Sleep regression at 18 months ?

Ohhhh my god I literally just came on here to ask about this! This is awful, the separation anxiety ontop of it too. I literally have no idea what to do. So I’m following! You’re not alone mama x

urgh! It defo gives me anxiety and I don’t know how the day is going to go. I wouldn’t even find him sleeping or the timings off but it’s such a fight to get him to settle. I’m hoping it’s just a bad day. Going to try get him up earlier and be strict with his nap time and no more than 1.5hr and get him up after that time

I think mines going through a sleep regression too😫 it’s affecting his night time sleep though, his nap seems to be ok still. I’m losing my mind! I’m so tired. No advice at all because I’m at a loss😂 but wanted to let you know you’re not alone xx

It sounds like you need to increase his wake windows slightly. Maybe try getting him up at 7.30 for a 12/12.30 nap instead. Then still doing bed for 8/8.30

My son is fighting naps until after 3pm some days! He used to also have a good routine and the past week and a half is just refusing to nap until he crashes but then bedtime at 8 is impossible! He's also awakening a few times in the night just wanting cuddles. All his sleep is all over the place!

I'm assuming it's a regression phase and teething pain. So I'm just trying to stick to our normal routine and hoping it'll all pass and return to normal within a couple of weeks 🤞🤞

yes that’s what I was thinking, although this routine worked for him, it’s m not as easy now so defo need to squeeze in that extra half an hour somewhere

yup! I feel that, he’s not even refusing he’s just taking so long to settle but will eventually sometimes goes down easy and other times it’s like nope🙄 I think sometimes he’s over tired too. I’m hoping it’s just a phases. If he hadn’t slept by 3pm at any point I wouldn’t even try nap him as the whole night would be off I would then just try settle him half an hour earlier or wait till bed time. Obviously if he’s showing obv signs he’s tired and needs a sleep then yeah but it wouldn’t be for long. It’s so difficult when it’s going to be a risky nap..

Good luck x

I have a very similar routine to this and I’m having the same issue. My son is 18 months old. I begun to think that it’s because his dad and I are separated and when he spends time with his dad he completely takes my boy out of his routine, but I have never had this big of an issue until now. His bedtime is 8:30, I used to be able to change his nappy, stick him in some pjs, put some sleepy time music on in the background, give him a big cuddle and a kiss and put him in his crib and he would face plant himself into his pillow and that would be it. He’d be up naturally between 7:30 and 8 the next morning no issues whatsoever. We were quite flexible with his nap, he’d have 2 hours between 12-3 whenever he would start showing signs he was sleepy. I’d never let him sleep later than 3pm and he would have no issues going down for naps and he would sleep through the night. Now I can’t get him to settle to go to bed at all. He dad hardly keeps him in a routine as him and his partner…

Who are quite well off, don’t have jobs (because they’ve had money basically handed to them) so they do whatever they want when they want. They stay up until 4am, wake up at 12 pm have takeaways every day etc (which is not helping my son at all!) my partner and I both work full time 8-5 Monday to Friday. We are also expecting my second, his first, baby in a few weeks time so my son’s routine going out the window now is the worst thing that could have happened. I’m struggling to figure out what to do because it’s a real struggle with him at the moment and I don’t know if our issue is because of his father or because of sleep regression

yup I feel that a lot apart from the separation aspect however my partner is away a lot working and when he’s home he’s either sleeping for work, or sleeping after work and the few hours he has awake it’s spent getting ready for work so when I’m trying to settle him for a nap my partner is wanting to see and play with him and I feel awful restricting that or saying no for the whole 10 minutes of hello goodbye isn’t worth hours of being unsettled when I’m going to be on my own dealing with it. He was quite good with going for naps when he was meant to but I think my issue is I’m trying to nap him when he doesn’t want too or tired just because of the time. He’s also been fully napping and sleeping in his cot instead of the swing so maybe that’s why it’s taking him a bit longer. He loves his swing and far to big for it now but he loves it and settles in it but I’ve just randomly stopped putting him in it and he does settle well in his cot with and without help jisy takes a bit

Longer which is frustrating. Im getting ready to try him for a nap now. If he sleeps fast he will only be getting till 2:30 latest if he sleeps through. It’s a shame about your partner, is it worth talking to him and explaining how routine is important for you and baby? I’m also due a baby soon too so for him to get out this routine couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Still have a few weeks to try get it back x

My ex doesn’t listen to any concerns we express to him 😭 he has always had the mentality that he knows everything and everything he says and does is best. But this is unfortunately why we split up. He’s always believed letting his son sit in a playpen all day whilst he sits on his computer gaming was the perfect parenting choice. His partner at least kind of understands why our routine is so important to stick to and she does what she can to help. I hope you manage to get things back into your routine or at least something similar.

very frustrating! I get so annoyed when people don’t do things to his/our routine cos end of the day it’s yous who are suffering and having to deal with it so they should respect your reasoning. Fair enough you can’t go to routine per second but within reasoning to near normal. Really winds me up. His ‘normal’ is an hour behind so I’m going to be setting an alarm for us to get up at 8am again to get back into the 8-8 routine and not 9-9 x

Last weekend I had been setting alarms at 7am to wake him up earlier to get him back into our routine, my ex unfortunately did what he wanted with our boy again. After picking him up today and finding out he had firstly napped all day and woke up at 4, but secondly I picked him up at 4:20 and he hadn’t had lunch. I was livid! Absolutely furious so I said something about it. One thing to note is I struggle to stay calm in these situations as my ex is a big trigger for my mental health and I stayed so so calm in this situation. My ex freaked out the second I brought it up and word for word said “if you can do it so much better than I can then keep him. I can’t be bothered anymore.” Father of the year 🙄

omg what a nob!!!! Ex for a reason! Hope you’re ok xx

I’ve been trying the same to wake up a bit earlier and if no, then have him nap a bit shorter. I’m just taking it day by day just now. I’ve too much going on and to for me to fight with with it but trying my best to stay fairly within routine. It’s good you’re trying too and that’s absolutely ridiculous of your partner, it’s things like that it’s like what’s the point when it’s much easier to do it yourself if they’re not helping x

It’s safe to say I won’t be returning my son to him on Monday. Waiting for the messages asking where he is. I’m sorry but you’ve told me to keep him? 🤦‍♀️ we’ve managed to get him back into his routine this weekend! Do you ever play anything in your boys bedroom to help him sleep?

defo ex for a reason! I’m all good. Like I said in one of my other comments I’m waiting for the messages Monday asking why I’ve not dropped my son off to him.

I would do the same just to see if he even messages asking where he is. He’s kinda been back in his routine but I’ve resulted settling him back in the swing for naps and settling him to sleep there then transferring him to bed. He just goes down with less fight that way. I will try settling him back more in the swing when my partners doing night shifts as that way if he cries I can just let him (within reason) I do usually play white nose with dark screen on YouTube for background nose which usually settles him. I also have a projector what his lights and white noise I play sometimes but feel it’s too loud sometimes it also has a timer to you can set, don’t use it very often mind you

We’ve got this vtech one for the new baby as we had one early on for my son and he loved it. We used that with him all weekend and it worked like a charm. We used to put the tv on not very bright with YouTube on playing sleepy music but I’m starting to think that was the issue. I think it may have been too stimulating for him. He also started to sing along to the music 🤣🙈

I think that’s my issue too even though it’s on a dark screen and white noise he’s still curious. My tv is on a bracket on the wall and you can turn it so I just face it away from him. I’ve started to put him back in his swing to settle as it just seems to work easier and quicker than the cot and right now I just cannot be bothered with the hassle and fight 😴 he’s been okay settling since going back in the swing. When my partner goes back on nightshift I will try him back in the routine of settling in the cot so I’ve got peace to do it myself and it’s no overwhelming for everyone if he’s crying 🤣 xx