Should I do WI/WO?

[clazzat]

DD is nearly 2 and has always been a good sleeper - when she was tiny we used to put her down on the mat and she would just fall asleep when she was tired!  Over the last 6 months she has not been settling properly in the evening.

We have bath, story, bed and put her down awake with her security blanket and thumb, which always used to mean that she would sleep until 7am.  She started crying out after 15-20 minutes about 6 months ago, we would go and give her a quick cuddle (a couple of minutes), put her down awake and then she would settle until morning.  Although this was a bit of a nuisance, it wasn't that big a deal so we didn't think it was a problem.  Recently, though, one cuddle has not been enough to settle her and we have ended up going back to her more often.  This evening we had to go to her 8 or 9 times and it took nearly 1.5 hours to get her to sleep.

We have tried various things to try to stop her fussing - cutting her lunchtime nap (she sleeps between 2 and 2.5 hours), putting her to bed earlier, putting her to bed later - and nothing seems to make any difference.  To make matters worse, because she is taking so long to go to sleep, she is often overtired which means that she is waking early in the morning and her behaviour is often bad because she is so tired.

Would WI/WO solve this problem?  I am getting fed up of going back to her over and over, and I am concerned that she is going to start disturbing dd2 (2 months) who is not the world's best sleeper.

I would really appreciate any advice.
TIA.  Clare

[Colin Macs Mom]

Bumping up for you

[enzosmom]

hi clare,

at the age of 2 i would think that WI/WO should most likely solve the problem.  whenever my DH and i have encountered sleeping issues with our kids we get on the same page and make a game plan, keeping in mind that it will probably take a week of "going to war" against the problem(not the child). at 2, i think they can understand more than we think they can so i would explain that 8-9 cuddles is too many and we are going to try to cut them down to 1 right before ni-night time. with the birth of baby #2 she is probably just pushing the envelope and getting the extra attention with the extra too many cuddles. then try the WI/WO for at least 4-5 nights!!  if you just leave her after putting her down how long does she fuss/cry?  i think we just get frustrated before we give a new game plan time to work, not to mention being tired from being up with a new baby too! 

good luck,
sarah

[speechie]

I agree- I had to do WI/WO with my LO after being cuddled during the night for about a week. It took 3 days and it really worked well. I also gave a dose of Motrin, because I was worried that if there was teething pain it would make matters worse (my not responding soothing if there was pain)
HTH..

[clazzat]

Thanks for the replies.  We are now on day 2 of WI/WO and it seems to be doing the trick.  Last night when she cried I went back to her and, for the first time in her life, didn't pick her up to comfort her.  I was expecting her to get really worked up when I just laid her down and said my comforting bit, but she was totally quiet.  I had to go back to her another time, but again she was happy to just be laid down and left.  I had to do it again at lunchtime because she didn't want to go to sleep, and I have had to go back to her twice this evening, but it has been so unstressful!  I'm beginning to think that one of the problems was that she didn't really need to be picked up and that we were disturbing her going to sleep by doing so.  Fingers crossed that it keeps going so smoothly.
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