13-month-old suddenly waking every 2 hours crying hysterically. separation anxiety?
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My 13-month-old has recently started waking roughly every 2 hours throughout the night and crying really hard. It takes around 15-30 minutes to calm her down each time. She was historically a bad sleeper but had become better around 11 months. Currently, she sleeps in the same room as dad since he's available while I sleep in the next room. We take turns 5 days with him and 2 days with me.
What’s strange is that her eyes are mostly closed while she’s crying. If I try to pat her, rub her back or hug her while she’s in bed, she actually pushes me away. Once she is picked her up, she eventually settles.
During the day she has also become MUCH more clingy than usual. She’s having more tantrums, gets very upset when I leave the room and generally wants to be with me all the time. So I’m wondering if this could be separation anxiety showing up at night too.
Her schedule is fairly consistent:
\- Wake up in the morning
\- Nap 1: around 9:30 -11:00
\- Nap 2: around 1:45 -3:15
\- Bedtime: around 7:30-8:00 pm
She seems to be getting plenty of daytime sleep, so I don't think she's overtired from being on one nap or anything like that.
Has anyone else experienced this around 12-14 months? Did separation anxiety cause this kind of intense night waking for your baby? And did it eventually settle on its own?
I'm mostly looking for experiences from other parents because we're finding the every-2-hours crying pretty exhausting and I'm not sure whether I should just ride it out or change something about her sleep.