14 mo – screaming at bedtime. Naptime ok.

[traineeparent]

Hi there. My DD is 14 months old. I taught her to sleep with shush-pat and by 5 months old I could walk out of the room.  At 10mo we went on holiday then she learnt to stand up and it all went out the window.    She was really hard to settle. I did lots of AP, took her out of the room, breastfed her etc.  Then she started refusing the PM nap.   I tried shortening AM nap, didn’t work for more than a few days.   I went to and fro.  If she had 2 naps she took ages to get to sleep at night. If she had one nap she was fine.   Anyway after lots of to-ing and fro-ing I decided to stick with 1 nap.  That was about 3 weeks ago.  She would only sleep 1-1:15 hr at first. (I did early bedtime). But she settled quickly and easily at naptime and nighttime.  I stayed in the room since we had SA issues. 

In the last 2 weeks I’ve finally started getting some 2 hr naps.  But now she won’t settle at nighttime!!  I’m not sure if I’m putting her down too early. But if I leave it too late she gets hyper!    At naptime she just rolls over and goes to sleep in 5-10 mins. No crying.  If she’s had a short nap, then at bedtime it’s the same, very quick.  (But she’s exhausted).  If she’s not exhausted – she stands in cot and cries hard!  (Even when she was doing 2 naps and then hard to settle at night, she would just roll around in cot and be happy & hyper.  Not crying unless she banged her head.  She would eventually go to sleep).   I just don’t get it. She clings to me. It’s as if she’s scared of the cot, but yet she goes down fine at lunchtime.  She did have SA but during the day I don’t think that’s much of an issue now.   The only way to get to her to sleep is to feed her again, and even then she’s difficult to settle. I have to do it over and over and wait till later on till she’s more tired.   

She’s got a cold and ear infection at the moment and is on antibiotics – it’s winter here.  It’s her 2nd cold in a row.  So I don’t want to start WIWO or anything yet.  I figure the routine must be wrong.  I’ve been on the 2-1 nap thread, still unsure of when to put her down at night.

Does anyone know why she would suddenly be so resistant of her cot?  When I feed her again, she’s really trying to fall asleep on me.  She’s never done that to this extent.  I don’t feed to sleep.  I feed her in the night (bad habit started when family was staying for a long time).  I know she doesn’t need it but I will wean it. I’m really concerned about the settling at night issue the most.  It's as if she's forgotten all her sleep skills!

7 wakes
11.45 put in cot
12 asleep
1.45 – 2 awake
6 – 7 bedtime (asleep by 6 if short nap)

NWs – 10, 2, 5 usually

Any suggestions welcome. I'm really starting to despair!

[elmarie]

Let your lo get better before you start sleep training again.  My DD was also very clingy when she was sick.  Once the dr. gives her the all clear, you can start training 

If .she still cries when you put her down you could try PD and GW until you at the door, just to get that trust back again  What worked for us was to then do wi/wo (like yours my DD was also sleep trained and I find that this method worked the best).  I still have to use 1-2 a week to extend my dd's naps.  You can use wi/wo for NW.  You must not feed her during NW that is AP, you need to teach her to go back to sleep on her own.  I know it is hard at 2 in the morning, I went through the same situation recently but you have to stick to it. Just remember it will work, just keep going    {{hugs}}

Elmarie

[Layla]

I feed her in the night (bad habit started when family was staying for a long time). 

So are you feeding her at 10, 2 & 5?