Author Topic: 20 month old - night time waking for months  (Read 787 times)

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Offline UGAang

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20 month old - night time waking for months
« on: February 12, 2016, 20:33:15 pm »
Hi there!

My daughter started sleeping through the night at 3 months old. It was a beautiful thing. She stayed that way until about 4 or 5 months ago when she was about 16 months old. She started waking about 45 minutes to an hour after I laid her down for the night. She would do it a few times a week, but then it turned into an every night thing. She's been doing it ever since (with the exception of a couple nights). She literally wakes up EVERY night at almost the same time. It's almost like a "45 minute intruder" except this isn't nap time; it's bedtime! I would rock her back to sleep and she would usually be good for the rest of the night...Well she has gotten worse over the past week or two now. She wakes up multiple times each night. Sometimes she'll wake up and be awake for a couple hours. Once she finally goes back to sleep, she will sometimes wake up super early. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I feel like I've tried everything. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated!

Here's her history/routine:
DD has always been rocked at night before bedtime. She's pretty much always slept on her stomach. She had reflux as a baby and I believe it still flares up every now and then. She never slept with a pacifier, but she sucks on two of her fingers. During the "good times" she would sleep 9:00pm-9:00am, give or take. She takes one nap. She does not have to be rocked for her nap. I put her in her crib awake and she puts herself to sleep fine. Her nap used to be 2-3 hours, but for the past 3 or 4 weeks, it's only been about 1-2 hours. We've always had a good bedtime routine. Brush teeth, bath, lotion, pjs, read. Don't know if this is important or not: I worked for the first year of her life. Then, she would sleep from about 8:00pm-6:00am. I quit work to stay at home with her. I quit in June and her sleep issues started in Octoberish. She's also been slow to reach milestones. She didn't roll over until about 6 months and started walking at 15 months. She never crawled. She "scooted" around on her bottom. I believe she is also a little behind with her speech. She has great comprehension, but she can't say too many words. When she is awake at night, she isn't just hanging out in her bed. She is screaming and crying. We've tried soothing and calming her while she sits in her crib, but she just screams louder. She wants to be held. Numerous times she has screamed and cried so hard that she makes herself vomit. So we can't resort to the "cry it out" method. I rather rock my baby than clean up her puke.

So what's causing all this?
At first, my husband and I thought it was the 18 month sleep regression. She was only 16 months at the time, we just figured she started it early. Then the little devils made their appearance...molars. It took like what seemed FOREVER for all 4 molars to come through. The last one probably cut through around 19 months old. Now her incisor teeth are cutting through. She takes Motrin and sometimes teething tablets. I've even tried using lavender essential oil, but I didn't see an effect.  So was the teething pain causing her to wake each night? Did that just get her into a bad habit of waking and being rocked back to sleep? I find it so strange that she wakes EVERY night at the SAME time after bedtime. Based on what I've read, after 45 minutes to an hour of sleep, the body transitions from light sleep to deep sleep. Why is she waking every night at that point? I've tried adjusting her bedtimes, both earlier and later. She still does the same thing. Is she overtired or overstimulated? Could there be something wrong medically? Should we transition to a big girl bed? Or is my toddler just being a toddler?

Please help!!!

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: 20 month old - night time waking for months
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2016, 17:45:11 pm »
Tbh it sounds like a habit...I wonder if she is so used to being rocked that when she is going into the deeper sleep she rouses looking to be rocked insted of being able to go back to sleep herself. I think it would be a matter of stopping rocking altogether to help her learn to transistion on her own. I would not transition to a bed at this age unless she was actually in danger of trying to climb out and potentially fall from the crib.
Heidi