Is 18mos a notoriously hard age for sleep?

[crunchy_mommy]

I know 9 months seemed to be horrible for us & everyone else so I'm wondering if there's a similar sleep regression around 18mos?

DS is just about 18 mos & his sleep has gone from bad to horrible. I used to be able to nurse him back down every couple of hours (more often in the early morning) and sometimes even sneak out of bed for a few minutes like to go to the bathroom...

Now he is sleeping so, so badly. He won't stay asleep no matter what I do & is nursing incessantly and if I do something wrong (i.e. go to the bathroom at the wrong moment) it takes another 2 hours to get him back to sleep.

I'm so exhausted. I was used to waking up every hour or two, now it's just CONSTANT, I feel like I haven't slept at all in the past week.

Please tell me it's just a stage. PLEASE... We're both tired & cranky & he's giving me oversupply problems again which is just making him more cranky... He is making some developmental leaps (i.e. putting 2-3 words together more) but nothing too outrageous...

[svs79]

My 20 month DD has also been having sleep issues. She was doing so great for awhile, now it seems like she is regressing. Probably about a month ago she was up during the night for long periods of time, which was killing me, but that has improved. Now she just won't go to bed! Sorry I don't have any suggestions, just commiserating with you. Probably the verbal development has something to do with it.

[akayerich]

My 18 month old started sleeping horribly a few weeks ago. A thread on here got me wondering if this is common at this age. So I googled "18 month sleep regression" and came up with a quite few things. It seems that it actually is pretty common. So hopefully its just a phase!

[Louisep]

Yeah, definitely wouldn't surprise me. We're still not in pre-12 months territory but some nights are pretty rough. DS is really working on language right now so I was thinking it could be related to that.

[babybirkel]

my DS is 18 months and while his sleep has never been "great" it was much much better from about 13 months until, well, 3 weeks ago, when he just about turned 18 months. Now he wakes up 4-6 times a night. He used to go back to sleep if my DH went in and gave him a drink of water, but recently he's been throwing a giant fit and screaming for "Milk!!! mama! milk!" until I go in and nurse him.

I'm pregnant, and exhausted. I totally feel your pain.

This article helped me with the 18 month sleep regression.

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006...onth_slee.html

I am just hoping it gets a little better sometime before the new baby comes. But, I do think it's normal.

[Pippi L.]

It was awful. Just awful. We also moved around that time and left for a three week trip to visit family Europe right after the move -- but it was horrible even before that. I remember strapping my screaming daughter in the stroller and walking her around the neighborhood at 10pm.

It did end, though. And while she's not a stellar sleeper at 2.5 it's never gone back to being as bad as 18 months.

[crunchy_mommy]

Phew OK I was hoping it was just a 'thing' not my DS starting into a permanently bad sleep pattern!!! I'll just keep telling myself *this will end soon*.... Pippi that's good to hear, maybe this is as bad as it will get!!

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by babybirkel

This article helped me with the 18 month sleep regression.

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006...onth_slee.html

Oh and I just read that article, definitely made me feel better, except for the part where she said her kid started waking 3-5 times a night... DS did that on a GOOD night, now it's about 10 times a night at best!!!! Now I guess I understand why I've been super cranky....

Hope your toddler's sleep regression gets better before the baby comes, I can't imagine what that would be like!!