OT-toddler sleep problems

[Reese'smom]

Reese is 18 months old and the past week or so has had some major sleep problems. She used to go to sleep without crying, now she screams the second we put her in her crib. She will also wake up in the middle of the night screaming, wanting to get in bed with us, which is not an option. Nothing is wrong with her if we go to check on her. She still has her paci, blanket, etc. She's also waking up much earlier than she used to, 5:30 today, and wants to get in bed with us. If we bring her in bed with us, she wont go back to sleep. This makes for a grumpy baby all day. Naps are the same, she'll sleep for a while, then want me. I can put her on the couch next to me and she'll sleep a while longer. Is this just major separation anxiety? Could she be getting sick (again)? She acts fine during the day besides being sleepy. Any help or advice would be great.

 

[RMulieri]

My daughter did the same thing at that age. We just made it clear that yelling would not get her a pass into bed with us. We would check on her, kiss her , make sure she was comfortable , and tell her to go back to sleep. It tokk 3 weeks of the behavior before it stopped.

 

[ilovejack02]

I love the book Healthy sleep Habits Happy Child. Helped solve our problems fairly quickly.

Good luck!

 

[puffkin]

It sounds to me like she is testing how much "control" she has over you. My DS started doing stuff like this around 18 months.

I would just go in, check on her then tell her "Mommy loves you, go back to sleep". And keep increasing the time intervals that you go back in. Don't play her little games. Limit conversation. Eventually she will get tired of it when she realizes she won't get to come into bed with you. Just be prepared because once you cure her of this, she will start trying to "control" you with something else

 

[vettechick99]

We have always let DD cry it out. Do some research on the different methods and see what works best for you. GL!

 

[NJR]

Maybe she's trying to tell you she's ready to move out of the crib? When my older son was about 2, he went from a perfect sleeper to an absolute nightmare - similar to your DD, he would scream being put down, wake frequently all night long (and this from a child who would previously be laid down at 7:30 and we would never hear a peep until 7:00 the next morning). After this had gone on for a couple of days, DH suggested that we try him in a "bed" - we took the mattress off of our guest bed and put it on the floor, so that if he rolled off then it would be a pretty short distance From the first night we took him out of the crib he started sleeping through again. We got him a proper bed that weekend and it's been smooth sailing ever since!

 

[Reese'smom]

Thanks for the ideas! She is for sure trying to control me. She's the bossiest toddler I've ever met. Even though she cant talk much, she's always telling me what to do!we've tried to go in there and reassure her, lay her back down. This seems to only make her more mad! Thats why we've tried to let her cry it out. At 5am thats hard to do since its so close to wake up time. Hard to do for naps too.

Interesting idea about her wanting to move to a big bed. I was wondering when to move her out of the crib. We were waiting until she started trying to crawl out, but she never has!Hmm. A lot of things to ponder.