2 year old angel becoming a sleep monster.

[Olivia & Oscar's Mum]

My (just) 2 year old dd was a perfect angel baby from the word go.  She has slept through the night from 8 weeks old.  But her world was turned upside down for a few months when her brother was born a year ago and her molars came through but she settled back into being an angel quite soon.  Just recently she has stopped napping in the day and suffers frequent waking at night.  My husband and I can settle her with a reassuring hand on her back but 10 - 15 mins later she will wake again.  This can continue until morning.  We do resort to a small bottle when we are desperate.  We are petrified that she will wake the baby who also gets me up at least once a night!  He usually takes a bottle and will go back to sleep, he also suffers terrible and frequent colds so I understand why he wakes.

I am concerned that we have done some accidental parenting but with 2 babies in the house we are desperate to get some sleep and don't know what else we can do.  We have followed the baby whisperers approach since dd was born but are now stuck.

Any ideas where we go from here???

[* Paula *]

Hugs, do you think that with your lo dropping her nap, that she may be overtired?  What time does she get up for the day, and what time does she go down at night?

My DS 2 1/2) has recently dropped his nap, and will now sleep until nearly 9am in the morning, with going to bed at 7:30pm.  He would probably sleep longer if I let him.  One morning he slept until 11am after being put down at 7:30.  I had been up in the night with our newborn, so enjoyed the peace.  But I do know that my DS does get overtired with not napping, although he refuses to nap, he does stay up in his room for 2 hours having quiet time, just reading and laying on the bed.

[Layla]

Hi & welcome to the BW!

She probably still needs a nap & its not uncommon for them to drop naps when a new baby arrives. Its probably a phase more than anything but there are ways to try and establish it again. Can you tell us what the daytime schedule looks like?

Layla

[Olivia & Oscar's Mum]

Just as I thought it's the nap (or lack of it) affecting the night time sleep.

Our daily routine should be:-
7.00am wake up, bottle & breakfast, get dressed
10.00am Baby ds takes a nap
11.00 - 12.00  Baby ds wakes
12.00 - 12.30 lunch
1.00 DD should have a nap.  It used to be for 1 1/2 hours
2.00 - 3.00 Baby ds takes another nap
2.30 - 3.30 Baby ds wakes and DD wakes if she has taken her nap.
5.00 Dinner
6.00 Bath
7.00 - 7.30 Bed time but DD and DS now fuss about going to bed so sometimes they are not in bed until 8.00 last night DD would not go until 9.00!!  They want to play with each other and trying to keep them calm is very hard.

DS who is nearly 1yr wakes usually once a night.  At the moment he has a terrible cold, but he has never really got into the swing of sleeping through.  He is also a large baby so I do think that he is hungry and he is possibly teething.  I usually give him a bottle and he will settle back to sleep, hopefully for the rest of the night.  He can settle himself and doesn't always want the bottle.  Any tips to stop this night waking would also be gratefully received!

DD on the other hand has always been a brilliant sleeper but in the last 2 - 3 months it has gone down hill.  There have been no changes at home other than her refusing her nap.  It is very difficult to spend quite time with her with DS around and she loves playing with him.  I'm not really sure what to do to get her out of this cycle of not napping and night waking.  When she wakes at night she will cry (not a fully on cry more a loud whine), we sooth her (mainly with a hand on her back), she settles but 10 - 15 mins later starts crying again.  This can go on for hours and as a last resort (we don't want the baby ds up as well) we give her a small bottle, but this doesn't always work.  She used to be able to settle herself but not any more.  I tried leaving her the other night to see if she would settle herself but eventually she does properly cry and I have to go to her.

I will try and get her to nap or at least have some quite time but does anyone have any other ideas?