It my first post on BW - Although I have a well thumbed Baby Whisper solves all your problems and so have managed to cope with most that my little tinker has managed to throw at me I am struggling with this one.
Up until a few days ago we had no trouble at bedtime. Ella (nearly 18 months) would go down to sleep with no problems except of course for the occasional illness hiccups but even then there was no need for me to be in the room. Bedtime routine has always been fairly constant. Dinner, bath, story, cuddle whilst having milk and then to bed. No need for either Mummy or Daddy in the room. We have occasionally had night wakings but she has more often than not settled herself back to sleep or has just needed her dummy popped in her mouth and off to sleep again. She does have a special toy “Pen” that she has in the last couple of weeks got even more attached to and so now Pen not only sleeps her cot with her but gets dragged around the house too.
Since Tuesday however the moment I make to leave the room I get a "mummy sit down" and then hysteria ensues as I head towards the door. Initially it is her “pretend” crying but it then changes and the crying is interspersed with calling for me. When I go in she does not calm immediately and more often than not I have to lie her down again. Once she is settling down again I leave and the pattern repeats with the whole thing culminating in the dummy and Pen being thrown out the cot (props I know but only since Tuesday and she wont sleep without them!). I tried several times to settle her and then leave but eventually I sat down in the room and she falls asleep – within 5-10 minutes! Our usual 7.30 bed has ended up with her being awake for at least an extra hour now. DH now wants me to let her cry (even though he knows I don't agree with this) and so I can feel that the tension is starting to build – I was prompted to post after last night when she first woke at 1.30am and wouldn’t settle - I went in, soothed then left and when she realised I had left the room she started crying again … eventually I crawled into the bed in her room (she can’t actually see me in there but seems to settle when she has not seen me leave) and after a couple of hours she woke again and thinking I wasn’t there started to call me and threw dummy and Pen out of the cot – returning dummy and Pen and a couple of shushes resulted in a sleeping baby … until 6 this morning.
I am now getting worried about this pattern developing and am not sure how to break it. I also think she may be losing some of her sleeping hours at night – whereas she used to go from 7.30 – 7.45pm to about 6.30am she is now losing at least an hour but probably more as she seems to waking earlier and earlier - we don't get up before 6.30am is now a struggling concept. She does nap during the day – a good two hours from about 1 -1.30 although I am trying to move this nap to 12.30 to see if this will make a difference with bedtime. I would really appreciate any suggestions as to how to deal with this before it gets any worse.
Many thanks
Robyn
