Do I need to cap her naps? 19 month old wakes every night!

[Lavender26]

Hoping someone can offer some advice please. DD2 has been waking in the night for almost a month now! Sometimes she settles quickly but mostly awake for at least an hour! She only seems to settle if I give her milk. If I don’t, I can keep doing PD for nearly 2hrs and she screams as soon as I leave the room. If I go in and give her a bottle straight away, she won’t cry if I leave and just lies in her cot for ages until she eventually goes to sleep. She has all her teeth now so don’t think it’s teething but she has suffered terribly with them so who knows??
She has been on one nap since about 13months and still sleeps for 2hrs. She will happily go longer if I let her. Nap times are set for 12:30/1 but I don’t let her sleep past 2:30. Lately she has been taking almost an hour to settle for bed. She doesn’t cry but just plays and sings in her cot. Bedtime is 7/7:30.
Do you think I need to cap her naps to 1 1/2hrs or ride the wave a bit longer and see if it is a sleep regression we are going through? If I wake her early she is quite grumpy and tired so thinking she still needs a long nap? She wakes about 6/6:30 but sometimes it’s been 5!!
I did try and cut her naps down for a couple of days but didn’t seem to make any difference. A couple of days ago she slept for 2hrs 20 and then slept through! I’m so confused! Any advice much appreciated.

[Lavender26]

So yesterday I put her down at 12 as she was so tired and woke her after 2hrs. She ate really well yesterday (she has been fussy with food the last week) and I put her to bed at 6:50pm. She only drank 3oz of milk but was happily playing in her cot whilst I was doing DD2 bedtime. After about 15min she started shouting and crying so I gave her the rest of her bottle and she was content to lie there for about 10min and went to sleep.
She still woke at 11pm crying (normally it’s 2am) so I gave her a bottle straight away and she drank 3oz and went straight back to sleep until 6:30.
Do I just keep feeding do you think if she wakes? Has anyone else experienced this with their little ones at 19months? I have put her down for nap again at 12 so will see how things go today.

[Lavender26]

I ended up giving her some milk at 2:30pm yesterday after her nap and she slept through to 5:20. Do you think she woke early because I am putting her down at 12? She did take some milk at 5:50 and slept again until 7:15.

Guess I’m on my own with this one. :-(

[Haribo2012]

Hi there so sorry you’ve had no replies...

Did you go through the 18 month SR?

[Lavender26]

Hi there and thanks for your reply. To be honest I really don’t know. She was a brilliant sleeper until about 8months and it all went wonky! We would have a couple weeks of great sleep and a couple months of bad sleep! I put it down to teething as she seemed to get a new tooth almost every month. She had all her teeth come through by 17months and slept through for 3weeks but woke again and we were back to long nightwakes. I’ve been feeding in the night going on 3weeks as this is the only thing that will settle her.
She had a nap today at 1 as we were out so only had 1 1/2hrs so will see how we get on tonight. Do you think it is a bit of SR going on?

[Haribo2012]

It could well be the 18 month SR is a big one. Also has she got her big 2 yr molars?

[Lavender26]

Hi Zoe and thanks for your reply. I can’t see any molars coming through. She has done a few really bad ‘teething ‘ poos over the last week but I don’t understand why it’s going on a month now. Maybe it is SR. Last night she woke at 10pm and after 40min I gave in and she drank 5oz. Then she woke again at 3:55am and after an hour of trying to settle her I tried with milk thinking there’s no way she’ll drink it but she did and then was happy in her cot again and fell asleep until 7:30. So two night feeds!! Will just roll with it for now I think unfortunately. Don’t know what else to do. So worried she wakes DD1. Hopefully it will pass soon!! Xx

[Haribo2012]

Oh it’s so hard isn’t it especially when you have another one, but to be honest our eldest hardly ever wakes.

How’s her food intake in the day,?

[Lavender26]

Hi Zoe, we seem to be getting worse! She woke again last night at 1am and 4am. At 5:15 I gave milk and left (she didn’t cry when I left). She was babbling away at 5. Think I’ve created a bad habit giving milk but it’s the only thing that settles her and did not want to start my day at 4am!

She is eating fine in the day although she doesn’t really eat snacks. I do offer but she plays with it and throws it on the floor. She ate Breakfast yesterday, even after having milk at 5am, she then had a small snack at 10:30 and a huge lunch at 12. She then ate a nectarine at 2:30 (refused anything else) and ate half her dinner at 5. She then ate a whole mini wrap at 6 and drank 8oz at 7:30! It seems quite a lot to me but do you think I should try pushing more food?

I’m going to try and cap her sleep today. She is still asleep now at 7:40 so will push a later, shorter nap. She is killing me! Thanks for ‘listening’. Xx

[Haribo2012]

With her food intake, I’d say she is getting plenty. She won’t need night feeds really so I think they have become a soothing habit for her.

Have you tried some gradual withdrawal techniques!?

My DS1 woke at this time for ages but I think it was just developmental as nothing I did fixed it...it just stopped....but it’s a killer.

That’s what we’re here for xx

[Lavender26]

Hi Zoe, just to update. DD1 had a dance competition yesterday so my sister came over to collect DD2. She slept for about 40min in the car and that was it for the day. She did however sleep through to just before 5 so better than previous night. I did offer milk straight away, she drank 3oz but didn’t settle back to sleep until gone 6. So think I’m going to cap her naps to 1 1/2hrs for a couple of weeks and not offer any milk and see how we get on. If she slept better with just 40min nap do you think I should try cap it even more? Seems a bit drastic to cap it from two hours to one? Xx

[Haribo2012]

I’d start with 1.5 hours and work on not offering feeds. So she can get used to self settling in the night x

[Lavender26]

Wow! That was a bad night! Up from 12:30 to 3:30! 3hours is our new record ☹️. Didn’t give any milk though and she still wasn’t really interested in breakfast either. Will see what tonight brings 😩😩xx

[Haribo2012]

Often it can be a battle of wills, hopefully tonight better x