my situation is exactly how you have said in your reply Chell.
the last time i was able to leave the room with Ryan either drowsy or awake is when he was around 10 months old. everything changed here as his reflux had got really bad , between finding a medecine that was working for him , i had to do what i could to make him comfortable. he would toss and turn and not be able to settle to sleep , i was constantly having to sit him up and relieve his wind and the acid , because of this it was hard to just leave him to settle on his own as he was in a lot of discomfort.
with the going back in every 5 mins it is stopping him nodding off as he waits to see me coming back in , like i said in last post , it's like a game to him .
with the tuck him in , and goodnight , walk out , the more i do it the quicker he is to call me! if i do it more than a few times this is when he cries the minute i move from his bed.
as i don't know a way around this without distressing him and losing trust , it seems i may have to hold off and maybe wait till he is older and try and bargain with him , explain a bit more about what's going to happen.
after the herondous night we had last night , he fell asleep within 30mins tonight but actually checked if i was there with him , which is not something he has done before. he will let me sit on the edge of his bed now rather than lay down. he has such a small room so the inching the chair closer to the door doesn't really work as his door is at the end of his bed !
thanks for your reply , i shall try looking through tracy's book to see if i can find anything in there.
p.s i don't mind you joining my post Jo , hope you are able to resolve your problem , if you do let me know how you managed.