20 month old suddenly not sleeping.

[TootieBon]

Help! My 20month old has alway been a pretty good sleeper. She seems to like her sleep and almost always goes down without any fuss, day and night. That is until now. Its a battle to get her down for her day nap, and the nights are terrible. she is taking about an hour or more to settle and then waking and staying awake for about 2 hours. She will go into her cot, but about 3minutes later will start calling out or crying. She looks so tired!
This has been going on for about 2weeks. In this time she has started to go to 1 aftenoon a week of day care. And she is really frightened of the birds on a childrens program. Obviously i dont let her watch it, but she saw it accidently the other day now she is too frightened to play on her own in the house, and when she wakes in the night she says 'Birdies' and cries. She doesnt have her four back molars yet. And i have a cold, so am wondering if she is getting sick too?
I guess im not sure what direction to take. Do we need to teach her to self settle again. Or comfort her? We are both incredibly tired, but i could cope a bit better if i had a plan.

She is now obsessed with her dummy (more than ever before) which makes her drool terribly. i would love to get rid of it. is now a bad time or is anytime a bad time?

I would really love any advise
Thanks

[ladybugblue84]

Maybe while your DD is having sleep issues might not be the best time to get rid of the dummy. But that's just my take on it. As with the rest of your issues I'm not really sure sorry as I am no expert on sleep issues (my 2 year old still sleeps in my bed with me) but I hope someone comes along to help out soon. Good luck.

[TallisLanesMummy]

She could be having nightmares after seeing the birdies on the show which would make her not want to sleep IYKWIM

DS1 had a terriable time with nightmares and we ended up putting him in our room for awhile to help with it

Hope it gets better for you soon!

[noopy]

my gosh, looks like EVERYONE is having sleep probs with their little one whose around this age! i know that separation anxiety kicks in again between 1-2 years old (usually around 18 months, give or take a few months) so this could possibly be why she is acting like this.

my DD1 is almost 18 months old and is EXACTLY the same! for the past 1.5-2 weeks now its almost like she doesnt want to sleep. she looks sooo tired (and me too!) but keeps putting up a fight when she goes for a nap/sleep. i haven't had a prob with her for at least 7 or 8 months. nap time was nap time and there was simply no fuss at all. she'd sleep 12 hours at night and if she ever woke would put herself to sleep.

looks like the birdies have triggered it off for your little one but i dont think is the only reason. i wouldn't take her dummy away just yet. wait till things have settled back and a month later try and take it away.

teething could be another issue (like mine too). also, i'm quite heavily preg so that could be yet another issue for me. also..... its been cold at night, that could be whats waking her?

so.... solution? i'm doing the CC/Laydown Approach (Tizzie Hall) with her again. yep, going back to teach her how to self settle again. so far so good. took her about 10 secs the last 2 nights to go to sleep after i've left the room (compared to 2 hours of trying to settle her!). i'm now working on night wakings which i'll be going into her room 15 mins before she usually wakes (around 2.30am) and just slightly stirring her to put her into a new sleep cycle so she sleeps thru again. i'll do this for 3-4 nights. this has always worked for me so hopefully with a bit of persistance (and consistency) i will have a little one that sleeps thru the nights again AND will just go to sleep in general!

oh, i've also readjusted her nap time too. cos i'm almost at the end of my pregnancy i'm soooo exhausted so i've been letting her sleep in the arvo for 3-3.5 hours (just so i could sleep!) but i've just started changing it to only 2 hours max. i think this may have helped and is the reason why when its bed time she is actually tired and now doesnt fuss.

just have a plan and stick to it.
consistancy is the most important thing.
if you're confused, then just think how confused your baby will be!!

good luck!!