Not sure which forum this goes best in since I feel like I have multiple things going on!
DD is 13 months, angel/textbook with a touch of spirited to keep her unpredicatable
, and has had a cold off and on plus teething 4 molars and 4 eye teeth the past month. She has never been the best sleeper, wakes a lot, uses a paci that she only sometimes re-inserts herself at night, BUT she does fall asleep independently and well. She was previously on meds for reflux, which I've slowly weaned over the last couple months. I was never convinced it really helped anything anyway because her sleep was always crappy.
The last couple weeks we've randomly had screaming episodes ITMOTN. Usually I go in, give her the paci and blanket and out I go. But she hasn't stopped crying until I pick her up. She'll rarely stand, but she'll sit up. I shush, use cue words, rub her back...nothing but hysterical screaming. I turn my back and stand next to the crib in case my fussing is making it worse, but the second I step toward the door, screaming continues/starts again. And certainly, if I make it to the door slowly over the coarse of 10 minutes, the second I open it or she realizes I'm out the door, it starts all over again. The very first night this happened, her screaming went on over 2 hours and I finally just slept on her floor, but even THAT was a struggle (she wanted me to stand next to her crib).
Meanwhile, I have DS who's 6 and needs his sleep for school and DH who needs his sleep for work (and actually lost his prior job because of too many mistakes because he was so tired because of DD). So I've ended up picking her up and rocking her back to sleep. Sometimes I have her back down in 10 mintues and sometimes she thinks it's play time and gets chatty. She's woken like this the last 3 mornings at 5 am (in addition to last night at 10 pm) and the first morning we just got up because she was obviously not going back to sleep. The last 2 mornings, I've nursed her and was able to put her back down within 10 minutes.
I was thinking it had to do with over-tiredness due to 2 to 1 nap transition crazies. But yesterday she had 2 good naps and still woke several times, including 2 screaming fits, despite being drugged on triaminic!
So that brings me to naps. I have to drive DS to/from school. She wakes around 6:30. The soonest I can get her down for a morning nap is 9:30. But I have to leave the house again at 2:30, so the soonest she can have an afternoon nap is 3:30. I used to be able to squeeze 2 in that time, but now if she takes any sort of morning nap, she won't go down at 3:30. On the weekends, it seems like the sweet spot is 2~2:30, so I successfully can get her to nap twice on the weekends. Just doesn't work with school though! I have tried moving the morning nap back and she really only sleeps 1.5 hours and then won't catnap later and it's a long hall until (even an early) bedtime. Then it seems she has a rougher night with more nightwakings. I don't know if this is causing some of the screaming fits?
Then there's the reflux. Could this be flares? Should I try to go back on? It took us so long to wean off though.
I don't even know how to tell.
Anway, there's my story. Not sure how to time the nap(s) or how to respond to the screaming fits without waking everyone (hoping I haven't made them worse). WTS for the 5 am wake up? I'm worried about waking her ever earlier because she's so funky with her sleep.
