from bad to worse

[haribo89]

I posted previously about my 12 month old DD, I was advised to start the 2-1 because she was fighting bedtime so much, having EW and NW. Previous to all this she was a dreadful sleeper anyway and was rocked to sleep and had LOTS of NW. she can now fall asleep in her cot with me in the room after doing GW but there just still seems to be something not clicking for her. I thought she was doing well on 1 nap and for a few days we had a routine that looked like this -

PD 6.40
Sleep 7.20
NW 11.20 (5mins)
NW 5.15 (15Min)
WU 6.10

I was really happy with that, not perfect but better than the last 12 months. However she had one wake up at 4.45 where she was hystrical crying until we got up and ended up falling back to sleep at 7.30. She had an hour and then we did just a slightly later mid day nap and same BT as usual.  Which gave us a night like this

PD 6.40
Sleeping  6.55
NW 7.25 (5min)
NW 11.45 ( 2 hours 20!!)
NW 2.40 (5 min)
NW 5.25 (5 min)
NW 5.45 (5 min)
WU 6.30

We have all been exhausted today and I let her have 2 naps again because I knew she couldn't make it until 11.30, so she had a capped 45 min nap am and 1hr 20 early afternoon. Shes was PD at 6.30 and still isnt settled, its like a repeat of the long NW. She will try and go to sleep and will be quietly tossing and turning for 10-15 minutes and then starts screaming until she decides shes going to try again. The longer this goes on the more upset (frustrated?) She seems to get every time.
Until she gets hystrical and makes herself sick. We gave her teething gels and painkillers last night and niether seemed to do anything so im not conviced that is the cause. She had her 1 year injections on Monday but her leg isnt sore anymore and she doesnt have a fever or any noticible symptoms .
Any ideas?  It seems like whenever I think we are getring somewhere with her sleep we move onto a different problem, shes never STTN and I dont care atm if she never does, just a little more sleep would be nice, she had under 9 hours last night which Im sure isnt enough for her.
Sorry for the long post just didnt want to miss out info that may help.

[haribo89]

Anyone? 
We had a good night following this but are bsck to an awful NW again tonight, 2 hours so far and still going, she is inconsolable crying. I just don't know what is wrong anymore 

[Emami]

What does her day look like and how long does she sleep when she has one nap?

I would guess all the NWs are OT or developmental since you've ruled out discomfort.  Have you tried SEBT? Like 6pm?  It doesn't work for everyone, but if your lo tacks on it can be a lifesaver keeping OT at bay.  Even if they need one nap and two isn't working any more, it's still a big adjustment and OT can accumulate.  We had a lot of 6pm bedtimes and long nights when she first went to one nap around 12 months.

We also had long (2-4hrs) NWs and it was horrendous!  We went through a really rough patch of sleep around 14 months, and I'm still not exactly sure what it was but I honestly think the NWs were developmental rather than routine related because tweaking never changed them, and one week she just started sleeping through again, nothing we did differently.  For about a month she would have these NWs probably 5 nights a week.  It was awful. Sorry I don't have any advice on that, just sympathy!  I was desperate to fix it and guessing OT, UT, teeth, etc.  But really we just had to ride it out, and by the time it was over she was totally a toddler not a baby!  Her receptive language was on a whole new level, she was running instead of walking, and just older all of a sudden.  But the point is, it did end.

Hope you all get some sleep soon!

[haribo89]

usually her routine looks like this -

WU 6-6.30
Nap 11.30/12
WU 1/1.30
BT 6.30

When she wakes earlier or seems very tired i do 2 naps, i try not to as much as possible but sometimes it seems cruel to keep her up. On these days it looks more like this -

Capped nap - 9.30-10.15
Nap - 1.30-3
BT - 6.30

I think your right and developmental would make sense, she is running around everywhere now, learning a lot of new words, starting to use imagination during play and we have started introducing her to a potty with great success. Shes always been very forward for her age but always been a terrible sleeper (partly my fault though) im sure the two are linked. She does try really hard to sleep, but its like shes got something keeping her awake, similar to how we toss and turn and then end up frustrated when we have somthing on our minds and cant sleep, at least thats what it looks like she does too.
Its nice to hear someone who has gone through similar, i constantly question if i have got her routine right or if im causing the problems.

We are ready to make the next step on GW, moving outside the door, im not looking forward to this part! do you think i should wait until this phase is over before making things harder again for her?

[Emami]

I think maybe let her catch up on some sleep first, but tbh I've never done GW so I'm not sure how much disturbance / disrupted sleep you should expect when you do it.  It does seem like she's OT though, so i would probably get as much sleep in her however you can to start with.
Iiwm I would pick a wake up time depending on how much A time she can handle and do 1 or 2 naps depending which side of that time she wakes, eg. 2 naps for anything earlier than 6:30.  I think you are right to do 2 naps if and when she needs it.  I know that doesn't work for everyone and some prefer to just stick with the one nap for a quick adjustment.  It's a lot of trial and error to find what suits you and your lo!

[cath~]

Hello,
Just wanted to say I agree that you should let her catch up first so she's not OT but then taking the next step with GW so she can learn to fall asleep without you should help with the NWs as she will then have the skills to fall back to sleep without needing you with her.

Also, maybe when you offer two naps you could make the first one slightly shorter (eg 30 mins) to get her through til later nap time. You could then do EBT if she seems to need it.

[haribo89]

Thank you both, its nice to have a clear plan of action, i'll wait a little while longer to progress on the GW and do 2 naps if she wakes before 6am, capping the nap at 30min.
Shes been quite good the last two nights (not getting to excited yet!) sleeping at 6.30pm, one small wake up in the night but waking for the day at 5am. Unfortunatly had to do 2 naps because there was no way she would last until 11.30. Im sure shes only able to do a max of 10.5 hours in the night, is this unusual? If this is the case id ideally like to push her routine to a more reasonable hour.

[cath~]

Im sure shes only able to do a max of 10.5 hours in the night, is this unusual?

It's not *that* unusual when they are still on two naps and not quite fully ready for one.  I think we got about that night length (or sometimes less ) before L transitioned to 1 nap.  You'll probably find though that once she's on one nap consistently that her nights will lengthen (ours did).

You could try pushing her routine fwd by 15 min increments every few days, but might be best to ensure she is fully caught up again before tweaking too much (just my thoughts - but I am often overly-cautious before making a change!)