinner with two snacks. All of a sudden she has started waking up at about 1am and it takes almost two hours to get her back to sleep. she will doze in my arms but as I put her down she wakes and starts crying. separation anxiety? to top that off she then wakes up at 4.30 with no going back to sleep! !!We both work full time and are exhausted. any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks xx

[HenaV]

Hi,

It sounds to me that you may well be hitting the 18 Sleep Regression. It's a challenging time to say the least, whereby all that you had in place re: sleep seems to go out of re window. You have my every sympathy - we had a tough old time here. My best advice to you in consistency, consistency, consistency. Stick to your routine as best you can. You may find that you need to do some earlier and longer naps and EBT to avoid getting in to an OT mess. Do your best to avoid falling in to any major AP traps. Think of it this way, just think how confused you are as to what is going on, how do you think your 18m is feeling? If you can offer your LO consistency through this horrible time, you will offer her reassurance and security - it's all as it should be and then when it's over you it will be easier to be able to get back on track without having too much to fix iykwim?

Below is a link to a support thread for parents going through the same thing which might be of some help to you, even if it's just up share your frustration!!!

18 month sleep regression support thread - Part 2


Hena x

[Etsy]

thanks for the info, will go check out the link, she got up at 3.30am bright eyed and bushy tailed.... argghhhhhh!!!! hope this finishes soon
xx

[HenaV]

Bless you, it's not fun. Did you let her get up at 3.30 or keep her in bed until acceptable WU time?


H

[Etsy]

I had to get her up as she shares with her brother and she will let everyone know that she is up and disturb everyone else. Tried to get her to go to sleep for 40 mins but then gave up when she was just staring at me!!

[HenaV]

Ah I see. That's a shame becasue she may just get used to being able to get up at that time. I've never had the problem but I have seen others suggest ear defenders for the sib to avoid disturbing them but keeping you LO in bed iykwim?

H

[Etsy]

She will lie quietly with me if i stay there so will do that instead, its if i'm trying to get back to bed and think she is asleep 2 minutes later she is shouting again.
Will try sit there until she sleeps or the alarms go off. thanks, wish me luck!!

[HenaV]

Good luck!!! 

[Etsy]

Hi
I wanted to let you know we discovered that she may have been sleeping to much. We live quite far from her school and adding those cat naps in with her normal sleep she was having over three hours. We have gradually started cutting that down and have seen an improvement already. As for the nw.still wor
king on that but not leaving the room. Do you know if teething is worse at night. She seems fine during the day? Just a thought:) Thanks again.

[HenaV]

Hi I'm so pleased that you figured it out a dbtjatvrhingavste looking up  for you  guys. I hadn't appreciate that your dd was having 3h DTS - your post said she napped 1.5h to 2h per day

Hope things stay positive xxx