Dear All,
Our 22-months-old wakes up around 6am every morning. After the bath and the winddown, she is in bed by 7:45 pm (but sometimes doesn't fall asleep until 8:30pm) and has a 2-hour nap between 12 and 2. To me, it seems like she's not sleeping enough at night. We tried PU/PD in the mornings and it worked for a bit, and perhaps we could get her to stay in the crib until 6:30am. But she continued to wake up at 6am. Then, out of desperation, we started giving her the pacifier in the mornings (only then), so now she's addicted to it. She wakes up, wants the pacifier, and lounges around in the crib until 6:45 or so. She refuses PU/PD and screams and screams until we give her the pacifier (yes, I know, we give in which is why she's screaming... but it's SO early and our 3.5-year-old is sleeping next door. What to do? We don't want to wake up at 6am to give her the pacifier, but we don't want to leave pacifiers in the crib and have her become further addicted (she likes it only in the mornings and we put it away without problems before breakfast).
She doesn't seem to be hungry (we tried giving her milk in her sippy cup or a banana, but she only wants the pacifier). Should we try putting her down for the night earlier? She doesn't seem sleepy yet with the longer nap, but I know Tracy says it doesn't work to stay up later. Your help is MUCH appreciated. Please help us solve this. Thanks!
