Okay... let's see if there's anything I can help you with.
Yep, I'd agree that developmental changes can make the sleep wonky. Not just the practising and that they can't turn off their desire to try it again and again and again. But the other developments we don't see...what they're thinking and how they're thinking; their understanding and making sense of the world around them. There's a book called the Wonder Weeks which details fussy periods a child is likely to have these cognitive (?
) developments and our DS is on the mark for these and often becomes a bit of a 'mare!!!
On the sitting, standing thing. Spend as much of the A time you can practising this. Pulling up and down on sofas etc. But help so that when she gets up, she learns how to get back down really safely so it becomes 'second nature'. Takes a while. Giving her plenty of practice in this way should also help exhaust her a little of the new skills. As soon as Charles could pull up and coast, I let him do it all day long. When he got his trolley with bricks for Christmas, I let him go for it until his little legs were so tired he couldn't do more. This worked best at the last A time of the day before his bath - helped tire him for the night.
Practice the skill with her in her cot too if possible. I would 'walk' DS's hands down the right place to help him understand how to get down. Lots of Mothers do fine with just laying them back down repeatedly until the LO gets the message. For us, we tried this for months with no positive effect; if anything it made him more angry, more upset and battle sleep more. We might just be a random case though!
So, we tried something else and it worked! So, first of all (my DS wasn't much of an independent sleeper) I laid down next to his cot on the floor and pretended to be going to sleep: hands together under cheek, eyes closed. I would lay him down the first time when I put him in bed, would stroke his head a few times, say our key phrase and then lay down. He'd pop up. I'd ignore him as long as poss (5 mins if that!). Then I'd pat his mattress where his head should be, wiggle his lovie to get his attention and say 'lie down'. I'd keep it calm, soft, quiet, relaxed but no nonsense. It took a while for him to get it - that it was his choice to lie down. I would lay him down when he was really upset, but I would hold back from doing the jack-in-the-box thing as much as possible.
We did gradual withdrawl a week or so later, and this involved my not lying on the floor, but more of the patting, lie down thing.
For us, DS likes to control his environment and does not take well to being pushed into doing something he doesn't want to do. So laying him down when he wants to stand for us just ended in a long, screaming frustrating fight. He much prefers to lie down under his own steam.
Hope that helps. DH is nagging me to get to the shops (I have an olive addiction at the mo and am outta the good stuff....
). Let us know how you get on: lots of heads are better than 1!!!
And hugs for any troublesome days and nights
Charlotte
