SA and GW help please

[thomassm]

I posted last week about sleep problems after vacation, I thought that I had sorted it out but it seems I haven't.

Ok DD will go to sleep no problem for her nap, she will talk for a bit but eventually falls asleep, I never let her sleep later than 2pm so she will have an hour to hour and half, but at the moment in the night its a different matter.  I have always followed BW routines and she has always slept so now we have this problem when she is 28 months I'm not sure what to do.

We do the usual bedtime routine which we have done since she was born and then at around 8pm she asks to go to bed, but as soon as I put her to bed and walk out of the room she starts screaming, this has happened since vacation where we slept in room with her for 3 weeks, so I have been trying GW and sleeping in room with her until shes asleep then leaving, if she wakes up I go back in room until asleep again and then leave.

Ok my main question is, as I don't want to go to bed myself at 8pm, could I try keeping her up later as at the moment even with me in the room with her she isn't going to sleep until 10pm, also should I be staying all night in the room with her to begin with and wait for her to sleep all night through before going back to my own room.

Please help

[Layla]

I don't think keeping her up till 10pm is a good idea . I understand what you are saying about her not falling asleep till then at the moment but thats a pretty late bedtime & you really want her sleeping earlier than that. Having said that... if your presence is NOT relaxing her but rather stalling bedtime 2hrs past what it should be, perhaps you should consider the wi/wo method instead. I would give that a go (although she may cry, still she will get the idea that this is not play time & she needs to go to sleep). If she's going through SA, you can still use the wi/wo method. Sounds like you have become a prop & even with the GW method, you need to work towards getting yourself out of the picture. So if you want to stay there until she is asleep, you also need to move towards the door.

Give her lots of attention during the day, do a nice & relaxing windown & when its night time, leave. When she starts crying, go in & reassure her (its ok, mummy's here... go to sleep) & leave to start the count. You might be surprised. If she was a good sleeper in the past (before the vacation), she shouldn't take long to get into her old routine.

hth
Layla

[thomassm]

Hi there Layla thanks for your reply, I wasn't thinking of keeping her up until 10pm I was thinking more 9pmish, have tried the WI/WO method and I have to say it hasn't been successful thats why I went to the GW method, as soon as I leave the room she is kicking off, when I go back in she is quiet, again when I leave she screams.
I agree that I think she is using me as a prop and not sure how to get out of it, I have used GW in the past and it has always seemed to work, its so frustrating as she has slept through the night since 9 weeks old with little problems apart from teething and a bit of SA.

[mari]

How long did you try the WalkinWalkout method for?  It took a while for Alex to get the hang of it.

[thomassm]

Hi there I didn't do it for long cos she was screaming so hard I thought she was gonna make herself sick.  She went to bed no probs last night and slept all the way through, so fingers crossed same thing will happen tonight.

[mari]

Well, keep us posted.  We are here to help is you need us.

[Layla]

Ditto to what Mari said.

Fingers crossed no more problems at night

[thomassm]

Yep she slept again last night, so I'm a happy woman for now, thanks for all your help.