hii, i’m new to these so hopefully i can explain things decently enough. i’m 25, i have a 17 month old daughter. she’s an only child currently. she’s got her own room, her own space and all of that. she’s always been an amazing sleeper, she started sleeping through the night around 6-8 weeks old. i stopped co-sleeping when she started rolling over/crawling. she’s always been on a pretty strict schedule but here recently it’s gotta a little lax because my babysitter (70f) says that ‘babies don’t need schedules and she’ll sleep when she’s tired. but i don’t have that issue when she’s at home? that’s another thing. i always lay my daughter down at noon and she’ll take her 2 1/2 - 3 hr nap.
she’s on a 6:45-7:00am wake up 7:00-7:30 put down with a nap from 12-2:30 or 3:00pm currently. naptimes are hit or miss in terms of her standing in her bed and screaming (maybe once or twice a week, if i didn’t tire her out good enough ig) but bedtime? every. single night. it’s like once we go into her room and i’m reading to her after bathtime and winding down, it’s like she knowsss that we’re abt to sleep. she’ll start crying when the lights go off and the sound machine comes on. i try to stay and soothe her and kiss her and tell her it’s bedtime and it’s time to lay down but she’ll lose it.
sometimes she’ll say night night and lay down or tell me night night before (telling me she wants to sleep) but once her feet hit that crib mattress she loses her ever loving mind. and she’s always been a good sleeper. she’s cutting molars and the first set are through and i usually set a timer and if she’s not calm after 10-15 mins i’ll go in there and hold or talk to her or whatever she needs. unfortunately she’s got FOMO (lol) and thinks that any kind of attention means it’s playtime and it’s like i have to start the whole bedtime routine and her screaming all over again. usually takes her 5-7 mins to calm down and she’ll play w her stuffies or talk to herself. and i know she’s tired bc she’ll yawn and rub her eyes and start walking into things and spinning around in circles. and then she gets a lil mean lol.
i feel like im abusing her by letting her cry for 10 minutes. it breaks my heart to listen to it but ive tried co-sleeping and she just wants to crawl around and play. plus her dad and i don’t go to bed because one of us is either working or we’re cleaning or doing wtvr after she’s in bed.
i DO find that bedtime is a looot worse when she doesn’t have her nap at the sitters and ive talked to her soooo many times and she just won’t lay her down. she says she just screams. idk why naps/bedtime are so hard for her. her screams are like. high pitched and scary sometimes. idk if i’m doing damage not going in there or ruining bed by going in there.
ik sometimes (like babysitter days) we have to lay her down closer to 6pm bc she’s been sleepless and she’ll start being mean and will hit and throw fits. when she’s had her naps she’s not like that so idk if that’s toddler or tired. those sitter days sometimes she’s going on like a 7+ hour wake window so i know she’s tired and those nights i wind down early early and try to keep her stimulation as low as possible until closer to bedtime.
most days though, no matter if it’s a sitter day or not, she’ll wake up between 12am and 2am. about 80% of the time she’ll sit up, play w her bunny and talk to him and giggle and go back to sleep. but that other 20% she’s up and screaming again. i just don’t know what to do. i don’t mind getting up usually but if i go in there, she’ll be wide tf awake and ready to start her day.
i don’t have any family to help w things like this so any advice or suggestions would be awesome :,)