14 months and still not sleeping through

[Mother Goose]

My DD is 14 months and still not sleeping through... she wakes somewhere between midnight and 5am. This wasn't a problem until recently. She use to take her bottle and then go straight back to sleep until about 7am. For the last week or so, she has been waking, having her bottle and then refusing to go back to sleep. She cries if you put her in the cot. If you try and ignore her - she screams. If we put her in our bed, she just jumps around (literally). We end up having to have a play session... usually a couple of hours. And then she wakes up again at 6 or 6:30. We are all very tired and DH said it has to stop... but I don't know what to do... Can anyone help?

TIA


MG

[morgan78]

We used to put board books and a couple of fav toys in DS cot from about 12 months on and then if he woke up early he would happily stay in there for up to an hour. If this would work for you at least then it allows your DD to have the play session and you can go back to bed.
We also did the same during the day and he would look at the books & play for a while & then go to sleep.
HTH

[Olive]

mmm hard one but im not sure i would be encouraging midnight playtime by adding toys book etc into the cot, has she got a comforter like ablanket or doll?

[Mother Goose]

Yes, she has her sleep buddies in her bed as well as a couple of fav stuffed toys. This doesn't help. She needs me to pat her back or stroke her hair (usually both) and even then that only has occassional success. She is just so full of beans - like when she wakes in the (later) morning!

[sneakysparkle]

That must be so frustrating
Can you try patting her/holding her hand to calm her in the cot? If my DD wakes in the night now I don't pick her up (unless she is sick/in pain/something is really wrong - of course!) I just give her a kiss and lay her back down and pat her or stroke her hair till she settles. I usually sit there till she is asleep or at least almost asleep.
I hope you find something that works soon so you can all get some more sleep!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Hi MG

We're not sleeping through either. Have you tried:
Osteopath
Same sleep routine in the middle of the night (I can recite the bedtime book without turning the lights on!)
Does she have nappy rash or a dirty/sodden nappy
Pat and ssssh
Homeopathy
Rolling over, so going back to sleep on back/tummy if fell asleep on tummy/back

DS is getting the idea, we changed a few things last week or so:
Daddy does bathtime and bedtime
If he refuses to go back to sleep and just laughs, we let him cry for a few minutes. We attend him the moment he wakes up, but he's just messing us around he has to know that's not on.
Homeopathic medicine
Calpol pre-bed (he has a few bugs atm)
As much giggling as possible during the day
Encouraging alone playtime

Best of luck to you, it's a nightmare! I've got an active little beastie too. He will play in his cot for a half-hour if he wakes up early, which is nice for me.

[KatieRabbit]

Is she having a nap during the day? If not, would she need one? If she is, is it too long that she is not tired in the middle of the night? Just an idea..........

[Mother Goose]

Thanks for the replies girls.

Ryn - Excuse my ignorance, but what will an Osteo do in this case? I don't know much about them so haven't thought to book in... We stick to the same routine as well - although I refuse to read in the middle of the night (although, like you, I could recite her fav books by heart!). She can't stop with reading a book just once and gets excited . I have tried the patting and hushing but it rarely works.

She does have a nap during the day. I did speak to child care yesterday and asked them to limit her nap to 1 hr (she has 1 a day) to see if it would help. Last night she was a nightmare to go down at bed time and extended her bed time by an hour. Then she woke at 1:30 for a bottle - I'm not sure if she went back to sleep or not because I was so tired I zonked as soon as my head hit the pillow. I recall hearing her cry again and kicked DH out of the bed to attend to her - but didn't check the time. He ended up brining her into bed with us and she slept soundly until about 6 and then whimphered in her sleep almost constantly until about 7 and then slept soundly for another hour. She is teething at the moment but we have been giving panadol before bed the whole time with no effect. Teething gel, neurophen and panadol combined with neurophen are also having no effect... so I don't think it is the teeth causing this. *sigh* will keep perservering...

MG

[Amie]

Thanks for the replies girls.

Ryn - Excuse my ignorance, but what will an Osteo do in this case? I don't know much about them so haven't thought to book in... MG

Hi MG,

Hope you've had some sleep!

An osteopath can help to calm a baby by releasing any physical stresses/strains that might be putting pressure on their central nervous system (ie. the brain and spinal cord). We usually think of pressure/problems with the central nervous system being obvious and serious problems like milestone delays or seizures etc. But there are often subtle signs that the nervous system is a bit off kilter - reflux, colic, poor settling/sleeping etc. These can occur because the "on" and "off" signals for digestion, relaxing, waking and so forth aren't occurring correctly. These may be due to compression of the head/spine during birth (it is a rather squishy ride!) or perhaps something that develops later.

Hope that answers your question, feel free to post or PM

[Smoke Jaguar]

It COULD be the teething and she's just not responding to the drugs.
I'd look into the osteo thing, too, just to rule out anything physical or deal with it there.
It can seem like an even bigger problem when your partner is annoyed and turns to you to fix it - you've got the initial problem as well as the burden of someone else's annoyance to deal with It makes it harder to follow your heart when there's the extra pressure of having to 'fix' it, as if it's something YOU are doing that's causing it.
It may or may not be possible to explain to your partner that it's something you may just have to ride out and that in due course, it won't seem like it lasted for very long.
FWIW, my 22 month old doesn't sleep through - he stirs for feeds, so we dont' exactly wake up, but I couldn't honestly report that as sleeping through. If he didn't sleep in our bed with us and have a boob put into his mouth right away, he'd keep us up, too. DP has learned that we ride the more wakeful episodes out - they are always just phases - and that because of our sleeping and BFing arrangement, it's easier to deal with especially for him (heaven forbid he should have his night disturbed!).

[Mother Goose]

At the risk of jinxing us... things are improving. The second night of restricting her day sleep - she slept until 0230 and went straight back to sleep after her bottle - didn't even need to come into our bed! We've been doing that for a few nights. Last night she had a 30 min nap at 1930 (730) and then went back to sleep about 2130 (930) and slept until 0830 - didn't even wake for a bottle!!! She has been unwell this week - I'm pretty sure that is teething related. She still isn't eating much though - not her normal amount. DH is happier. He can cope with the once a night wake up so long as it isn't prolonged and doesn't result in her sleeping in our bed because then noone gets any decent sleep...

Thanks for your reply SJH... but exactly WHAT does the osteo do? Is it similar to a chiro?

MG