This is getting silly now - help!

[RGPargy]

DD (nearly 16 mo) has always slept through from 7 til 6/7/8am. It was great because we could put her down awake in her cot and she would go off to sleep of her own accord, happy with no crying etc.

Occassionally we had the odd night where she would cry if we put her down and went out the room, which no amount of ignoring would cure as she gets hysterical (snot/tears everywhere) if you dont go back in there within 2 minutes maximum.

however, this "odd" night has now lasted a few months and she now will only go to sleep if she's put in her sleeping back, laying in my arms and drinking her milk. After her milk she normally sits there and falls asleep quite quickly.

The last two nights however have been horrendous. Although she's sat there in my arms, she's been chatting away and wide awake and before you know it, the whole evening has gone and it's 10pm. It was gone 10pm before she fell asleep last night and it's now gone 10 again but DP took her upstairs at 9.20pm so i have no idea if she's asleep or not yet.

I know she has a bit of a top back molar poking through (probably about 1/4 of it) so i should imagine the worst is over for that tooth, but does this sound like teething or is she being a little madam for reasons more sinister?!

We did think that maybe she's having a growth spurt too as she's just constantly running around like a looney, picking up new words, new baby signs and doing new things and developing etc. Perhaps her brain wont shut down? Wish we could find the bloomin' off button!

I think in some ways we have made a rod for our own back by bringing her back down to begin with before then deciding to let her fall asleep downstairs.

I am wondering if we need to get back into the habit of putting her in her cot every night, letting her cry for just a little bit and then going in there to try and settle her and then failing that, bringing her into our bedroom where we sit with her til she falls asleep there. I'm wondering if the TV/lights in the front room are too much stimulation for her, especially recently!

Any ideas anyone? Thank you for getting this far and sorry for the long post!

My ds is going through similar now. I have never taken him out of his bedroom after he's been put down. I have though started to take a pillow and blanket in ther and I just lay on the floor with my eyes shu until he falls asleep, although I normally fall asleep first! This for me is geting beyond a joke and I think I have made a rod now too so think the only option is to start again from the beginning and re-establish a bedtime routine and put in place sleep triggers iyswim.
I have now decided that as of tomorrow, I will be going in and out to him, so in effect, doing CC I suppose.
Good luck to you.

yes, i would do that. You can go back in and reassure every few minutes but just keep on doing the same - that imo is showing her that everything is OK but reintroducing her to what used to be the normal routine. I know its a pain and easier to bring her down, but a few evenings doing it and I bet she will start to settle again. Short term hassle, long term gain. Or letting her fall asleep in your bedroom if that's the routine you want her to have. Maybe change the milk to water first if you don't want to keep feeding at that time?

SomeMightSay - We've done a similar thing with her too. We used to just stand over her cot with our hands on her back, just to let her know we were there. The back ache was awful tho!! lol! So then we tried just standing in her room with our backs to her so that she knew we were there but couldn't make eye contact/talk to us. That didn't work either as she was keep sitting up and playing with her teddies etc.

JiminyCricket - I think you are right. We have to be cruel to be kind, as it were. I dont want her to fall asleep in our bedroom as a habit, but sometimes when she was very very upset (in the days of the first few teeth) she would quite happily come into our bedroom and fall asleep in my arms while i sat on the bed with her.

I think the crux of the matter is that DP and I dont want to spend all our evening stuck up in a bedroom with a crying snotty child, but i guess if we want our decent bedtime routine back again, it's what we'll have to do.

We do make sure she has triggers for sleep etc and carry out exactly the same routine every night (except we bath her on alternate nights) so she knows when it's bedtime.

How long do you reckon it'll take to get her back into her routine? Is it a matter of 3 or 4 days or are we talking weeks here?

I've done in and out with ds1 a few times and it's normally about 3 days. The reason I've been reluctant to do this now is because I dont want ds's crying to wake the new baby as it takes a while to settle him. Neverending!!!!!!

SomeMightSay - Ugh, you poor thing!!

I know! Nevermind. I'll remind them of this when it's their turn to look after me!

Well, i hope i did it right tonight.

I gave DD her bed time bottle and she looked like she was going to fall asleep on my lap as she was soooo tired. But at 7.30 she started to perk up again so i took her upstairs and told her it was bedtime, put her into her cot and walked out. And so began the hour long battle of the Zzzzs. I went in there about every minute or 2 at first because she was really upset but then when she started to calm down a little, i was in there every 5-10 minutes or so, depending on how her cry sounded. I had to pick her up 3 times during the hour and each time i picked her up i walked towards her door to close it and that made her worse. That confirmed my suspicions that she was just throwing a hissy fit and wanted to come downstairs. Eventually she fell asleep in my arms (the third time i'd picked her up) so i put her back in her cot. She woke up and started crying again but i ssshhhh'd her and stroked her back for about 30 seconds and she finally gave in and was out like a light. So far we've not heard a peep.

I hope i did the right thing tonight.

I do feel mean for her crying that much but i DID go in and keep reassuring her/giving her back her dummy etc! I hope she still loves her mummy in the morning!!

Actually i should point out that when she fell asleep in my arms, it was the instant i'd picked her up the third time. I hadn't been standing there rocking her to sleep or anything (which would defeat the ojbect of this exercise i think!).

It definitely sounds like molars to me. They are awful and pain killers are wonderful. Before molars hit, my DS would say "night night mommy" and go to sleep while his dad sat with him (pootling on his laptop). Then one night there was suddenly horrendous bloodcurdling screaming unless there was a boob in the mouth. Ibuprofen was the only thing which stopped the all-night comfort nursing and tempered the screaming enough for him to go to sleep. It lasted a good 4 months, but that included the worst of the canines, too. Then we had a month long respite before the 2yr molars arrived. Still battling those.

I would suggest neurofen too - think DS has his molars coming through (16mo) and the last few nights he's been bloody miserable, and grouchy during the day too (unlike him!)

Neufen is magic stuff for him though, you can literally see it working

hmmm thanx for that. Dont have any ibuprofen but have Calpol - will that do? She's fine during the day, mostly. Sounds familiar doesn't it!!

although i should add that she's not in pain (what i can see anyway) and looks like she just simply doesn't want to go to bed and is extremely hyper! She's normally hyper when she's very tired so this is why i think it's all an act, perhaps.

calpol does bugger all for DS, it's weird. might be worth a try?

WEll, no need for either. DD was out like a light after sitting on my lap for 10 mins after her milk! Now i feel bad because she might have been teething after all!