So we hit the normal 18 month sleep regression in November, at the same time as moving to a different country, so we also got very bad separation anxiety and generally disrupted sleep. Then the holidays hit and we traveled for 3 weeks, which meant a lot of "help" getting to sleep. Plus, DD had the flu at that time, and also got tonsilitis, which meant even more help sleeping. Since Jan 3rd, we've been back in our home, and we were successful at getting DD to sleep through the night with no crutches within 5 days of arriving. However, we're still having problems with naps.
DD wakes between 6:45 and 7am, she goes down for her nap at 12:30, and then depending on how much sleep she got that day, I'll put her down somewhere between 7 and 8pm.
Now the problem with her naps is that she doesn't transition between sleep cycles anymore..this started at 18 months. She wakes up after the first 50-60 minutes. She needs to be helped back to sleep with rubbing the back, or head, or belly. The 2nd sleep cycle can be up to 45 minutes, but usually it's 20-30 minutes. Sometimes I can get her back to sleep for a 3rd sleep cycle, sometimes not. So most days, she gets 60-80 minutes of sleep. This just isn't enough. I can tell because historically when she was well rested, she woke up happy, and when she was unrested, she woke up crying. Right now, she always wakes up crying. In addition, she's now typically cranky all afternoon, and she falls quite a lot, making activities that are physical difficult in the afternoons.
Yesterday I did an experiment to see what would happen if she napped with me in bed. She woke up after the 1st hour, as normal. Opened her eyes, smiled at me, then went back to sleep. Same thing after the 2nd hour. Her 3rd sleep cycle was then 20 minutes. So in total she got 2 hours and 20 minutes. And she was an absolute delight all afternoon after having such great sleep. I put her down at 7:30 for bedtime, but I think that was a mistake, as she woke at 6:15 this morning. I probably should have put her to bed slightly later.
So I guess my question is how do I get her to transition through her sleep cycles herself? I'm already not picking her up, and providing just a minimal amount of help in her crib, but even after a few weeks, that doesn't seem to be working.
This afternoon I'm trying cry-it-out. She only slept 50 minutes for her first sleep cycle, she cried for 8 minutes, then laid down again for 15 minutes. Not sure if she actually fell asleep again or not. Then she got up and started crying again, but lost her pacifier. So I went in, gave her the pacifier back, sang her a song, and left. She's now be in there by herself crying on and off for the last 20 minutes. I guess I'll try this method for a few more days, but I could really use some help if anyone has experience with this!
Thank you!
