My DD is going to be 15 months old in a week. By the time she was 10 months old, I used to give her a bottle at 9, and rock her for 5-10 minutes. She'd get drowsy, and I'd put her to the crib and kiss her good night. She'd just go to sleep by herself, in another 15-20 min or so, and sleep through for an avg of 9 hrs. Her crib was right next to our bed.
We then took a 3 month trip to our native country, where she did not have her own room or crib. There, we had a swing type rocker in which we used to put her to sleep, and later move her to the bed, beside us. She still slept through. After returning home a month ago (she was 13 months old), we moved her crib to her own room. We moved her humidifier, the night light with moon and stars, her toys, and all her familiar colorful wall-hangings to her room. She took to the shift pretty ok, we thought.
But since the last 2-3 weeks, she does not want to go to sleep on her own, and insists that we rock her till she falls asleep. She even started waking up once or twice in the night. We had to rock her back to sleep - 5 min, sometimes 20 min, and settled her in the crib. Sometimes, she wakes up in the middle of the night, cries, and gets fully awake and hungry. She goes back to sleep after some milk (2-3 oz), and 15-20 min of rocking.
What could be possible reasons for this sudden change of behavior in sleep? Is it one of those growing up phases? She recently started walking (13 months), and walks and runs around a lot. Does this have anything to do with the change in pattern? Or is it because we moved her out?
Please suggest ideas that I can use to help her, and/or please share your experiences...
PS: She already has about 8-9 teeth, and never had pain due to teething. It isn't teething trouble, and its never been a wet nappy case so far.
Thank you for all your responses.. :)
In addition we also had her PED physical shortly after I'd posted, and I also asked her for suggestions. She did say that at this age, she doesn't require milk or food after her routine night-time feed, until her routine morning-feed. If DD cried, the PED suggested that I talk to her, ask her to go to sleep and walk out and let her cry.
The first day, I almost cried myself, when she cried for half and hr. But she did go to sleep afterwards and slept through! The next 3-days, she cried for 10 min, and further 3-4 days for 5 min. That was it! Now, we do the nightly routine, and we put all her toys to sleep, and I tuck her in the bed, along with her 2 favorite soft-toys, and she just goes to sleep in 15 min!!
Yoo-hoo..!! :))
Day-time naps are still mom-curl-up-next-to-me-till-I-fall-asleep, but we're getting over it soon...
It could be a growing phase type of thing. My daughter is normally a good sleeper but every once in a while has a week or two where she wakes up a lot. I would try to avoid doing too much when she wakes up, maybe just rub her back for a minute, no feeding if possible. Good luck
All kids go through a growth spurt around this time and wake up starving several times per night. Even with a snack right at bedtime they will still wake up. Their body is using every tiny little bit of energy up within a few hours. She might also show an increase in hunger during the day but I always noticed it during the night time. Our bodies use more energy to sleep because our brain is running minimal tasks, keeping the heart beating, breathing, etc...so all the power goes to growth, repairing and fighting off illness, all kinds of things it does all the time but these kinds of spurts are like cell growth and repair on speed.
She needs to eat during the night for a little while now.
It could be a number of things: the traveling threw off her schedule, she's going through a growth spurt, she could be getting her 15 month molars, etc.
My daughter is an AWESOME sleeper - I am beyond thankful for it...I put her down awake (all her lights are off and she gets her turtle night light that shows the stars and moon and she also gets her sleep sheep sound machine turned on) and she puts herself to sleep...it took a while to get her to do it, but she just did...however, she has nights where it's hard for her to fall asleep on her own and stay asleep too - just like we (as adults do).
Once in a while I will give her a cup (we took her off her bottle) with warmed up milk and will rock with her. While we are rocking I will turn on a lullabye CD and turn her nightlight on to help soothe her too.
If her teeth are bothering her (even though they never did and we are only waiting on a couple more teeth to fill in {4} her mouth) I will give her a half dose of tylenol to help her fall asleep since she never wakes in the middle of the night complaining about them.
She could also be trying to change her nap routine...my daughter is doing that now...she was on two naps a day and is trying to phase to one long nap.
Just try what you can to get through this - there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
My oldest was a "great sleeper" ...went to bed with no trouble and slept through the night. For some unknown reason, all of a sudden when she was about 18 months old she decided she didn't want to go to bed or naps on her own and would scream and scream when we put her in her crib. There had been absolutely no changes in our household and no big milestones so we were at a loss why this started happening. We hoped it was a faze and would pass quickly but it didn't. (she wanted me to rock her until she fell asleep but I was very pregnant and just physically couldn't do it!) We resorted to the Ferber method, aka cry it out. I'm not gonna lie, it was HORRIBLE and I thought my heart was going to break listening to her cry but it did work. After that inital rough week things started going much smoother and we were eventually able to get back in our old routine. My youngest also experienced a similar faze but around 13 months. We tried Ferber but with her it just seemed to work better if we put her in, said goodnight, and that was it. It also took about a week but after that she got back into the routine and was a great sleeper after that. It's no fun but you will get through it. This too shall pass!!! Good luck to you :)
Can't give you a reason why she's doing this, but now that she knows you'll pick her up, rock her and such, you'll have to undue that and teach her to self-sooth herself to sleep. Put her to bed slightly drowsy as before, not sound asleep, leave the nightlight on, and when she wakes and you go in don't turn any other lights on, talk in a hushed matter-of-fact voice, don't pick her up or engage in cuddling, kissing, talking, etc., just tell her it's time to sleep, pat or rub her tummy or back for a minute or so to relax her, say "goodnight" and quietly leave and close the door. You may have to do this a few to many times over each night until she "gets" it, but she will if you're consistent and don't give in to her crying. She really doesn't need to eat after bedtime at 15 months, so just make sure she has milk and maybe a small amount of cereal before bed and don't give her milk during the middle of the night.
Babies and toddlers thrive on routines, so make sure she has a quiet bedtime routine that allows her to relax and prepare for sleep, especially now that shes more active. No TV, loud music or noise, or roughhousing after dinner, just a quiet warm bath, low lights, a story or two and put her to bed.
Hope it all works out soon!
Most kids go through phases like this. It could be a new skill she learned (like walking), maybe she's going through a growth spurt, it really could be lots of things.
When my kids went through phases like this, we just rolled with it. If they wake in the middle of the night, we would meet their needs. Sometimes they need a drink, sometimes they need to be held, sometimes they just need M. and daddy to snuggle with them and help them to feel safe at night.
Many people believe in self soothing. I do not. I think our babies need us, and it is completely unfair to say that we'll be there for them from the hours of 6 am and 9 pm, but other than that, you're on your own kid. Meet her needs. Help her through this phase. Let her know that you are there for her, always.
Right now she needs to feel safe and secure and know that M. is there for her, even in the middle of the night.
