Night sleep Problems

Over the last two months my daughter has gone from sleeping through the night to waking numerous times or waking and staying awake for up to two hours.  As a fulltime working mum who is 22 weeks pregnant I am slowly reaching  my wits end.

Kate wakes crying out for mummy and will not let me leave the room.  I have to stay in there or she goes nuts, I just sit on the chair saying nothing and not patting her etc.  She justs lays there sucking her thumb and cuddling her teddy.  It has got to the stage where it is easier to put her in our bed, which I know is not a good habit to get in to. She isn't crying or complaining about anything, so do not think it is her teeth.

DH has gone in there a number of nights and she either yells for me or does the same thing.

We cannot work out what is happening - she has the same bedtime routine, is warm in her PJs and merino sleeping bag, do not think she is hungry. Though in saying that when we put her to bed at the moment she wants us to sit with her.  Had thought this could be partially seperation anxiety as I have been away and things a bit hectic with recent death of my father. 

Kate moved to her big bed three weeks ago, her choice as she didn't want to sleep in her cot anymore and was asking to sleep in her new bed.

Anyone got any ideas?  Do I need to just tough love it for a few nights? Hopefully this all makes sense.

 

We have a similar problem of waking here, but DS doesn't need us in there with him. He wakes happy, and often stays awake for 2hrs - usually around 12.30am. I haven't worked out what makes him do this, so don't have any idea how to stop it. If I go in and pat him back to sleep it can till take an hour, as he will do the same as your daughter, lie there quietly with his "peekie" and then wake/move as soon as I move.

So I can't help, but am letting you know that there are others out there in the same boat.

We were in a similar situation a few months ago. While I was pregnant with lil miss, Sienna started waking in the night demanding attention. If we left her, she'd scream for hours and hours, no crying it out, she would just literally scream till we went in there. So I started giving her a bottle in her bed when she woke and she would settle again.

After a few weeks of that, she decided the bottle wasn't enough anymore and would take the bottle and then scream as soon as she'd finished it. By the time lil miss was born (at which stage Sienna was 20 mths), she was waking 3-4 times a night and screaming up to 3 hours at a time if left alone.

After I came home with lil miss, I slept in her room to make night feeds easier. So Willie started getting Sienna up and putting her in our bed just so we could all get some sleep. That was fine, but eventually I wanted to be able to sleep in my own bed again! We saw sleep experts, at one stage we even gave her phenargan a few nights just so we could get some rest.

We had to be really careful as there are a few attachment issues etc. so we put together a plan with Sienna's psychologist that we would spend a week retraining her to sleep.

Night one, we put a chair next to her bed and when she woke, we put her back into bed and sat on the chair until she went back to sleep. Night two, we moved the chair to the middle of the room. Night three we moved the chair to just inside the doorway. Night four we put the chair just outside the doorway but with the door open. Night five we put the chair outside the doorway but with the door closed and when she woke, reassured her through the door.

It was bloody hard work, Willie and I took it in shifts (we also had a respite nurse for some of the time) so that we each had a turn to sleep, but it did work. We still have the odd night where she wakes up and performs, but compared to before when it was every night and often more than once a night, it's a remarkable improvement.

Best of luck, I truly do feel your pain!