Toddler sleep (or lack of it)

Is it me, or does the baby sleep regression seem to be never ending? 

I mean, when I had children I was prepared for the first year or so to be full of sleepless nights and the like, but when does it stop? 

I’ll tell you where this stems from.

Immy has always been a, well, terrible sleeper. She doesn’t need much to function, whereas I do. 

She goes through stages of sleeping through the night, and then suddenly she just won’t! Nothing has changed, she just decides to wake up.

The last few weeks haven’t been great. She was waking in the night shouting, waking the twins up, and then wanting me to come and sleep with her. She would then be up for the day around 5am. Which to be fair isn’t so much of an issue as her night owl siblings also start their day around that time too. But they both sleep through (in most part) whereas she doesn’t. 

However, how does she just go from one extreme to the other?

I know I’m not alone here and that other toddler mums have experienced the same. I think the minority of toddlers are consistently good sleepers, and the rest are just keeping us on our toes. So I’m not beating myself up about it thinking that I’ve done something wrong. In fact, I know this is likely some sort of regression or developmental leap. I just find it so bizarre.

I can’t moan too much though. In most part our children haven’t resisted going to bed, or sleeping in their own beds. So we have that in our favour. For now at least.

But a decent night’s sleep wouldn’t go a miss.

That being said, Immy has come out with some cracking excuses as to why she wants me to sleep in her room. Here are a few:

• My pom pom garland is talking to me 
• My heart garland is angry at me
• Google Home is talking to me
• There are monsters in the room
• There’s a tiger in my room
• There’s a giant slug that is trying to get me
• There are flies/spiders/bugs keeping me awake
• I don’t like the rainbow picture on my wall
• Wilfy wants me
• I’m hungry and thirsty (not so original)

I’ve played with reducing naps, skipping naps, and different bed times. There was a point when I thought I’d cracked it with an hour nap and she slept through. But now she refuses to nap at all, and I’ve given up fighting it. Unless she’s at nursery that is. She sleeps and eats all of her food at nursery. Typical. 

I’m sure there are sleep consultants out there who would disagree with me and would say that you can train your toddler to sleep through the night, and maybe that’s true. I’m just speaking from my experience and talking to other mums out there. I know even the best of sleepers who have blips. Big old blips though of suddenly not sleeping well. 

I know this is only a moment in time and soon enough she will sleep again. We just need to ride this wave. One day they won’t want sleepy cuddles anymore, and I’m sure when that time comes I’d do anything for one more sleepover in her bed.

Also, I have no doubt that Immy will sleep through tonight now that I’ve posted this. She likes to do the opposite of what I say she does. We can only hope on this occasion, hey?

Is anybody else going through similar at the moment? What’s your toddlers best excuse not to go back to sleep?