Please tell me how to get my toddler to sleep!

[curiousgeorgie]

She used to be fantastic and though she occasionally cried for 5-10 minutes, she would sleep through and have a nap of about 1.5 hours in the day.

When she was 20 months we stayed with my parents for 5 months while a house fell through and we found another and she shared a room with us.

We've now moved and she's back I'm her own room and its a nightmare. Last night she didn't sleep all day long and eventually crashed out at 1am only to wake up at 4am and hysterically cry for hours.

Tonight she went to bed at 8 and has been screaming for three hours. I've tried everything, a DVD in her room for bed (always worked on holiday), sitting in the room holding her hand, telling her every 15 minutes to lay down and go to sleep and then leaving, telling her off, singing... Everything.

It's been a month of this now and I'm pregnant with my second child and this just can't go on.

Everything I google doesn't work. She's still in her cot (hyper mobility problems so doesn't even try to climb out yet) she still has a sleep in the day, usually in the car / pram / sofa so I know she's tired and needs it.

Please please help me. I'm in a total panic that this is still going to go on in 6 months when I have the baby.

Tell me what to do.

Aww, you poor thing - my son has always been a temperamental sleeper so I know how distressing it can be! Do you think she is overtired? What happens if you put her to bed in your room, will she settle this way?

I think if it was me, I'd try her in my bedroom for a week or 2, once she is settling again properly I'd move both me and her into her bedroom so she gets used to the room but still has me for comfort; then after a further couple of weeks I'd leave her on her own in her room.

Incidentally, we tried putting DS into a bed rather than cot when he was around 15 months to see if it helped him sleep better, and it was the worst thing we could have done! We tried again months later when he was sleeping far better and it was so easy, so if she's still happy in her cot then I wouldn't rush to change that for her! :)