The 18 Month Sleep Regression

I wanted to post on the 18 month sleep regression because our family has been hit hard with this one.  I am sure not every family deals with it but I feel like if they do it is not talked about enough.  Maybe because by a year and half we as parents are sick of talking about how or why or little ones don't sleep. But once I looked into it I found how common and how hard this sleep regression really is.

"Most people use sleep regression to mean that a baby or toddler, who’s been sleeping well, suddenly (often without any warning) begins waking frequently at night and/or refusing to nap during the day. These regressions usually last for a period of time (anywhere from 2 – 6 weeks), and then the baby’s sleep returns to its normal patterns."
 
"All sleep regressions are difficult and exhausting, but the 18 month sleep regression can be one of the hardest, for one simple reason — there’s a discipline factor involved in this regression that wasn’t present in the earlier ones. The previous regressions didn’t have anything to do with defiant behavior on your baby’s part, but this one does." 

Just some background.  Bodie has actually always been a pretty good sleeper.  Even with chronic ear infections (he had tubes put in at 11 months), his milk allergy and acid reflux.  Thankfully we caught both of those really early on.  We definitely had sleep interruptions from sickness or developmental leaps but he always went back to him sleeping 10-12 hours uninterrupted in between.

That was until the 18 month sleep regression.  It started at 17 months with an expected developmental leap on my Wonder Weeks chart.  If you haven't heard of the Wonder Weeks I highly recommend it for sanity the first year or so.  It predicts when your baby will be progressing developmentally and likewise regressing for a week or so in sleep.  Anyway, his "regression" never really stopped.  If anything it got worse before it started getting better. We are still on the tail end of it and after all of this will definitely need to do some sleep training to get back on track.

Can I just say this has been the most exhausting few months ever.  With me being pregnant again, my sweet husband has really stepped it up during night wakings.  But because this regression is so rapid it has had a number of negative effects.  Like Bodie being unbelievably overtired, fighting naps, even having night terrors for a good month or so from sleep deprivation. Cole ended up crawling into bed with him out of desperation and now it has turned into Bodie crying for "Dada" every.single.night. 

Thankfully he is napping better, so his night terrors have subsided.  Ya'll those are no joke too.  Now we are just waiting for our schedule to calm down, which it will in the next week or so. Then it's full blown sleep training/coaching so our little guy can re-learn how to sleep alone.  I am not a fan of crying it out.  So we are going to try the gradual retreat method.

Bodie is pretty stuborn so I know we may will have to allow some tears in short intervals.  But the key is to let him know we are there, we love him, and he can sleep alone.  To be honest his twin bed is getting tight and I really think his sleep will improve once we kick Cole out. :)

If you are interested in more info on the 18 month sleep regression, some other helpful posts are here and here.

Happy Tuesday friends!!