Hello, this is the first time I've ever written a post but I feel inspired by this story! My little girl of 18m has never really slept through the night but now sleeps every second night. She happily goes to sleep by herself for her afternoon nap (12.30-3ish) and bed at 7pm after a bath, milk (1 bottle) and stories. The nights when she does wake though are awful and exhausting and I never seem to be able to catch up on much needed sleep. There has always been something like teething, illness, eczema etc that seems to wake her up but I think that the waking has also become habitual. Over the last few months when she does wake up in the night (around 1.30/2am) she's v upset and her cries get louder, she stands up and calls for me. Once I go in to soothe her I am 'not allowed' to leave until she goes back to sleep and she keeps on checking to see if I'm still there. Now when she's awake in the night she starts chatting and getting distracted by everything in the room - a toy, cream for her back, a shaft of light etc and keeps on standing up. I have tried PD (but admittedly not for long enough) and more recently I have ended up sleeping on the floor beside her on a small mattress so I can at least get a bit of sleep. I think that somewhere along the line I have broken her trust and need to fix it - probably a lack of consistency. I need a plan as I've jumped about a bit. I need something that will work longterm. I'm going to try this and will let you know how I get on and I will persevere for a lot longer with one method. One question - should I be doing PD with this method if she is standing up every time I go back into the room after counting 5/10/15 secs?
