Regression

I will be the first to admit that Max and I lucked out on the newborn part and not getting enough rest through those first few months. Lola began sleeping through the night at the ripe, young age of 2 months. There was the occassional teething/not feeling well nights, but they were pretty much few and far between. She's had the same routine since birth - bath time, warm milk, cuddles with momma, and bed. 9 times out of 10 she was out for the count. It was lovely.

Fast-forward 18 months, and we have a terror on our hands!! Serious screaming, crying, fit-throwing evenings await us these days. No changes. Same routine as always, so what's the deal? It's not like she's not tired and we're forcing her to go to bed before she's ready. She is extremely tired, head-bobbing, glassy eyed-tired. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. She would cry when put in her bed and continuously get out of bed and scream. Max had taken it upon himself to lay in our bed with her until she fell asleep, usually about 15-30 minutes. Then he was able to pick her up, lay her in her bed and walk away. And she would sleep through the night, as usual. Well, last night was pretty bad. She didn't take but a 20 minute nap all day. She played and ran around outside and helped Momma with the laundry. Around her 6'oclock bath time, she was more than ready. Or so it seemed.

First, she didn't want her milk, which is odd, but not too big of a deal. So, I go to take her to bed and she freaks out. I stay in her room and lay in her bed with her and pretend to sleep. She refuses. She's up and trying to play. I put her back into the bed with me, more fighting it. She does not want to do this. So, I get out of the bed and put her back in, thinking maybe I'm crampin' her style. Not so much. So, I put her back into her bed about 15 times, each time she gets out. I think maybe she just wants some more cuddle time, so I pick her up and hold her, and of course, she begins dozing off in my arms. When I go to lay her down, she wakes up, throws open her door and runs down the hallway, screaming. She then proceeds to throw a fit and she is laying on the floor, crying, almost asleep. I decide to just go put her in our bed. Within 5 minutes, she is passed out. Awesome. I fixed it!

Well, when Max goes to bed, he goes to put her in her bed, which always worked before...but she's onto him and she is awake and up and screaming again. We try to let her "cry-it-out", but she's too far gone. Blood curdling screams. And I'm not gonna sit through that. So, we let her sleep in bed with us. Pretty much the FIRST time ever to sleep through the night and morning in our bed. This is new territory for us. It was sweet, I admit, but dang it if she is the world's worst sleeper! Feet in faces, farts on heads, hands in eyeballs...she pretty much moves around all night and is a bed hog. Ha! But, I do not want to develop bad habits and have her in our bed until she's 4 or anything. So, I decided to do a little bit of research on the subject and lo and behold! "18-month sleep regression". SWEET.

I found this exact same sentiment on AskMoxie blog, and I can say it describes my feelings to a T:

"This is a bullet straight to my heart. 18 months was probably the lowest point in my parenting career. The first 3-4 months were excruciating, sure, but I knew they would be rough and I got a lot of sympathy from everyone who remembered how disorienting and grueling the newborn phase can be. At 18 months, though, I was just blindsided. He was the same kid, but everything just seemed so much harder at that stage.

He wouldn't nap. He went from sleeping all night to waking all night. He had a tantrum every 5 minutes, it seemed, mostly because he wanted to do everything himself and it just wasn't possible. He hardly ate. He whined. He never shared with the other kids and he always tried to yank out our cat's fur.

And then at around 20 months it just suddenly went back to normal.

Your kid may have a serious, mind-blowingly awful sleep regression at around 18 months. It's not your fault, and it will pass."

Lola isn't the devil-baby after all! So glad to know this and now that she's officially 19-months, hopefully this will only last 1 more month. Until that time, we will continue to try to get her to sleep in her own room, but if it's too much of a fight, then we are willing to accommodate her regression and allow her to sleep in our bed.