sleeping problems in a 18mth old - separation anxiety or something else?

[SammyRo]

DS has been sleeping 11 hours for a long time now, and settles well, in that he's pretty happy to have a story, have a cuddle and his milk, and then happily lies down awake and goes to sleep on his own ...until the last 2 weeks that is. He's now needing to be cuddled to sleep, and transfering him to the cot so he stays asleep takes a while. He is then waking up about 1am, and taking over an hour to get him back in his cot asleep. We've given panadol, thinking its teeth, but that doesn't seem to help, another bottle, added/taken off layers, co-sleeping (that made him scream even more!). He will fall asleep if we are holding him, but its taking a long time to get him into the cot so he stays asleep, and quite often, as soon as we budge slightly, he stirs and has a moan. If we put him in his cot, he's immediately awake, crying and standing up.

The only thing I can think of is its separation anxiety. I'm in my last week of a 4-week contract, and instead of the kids just being at daycare 2 days a week, they are there 3 days. He's happy enough there, but is a bit clingy/sooky at home.

Any tips? Suggestions? Affirmation that this too will pass ?

[Taurean]

This too shall pass

DD was the same at 18 months - sleep went completely and utterly pear shaped!! A lot of our problem was her eye teeth which caused grief for about 5 weeks. They were by far the worst teeth. She also just seemed to have a bit of sleep regression as well. She did get better around 19-20 months and was back to herself until we put her in her toddler bed at 22 months (as she worked out how to climb out of the cot ) and then we had about 4 weeks of bad nights then all good again.

Keep with your usual routine and make small adjustments to make things easier for all of you where necessary but have faith that it should pass.