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Post by littleliverpill on Jun 3, 2017 17:33:28 GMT -6
Is this a thing? The Internet tells me it's a thing.
The past few days, R (18 mo) has been an absolute demon when it comes to sleep. Out of nowhere, he started fighting naps and bedtime with the fiery passion of 1,000 suns. Today and yesterday, despite being obviously, visually exhausted (eye rubbing, yawning, grumpy) at normal nap and bedtime, he screamed bloody murder when I put him down. I'm talking like, CIO screaming rage with no sign of abatement. When I finally gave up (on the naps) and took him out of his crib, he promptly fell asleep in the stroller/car. Both days he slept something like 40 min for the entire day and still fought sleep, clearly overtired, at bedtime. Right now he's standing in his crib and crying, 30 minutes and counting.
The Internet tells me there is such thing as an 18-month sleep regression. Have any of you experienced this? Or have any ideas on what on earth could suddenly trigger this Exorcist behavior? I've given him Ibuprofin thinking it might be (yet more) teeth, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. He just does *not* want to go to bed.
Halp.
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Post by jillywilly on Jun 3, 2017 18:07:08 GMT -6
Yes, have experienced in waves every month or two since about 18 months. We chalk it up 100% to separation anxiety, because DS normally can put himself to sleep, he'll just go through phases where he'll just scream for mama or dada. I think his first one was right around 18 months, and lasted about two weeks. The good news is they've decreased in length and severity of screaming as a general pattern as we're creeping in on two years old.
What we've found works best, since for us it is separation anxiety, is to sit by his crib, don't pick him up, just sit, rub his back, and tell him mama/dada are there, we love him, it's time for sleep. As he calms down, we slowly creep out of the room. My goal is to be out of the room while he's still awake, but laying down and calm, so he's still falling asleep on his own. He's also started insisting on having the door open, which I think helps him feel more connected as we're downstairs.
I hope you're able to figure something out soon! Screaming kids at bedtime are not fun.
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Post by lildiamondeyes on Jun 3, 2017 19:12:47 GMT -6
Oh, gosh. This explains everything. I had forgotten about this regression hell.
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budders
Amethyst
Posts: 6,302 Likes: 32,272 
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Post by budders on Jun 3, 2017 19:25:17 GMT -6
V has always been a bad sleeper (I only half joke that he never outgrew the 4 month sleep regression), but things got worse again around that age.
Could teething or illness be making it worse?
ETA: I obviously didn't read the OP well, I see you gave medicine.
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cmb
Sapphire
Posts: 4,604
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Post by cmb on Jun 4, 2017 9:50:16 GMT -6
Yes, it's a thing. Also, if you follow the leaps, leap #10 occurs around 18 months and lasts 1-2 months so that could be part of the problem as well
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2017 16:11:39 GMT -6
Yes. It is very real. There's nothing you can do but wait it out but the good news is, it passes!!
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loony
Emerald
Posts: 12,588 Likes: 45,027
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Post by loony on Jun 4, 2017 16:19:01 GMT -6
V has always been a bad sleeper (I only half joke that he never outgrew the 4 month sleep regression), but things got worse again around that age. Could teething or illness be making it worse? ETA: I obviously didn't read the OP well, I see you gave medicine. DD's 4 month regression lasted until about a month before she turned 2. She is 3.5 and still isn't a great sleeper, but exponentially better! DS is a little better than she was, but we are definitely in the thick of this regression. His has been combined with illness, teeth and obvious separation anxiety. I really need DD to go spend some time at my mom's, so we can night wean, sleep train a little bit...damn small house. |
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budders
Amethyst
Posts: 6,302 Likes: 32,272
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Post by budders on Jun 4, 2017 17:03:24 GMT -6
V has always been a bad sleeper (I only half joke that he never outgrew the 4 month sleep regression), but things got worse again around that age. Could teething or illness be making it worse? ETA: I obviously didn't read the OP well, I see you gave medicine. DD's 4 month regression lasted until about a month before she turned 2. She is 3.5 and still isn't a great sleeper, but exponentially better! DS is a little better than she was, but we are definitely in the thick of this regression. His has been combined with illness, teeth and obvious separation anxiety. I really need DD to go spend some time at my mom's, so we can night wean, sleep train a little bit...damn small house. Yeah, V is 2 tomorrow. It's definitely better than it used to be, which I'm reminded of when he gets sick or hits a rough phase, but it's still a mess. We're TFAS soon and I am so terrified of getting another poor sleeper. |
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budders
Amethyst
Posts: 6,302 Likes: 32,272
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Post by budders on Jun 4, 2017 17:08:35 GMT -6
littleliverpill I believe in sleep survival. When V has really rough patches, we modify the routine a bit to do what will get him (and I) to sleep. Once he gets through the regression, you can re-sleep train or go back to old routines. Even though V's baseline is shitty, our short-term solutions usually aren't hard to revert from. Wishing you luck, this really is the worst.
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Post by letsgetphysio on Jun 4, 2017 17:43:31 GMT -6
DD (18mo) has had some rough nights recently related to those damn molars - they take forever to come in and have been hellacious for her sleep compared to any other teeth. I hope you guys get some relief (and sleep!) soon!
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Taitai
Opal
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Post by Taitai on Jun 5, 2017 6:35:48 GMT -6
Sorry that you are going through this! DS (2 yrs) has never been a good sleeper (I can count on one hand the number of times he has slept through the night on his own), but I remember it got particularly bad at 18 months. Turns out he was getting his molars (they came in slowly over the course of a few weeks) and was just a total fuss bucket - wouldn't nap, wouldn't sleep, super cranky all day. Once the molars came through, he was a lot easier to get down and back to his normal self.
Sorry I don't really have any suggestions for you - just solidarity that yeah, it really sucks.
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Bluebird
Amethyst
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Post by Bluebird on Jun 6, 2017 13:26:40 GMT -6
We had about a week and a half of it, and DS is typically a very good sleeper. I would lay him down at bedtime and say good night, leave the room, and then he would start crying for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Thankfully it stopped as suddenly as it started. We did not change anything we were doing and just powered through.
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Post by fuzzylogic on Jun 6, 2017 19:34:49 GMT -6
It's very much a thing, it came out of freaking nowhere and piggy-backed on her cutting all four of her eye teeth at the same time. THE SAME TIME. I thought I would never get to sleep again. May is a blur.
Things are better now. All the teeth are pretty much through and she's back to just 1-2x waking (normal for her, still nursing a little at night, and she just seems to be like her mom, easily woken up) overnight so it's not bad.
But now she wants to get up at 5:30 but I'm out of school for the summer and I want to dieeeeee.
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