Hi there, It's been a long time since I've posted, as I have just come to accept that DD1 is not a great sleeper. Either DH or I have to stay in her room until she falls asleep, and she wakes at least once overnight. Now that we have DD2 (who is 4 months old now... and I will post in a separate post about her issues....) DD1 seems much more clingy, and a bit jealous.
Our day looks like this:
Up around 6:30/7:00 I wake her by 7:00 if she hasn't woken on her own so that she can see Daddy before he leaves for work
nap noon-2:00 at daycare Mon-Fri. She does not nap for us, so on weekends, we will take her for a drive or ride in the bike trailer for an hour or so to nap.
Bedtime routine starts at 7:45/8:00. In bed by 9:00 (bathtime and stories take a LONG time, and it's the only time she can get some undivided attention from both of us). Then we sit... in the dark, in her room while she asks "sing me a song" "I want different pj's" "I need a drink of water" "mommy, please hold me" (this is the one that really makes me cave) She usually falls asleep by 9:45/10:00. She will have one night waking/nightmare(?) around 1am. and often again at 4am. She doesn't always seem awake, and when we go in, she will lay right back down and be asleep in about 10-15 minutes. If we don't go in, she will escalate into a full-out cry and wake herself. And then it takes a lot longer to fall asleep. In the last few months, she is waking with a bleeding nose (approx 1-4x a week!) so we don't feel comfortable just leaving her and not checking during the night waking.
I would really just like to be able to leave her room after lights out. I don't mind if she plays by herself for an hour in her crib, I just don't want to be a hostage in her room until she is asleep.
Should I be cutting out the nap? How to deal with my own guilt when she says she needs me? I've never been able to let her cry. And WIWO doesn't sound like it would work if she's never been an independent sleeper?
