Room sharing siblings... now 16mo is waking in the night.

[madcows]

Hello,
Really hoping someone will be able to help. Our youngest (16m) was generally a good sleeper, but things being going downhill and are now pretty bad. She wakes, stands up and yells... and it is increasingly difficult to get her back to sleep without milk. It is happening several times a night. Last night that didn't work and we resorted to medised. We'd try some sort of controlled crying, but she shares with older brother (5yo) and he is being woken. He's shattered, and really needs his sleep. (He was a nightmare sleeper for years, and I really don't want to mess his sleep up!) We have soemtimes ended up with him in our bed, and one of us in his bed... but feel this isn't going to help in the long run.
What can we do... we're lost and desperate!
thanks,
madcows

bump bump...
ANYONE got children sharing rooms? How do you cope?

We have a travel cot in our room and move ds into it if he wakes in the night and is being noisy. Obviously this isn't ideal because he keeps us awake but better than waking up dd.

He used to wake up in the night and cry for ages before going back to sleep, night weaning and controlled crying (which we did with him in our room at around 18 months) really helped with this. On a typical night now (he is just 2) he wakes up to go for a wee but goes back to sleep in his own bed with 2 minutes of back rubbing. We mostly use the cot in our room for the early mornings now.

Hope this helps.

My two (3 and 16 mnths) share a room. I am lucky in that it would take a direct nuclear strike to wake DD1, so screaming isn't really an issue if DD2 does kick off.

I would have thought that moving your son out of the room for a couple of nights (as you have done a few times - but plan it, put him straight to sleep in your room) and trying serious sleep training with your DD would be the answer. You could put DS' matress on your floor for a couple of nights if you don't want him in your bed. Controlled crying usually works very quickly (3 days or so) if done consistently, although a half way attempt (you say you have sort of tried it but can't carry it through because of waking your DS) is likely to make things much worse. Once your DD realises, as she probably already has, that enough crying will elicit a bottle of milk she'll just carry on and on, so you will need to be really firm for a few nights and brace yourself.

I did CC with both my DDs with great and very quick results. For the first half hour I'd go in every 5 mins lie them back down say something soothing and walk out again (no more then 30 secs or so in the room). After that I went in every 10 mins until they fell asleep. DD1 was hardest, with her I had nearly 2 hours of crying the first night which was DREADFUL, luckily DH and I supported each other or I'd have given in. Second night was about 45 mins, third night just a bit of fussing.