My daughter is nearly 20 months and has always been a terrible sleeper. Frequent wake ups overnight, often awake again after only 15 mins of going back down! We've co slept on and off since 6 months but I'm pregnant with DC2 and wanting to start establishing a good sleep routine before the baby comes. She's BF and we've done day weaning this month so she no longer looks for feeds during the day. I'm keen to now look at night weaning but don't know how this will affect her sleep!
My main question is about getting her down initially at night. I've made a rod for my own back as she's always been fed to sleep or fed/rocked to sleep. I've never mastered the whole putting her down sleepy but awake thing. The problem is that now she's older and more alert, feeding and rocking to sleep aren't always working. So I'm left with a 20mo who doesn't have the skills to get herself to fall asleep and the skills I have no longer work consistently. If I just put her in her cot, she will cry and cry, and I'm really not keen on the cry it out method.
Does anyone have any experience with this? What could I do to help her get to sleep in a way that wouldn't be completely distressing for her?
Thank you for any advice xx