18 month sleep regression?

[Elski]

Is there such a thing? I wonder if anyone has any advice for me...

LO started sleeping through from around 13 months. Her bedtime routine would go bath, cuddle, story, bed at 7pm and for a time I'd have to sit in her room by the door while she settled herself to sleep and she'd usually be off by 7.15-7.30pm. After a time, she was happy for me not to be in the room and would drop off to sleep chattering away to herself.

She's now almost 18 mnths and over the past couple of weeks, things have changed drastically and I can't understand why and am not sure what to do about it at bedtime, she is now taking an hour and a half to go down and doesn't go to sleep until 8.30pm and even though I'm now sitting in the room with her she cries and wants to play and tries to do cute things to get me to engage with her. If OH goes in and tries to take over she goes absolutely MENTAL and screams and screams and screams and won't let him anywhere near her. I've never heard anything like it! When she eventually falls asleep (usually where I've taken her in my room and she's exhausted and drops off) she will sometimes wake in the night. Again, if OH goes in to settle her she goes beserk and won't have any of it so I have to lie next to her cot, holding her hand through the bars until she falls back to sleep.

On average she's getting 9 hours sleep a night, and is having a 2 hour nap in the day. Surely 11 hours isn't enough?!

I'm up at 5am some days as I work 12.5hr shifts and am averaging 4 hours sleep a night at the mo which I'm finding difficult to cope with. Sometimes I work night shifts and I'm terrified that she'll do this when I'm on a night and OH won't be able to console her.

It's not teething as she has 14 through now, including some of the tough back ones and she doesn't suffer with it.

Any advice? Thanks ladies

 

[RJsMum]

Has she hit any more big milestones lately? That was always one to throw DS's sleep out of whack. He, too, began sleeping through at 12/13 mos. He's been a lot more chatty lately AND just cut two upper molars, so I know it's his teeth. But development is also another thing to consider. It's hard for their clever little brains to slow down long enough to let them drift off.

 

[eddjanuary10]

It could well be. Ihsan's sleep always goes out the window when he is learning something new like recently he has really started to concentrate on putting shapes into the correct spaces so he can put the triangle, circle, square and rectangle into the right space but a few weeks ago he couldn't do it and his sleep was all over the place. He seems happy with his new skill and therefore his sleep has settled down. Its tiring isn't it!

Maybe you should just let your oh take over and see how they get on for a trial before you need to do it for real, she may be fine after 1 or 2 nights with your oh and that way she might get used to both of you putting her down and you won't need to worry if you have to work.

Good luck x

x

 

[Elski]

Ah yes, milestones, I didn't even think of that! Her speech has really come on over the last few weeks and she's also gone from being a confident walker to running/climbing really well so it could be that. She's grown quite a bit too, a couple of months ago she was shorter than the childminders little girl (who's 3) but now she's the same height!

Thanks so much ladies