Long story short: our son has been a pretty amazing sleeper from 10 months until a few weeks ago, when he was about 21 months old. My wife and I used Tracy's techniques to incredible effect, taking our fussy, OT'd baby and helping him become the incredible toddler he is today.
He's got a fairly consistent routine:
WU 6:30
Nap 12:30-2:30/3
BT 7:30
However, recent changes have played havoc with this pattern.
- I was involved with a difficult school year that concluded earlier in mid-June. My parents visited to attend the graduation, which coincided with 2-3 extremely loud night wake-ups while they were here. A short pick up and put down resulted in him going back to sleep easily on his own.
- Shortly after graduation, my wife went on vacation for three days, leaving him with me. I had no issue getting him to take his afternoon nap, but he began developing some evening bedtime resistance that I was able to work through by talking to him reasonably about it - it seemed like logic was actually working on a toddler! The night wakeups increased in frequency to 4-5 per night, and his resistance to being put down after being picked up increased noticeably.
- After his mom came home, the night wakings went down considerably, but he was unable to settle himself at night.
- We began to notice that he was chewing on his hand - while we can't feel them yet, I think his molars are coming in.
- He was diagnosed with an ear infection immediately prior to traveling to my parent's house for a week. The infection has been resolved, but while we were there, the bedtime resistance increased to an unmanageable point. To avoid a family confrontation due to his crying, we allowed him to fall asleep on us and transferred him to his pack and play. One major night time waking occurred almost every night requiring my wife to again allow him to fall asleep on her.
- I would not be surprised if he's having some nightmares. He woke up today after calling for his Nana in his sleep.
- In addition to the increasing bedtime resistance, he's been difficult to put down for naps and has been waking up earlier (~ 5:30).
Obviously we've fallen into some accidental parenting strategies in an attempt to keep the peace with my folks. Now we need to unravel what we've done, while adjusting to his developmental leap(s). His language skills have grown exponentially; he's using short sentences whereas six weeks ago he only had a few words. He clearly manipulates bedtime by demanding another book, more water, his fingernails or toenails to be cut, etc. "No," "done," or "more" have become his favorite words, and have negated our ability to give him two acceptable choices since he refuses both of them. He's also begun demanding the "chair" instead of the crib prior to bed - he's obviously gotten used to being held to go to sleep.
The moment we attempt to put him down in his crib, he begins to wail like I've never heard before. It's especially hard to resist since he's using "mama" and "daddy." Since he has been sleeping so well up until now, I can't quite tell what an angry scream is vs. a truly upset one, so it's hard for me to pinpoint when an appropriate time is to do WI/WO, which is what my wife and I think is the best choice for the next few weeks.
What I'm hoping for is some reassurance that the WI/WO strategy outlined here
WI/WO 22 month old is appropriate, or if some other approach is warranted. Appreciate the input and look forward to your advice.
