Author Topic: New Night Wakings At 15 months..... At Wit's End!  (Read 1131 times)

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Holly&Tom

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New Night Wakings At 15 months..... At Wit's End!
« on: December 29, 2005, 09:55:42 am »
Our daughter is 15 months and after sleeping through beautifully since 4 months (excluding a few nights of teething) we've been confronted with Grumpy baby!

She's had a fair amount of upheaval in the past few weeks; at the start of December she had a nasty cold, then mid december we got married and she stayed with her grandparents for 3 nights while we were away, the two weeks leading up to Christmas was a struggle with her waking nightly but through controlled crying (5 mins, then 10, then 15...) she started getting herself back off to sleep; then came christmas and since then we've had all out tantrums from 2am that last anything up to 3 hours when my husband finnally gives in and cuddles her to sleep in her room with a bottle. In addition to all this upheaval, I am 24 weeks prenant with her sister and she's obviously picked up that something is going on.

I know she doesn't need a bottle during the night - her nappies are wet when she wakes without one (bottle, not nappy that is!) and she is eating well during the day. As a general rule we've practiced the EASY method with her since 3 months and used controlled crying.

Unfortunately we are now left with a tired, tantrummy child; tired, grumpy daddy and exhausted, tearful mummy currently writing with said tired child having climbed up for a cuddle, fallen asleep 2 hours before her usual  :shock: nap! Any help / suggestions / offers of sleep welcome!

Offline Susie-Q

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New Night Wakings At 15 months..... At Wit's End!
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2005, 01:23:59 am »
This is a great problem .. (not great for you), but I'm curious to see the responses!!!

Offline Katet

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New Night Wakings At 15 months..... At Wit's End!
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2005, 10:29:21 am »
I might be wrong here, but I think the Controlled crying might actually be part of the problem... between 8months & 2 years old separation anxiety can be an issue & Controlled crying gives a sense of "abandonment" & leaving to cry for longer & longer periods will work with some babies, but I have heard of cases where it has made it far worse... I did very modified (no more than 2 mins away) & that caused more issues than it solved & so I stopped.
My suggestion would be what I did when preg & with a wakeful (on off) 14-21mo was to actually be there & help comfort her off to sleep...it is obvious that the CC isn't working if she is awake for 3 hours & yet settles with cuddling... I found on the worst nights, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of his room was great & other nights, just 5mins in there... he settled down to the occasional wakeup after a few weeks - only to get worse due to asthma, but that is another story. But I do strongly recommend actually staying with her when you settle her if she is crying & leave when she is calm, but return if she crys.
HTH
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Holly&Tom

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THANK YOU!!!
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2005, 19:40:00 pm »
Well, we tried the PU/PD and staying beside her until she fell asleep last night and it worked so well! Charlotte has been asleep in bed at 7.302 nights running..... she slept nearly all night last night and we're waitingto see if we get a repeat performance tonight!!