Hi
My DD is 14 months and has only very recently cut her first tooth and since then her bedtime routine went out of the window. We used to give dinner at 5, playtime till bout 6.45 then start winding things down, bath at 7.00, take her downstairs for her bottle and she'd settle and then by 7.30, 7.45 at the latest, off to bed. Since she cut her first tooth she fought and fought to stay up and play, would have her bottle then look like she was going to settle then all of a sudden sit bolt upright and it was as if she'd had a ton of chocolate. We tried all sorts, doing her bath later and putting her down later. That didn't work, it just meant that me and DF had less of an evening and with me now being 19wks pg, getting very exhausted. We tried putting her in her cot, she would scream and scream, not just cry. To the point that she was that upset she would be sick. Not only that, she started waking in the night and not settling back to sleep on her own like she always used to. Again, being sick if she was left.
After a couple of weeks of that i turned to a wonderful friend for advice to what she would do as i thought perhaps she would have a miracle cure. Well it wasn't quite a miracle, but it was close....
She suggested not taking her back downstairs for her bottle, keep her in her room or ours with the lights off and sing to her to keep her calm. We tried this the first night and she settled straight away. However when we placed her in her cot she stirred and started crying lots. It was suggested that as DF had got her into the habit of being picked up when she started crying, to leave her and just gently pat her chest till she calmed down. And this worked, she has a comforter and sucks her thumb, she rolled over and went off to sleep. The only thing that stirred her then and kept on doing so was the creaky floor boards. We kept doing the 'patting' and she would eventually settle. Even took an hour one night. We also changed from using a sleeping bag to blankets/sheets and bought a really comfy matress for her, spring instead of foam.
So now we have reached the point where we can settle her fine to get her off to bed, so by 7.30 she is tucked up in her bed. But... she is now waking up at 3 or 4am and wants to be with us and no matter how many times we pat her she will not go back to sleep on her own so a couple of times we had her in with us cos we were so tired, big mistake. We only did it a couple of times and now she is in the routine of it i feel so bad that we did it in the first place. When we leave her now she is sick again and is beside herself, grabbing her face and pulling her ears. We have tried all the teething powders/calpol/calprofen/mediced etc but nothing seems to help her. We are stuck now to what to do to get her out of the routine of being with us, but not having her be sick all the time!
It's very difficult to know what to do for the best, when you're that tired, all's you want to do is sleep!
So sorry for such a long post, but feel much better now i have all that off my chest, sorry to bore you with it. I'm sure many of you can relate to this so any suggestions very very welcome! And if anyone has a magic wand, just name your price! Hee Hee
Thanks x
p.s sorry for the typos, i'm tired x