Please help - 17 month old won't sleep

[lilypad08]

Our 17 month old daughter started having trouble falling asleep at night, and it keeps getting worse. Lately she has been up until 10 or 12 at night. We are EXHAUSTED and don't know what to do.

In the past she has typically gone to sleep by 8:30 or 9:00, and our bedtime routine is this:
- Turn on dim light in nursery & put on nighttime lullaby CD
- Put on PJ's
- Read books
- When she is ready, nurse in bed; then she rolls over, snuggles with me, and falls asleep.
Every other night we also do a bath before the bedtime routine.

But now after nursing she keeps rolling over, tossing and turning all over the bed, sitting up, trying to climb off the bed, etc. She wants to go play in the living room. She won't let me rock her to sleep. She also keeps wanting to see her daddy, but if he tries to take over and read books or whatever she starts crying b/c she wants mommy.

We've resorted to driving her around in the car many nights lately, but even that is no longer working half the time.

We don't know what is causing this. I returned to work 2 months ago and she is not napping well at her sitter's; I'm sure that is part of the problem. I'm searching for other childcare (for many reasons), and I think something that is more structured and where she naps better would help her sleep better at night too. But, we are stuck where we're at for now.

Still, for some reason it has become much worse the past couple weeks. I think she is teething, but most nights when we ask her if her mouth hurts she says no.

We cannot take many more of these super late nights... I'm getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and I'm getting irritable, low on patience, and super stressed out.

Any ideas??

[diamond lil]

I wish I had more advice, but we went through something similar with 15 month old DD. Our bedtime routine mirrors yours. She nurses to sleep, but there were a few times a few weeks ago when she was restless as you had described.

I discovered that it was teething. She was cutting a new molar. It wasn't causing her a lot of pain, but it was keeping her up. After a few days, it passed and we went back to the established routine.

Also, you may want to reconsider the amount of caffeine you are consuming, if any, and try to cut down or eliminate it.

[moonmom08]

We have also gone through this at various stages of molar-cutting. I think sometimes the pain kept her up, but I think also it was just kind of discomfort and frustration that kept her up (that she wouldn't have been able to indicate as pain in her mouth). Another thing was, she seemed unable to sleep on the sides of her face, and didn't like sleeping on her back.

A couple of times, we even sat with her on the couch and let her fall asleep watching this video we have of moose eating grass, that's how desperate we were . It sucked, but it passed.

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by Hilary9

Our 17 month old daughter started having trouble falling asleep at night, and it keeps getting worse. Lately she has been up until 10 or 12 at night. We are EXHAUSTED and don't know what to do.

In the past she has typically gone to sleep by 8:30 or 9:00, and our bedtime routine is this:
- Turn on dim light in nursery & put on nighttime lullaby CD
- Put on PJ's
- Read books
- When she is ready, nurse in bed; then she rolls over, snuggles with me, and falls asleep.
Every other night we also do a bath before the bedtime routine.

But now after nursing she keeps rolling over, tossing and turning all over the bed, sitting up, trying to climb off the bed, etc. She wants to go play in the living room. She won't let me rock her to sleep. She also keeps wanting to see her daddy, but if he tries to take over and read books or whatever she starts crying b/c she wants mommy.

We've resorted to driving her around in the car many nights lately, but even that is no longer working half the time.

We don't know what is causing this. I returned to work 2 months ago and she is not napping well at her sitter's; I'm sure that is part of the problem. I'm searching for other childcare (for many reasons), and I think something that is more structured and where she naps better would help her sleep better at night too. But, we are stuck where we're at for now.

Still, for some reason it has become much worse the past couple weeks. I think she is teething, but most nights when we ask her if her mouth hurts she says no.

We cannot take many more of these super late nights... I'm getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and I'm getting irritable, low on patience, and super stressed out.

Any ideas??

DD is almost 18 months old and we are going thru the same thing suddenly. Usually it take her 15-25 min tops to get her asleep. the past 3 nights it has taken us 2 hours to get her to sleep!!!!! Last night night took even longer actually! I think it's her teeth. During the day she is chopping on her fingers ALOT! I to ask her If her mouth hurts and she says no so I'm not sure she gets it yet. If it's not her teeth I don't know what it is.

Sorry I don't have any advice but I feel your sleep deprivation pain

[SeekingSerenity]

My 17-month old is actually sleeping well at night... once I GET him to sleep. Like yours, he wants to stay up until midnight or later. His problem lately is that he doesn't want to nap. He will toss and turn and keep himself awake, then he will fall asleep on the floor (or in the high chair, or on Daddy) at 5 or 6 in the evening, meaning he is absolutely not going to sleep for the night until midnight. For me, this poses an additional problem, since late-night is pretty much the only time I can get my schoolwork done. If he's awake (and of course, DH doesn't stay up to help) then I can't get my homework done.

Teething is, I think, part of it, since he just cut a new molar as well. But maybe it's a phase? I don't know, but I am praying for the return of his naps soon.