Hi
My DD has always been a poor sleeper, to get rest, we resorted to putting her to bed around 7pm, then when she would wake during the night (between 1 am and 3am) I (mum) would take her into the normal bed in her room and she would go straight back to sleep so we would all get a half decent night's rest.
4 weeks ago she got a bout of diarrhoea that really threw her off track (lasted over 2 weeks, all clear and fine now). Last weekend we went away to France and as we had an early morning flight Friday then a late night flight on Sunday, DD got really overtired as she will not sleep in buggy or when there is any external stimulus. All of this week she has been completely unmanageable - as an example, the last 2 nights she has refused to settle at bedtime, then when she's finally sleeping, she has woken around 11pm and been bright eyed awake for at least 2 hours. There is nothing wrong with her - no wind, no pain in her belly (she has been known to suffer with both of these a lot, but I can tell now), and she wants to play. Screams when I turn off the lights, claims she wants milk, water, soother etc, then when I've got them she doesn't actually want them - she is using them as an excuse to stay up and awake.
To recover from her over tiredness she slept for 3.5h and 4h respectively at her nap time at the childminder's on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I have limited her nap to 2h today to try start to reset her day / night sleep.
The local sleep consultant has suggested something along the lines of WI/WO which after reading the definition of this versus the GW method, I think will probably have to be it. Whilst DD has never really learned to sleep independently, she is playing us so much at the moment that I feel (know) that the GW will not work for sleep if we get a night tonight like the last few nights.
Just asking for some support really - do you think I'm making a massive mistake going straight to WI/WO? I don't want to destroy the real trust that she and I have, but DD has completely made sure that I am at my wits end with lack of sleep for the last 20 months! My DH has also been totally rejected by DD for the last 2 nights, and will have nothing to do with him - getting herself into a complete tizzy (almost vomiting with crying) within about 10 minutes of him holding her.
BTW - her daytime routine is good, she gets up at about 7am, has milk, then breakfast within 1-2 hours (she refuses earlier food), snack before nap, nap anytime from 11-12:30 usually 1.5-2h, then lunch, snack and dinner, with a snack like a banana before bed.
Bedtime routine is 6:15 bath, some light play in the lounge, 6:45 into bedroom, warm milk with 1 or 2 stories, then lights out, she stays in our arms finishes her milk in the dark with soft music playing. She takes her soother when her milk is finished, then falls asleep in my arms and we put her down in bed.
Whilst not ideal at all, this is worked for a severely tired family to get some rest over the last 6 months!
Also the reason that we have kept her in our arms until she's sleeping has been because she always has burps to work out before she settles and we've learned that if we put her into her cot with burps, she doesn't settle at all, sitting up, talking to teddies etc. I've never yet walked out of the bedroom whenever she's been crying, ever, so she's always known I've been there.
I'm nervous about tonight, but we cannot continue like this. Night time is dreaded…. please help!
