My DD has previously been a great sleeper (although has protested going to bed at night for a long time now). For the past month though she has taken to screaming at the top of her voice when we put her to bed and hammering on bedroom door. This is a problem as its waking my 10 month old DS. We deal with this by taking her back to bed and explaining that its bedtime and she needs to go to sleep etc etc. The second time she gets out of bed then she gets taken back with a firm 'good night, see you in the morning' and the third and subsequent times I put her back in bed and say nothing (supernanny technique). She continues to get out of bed and scream until she eventually asks for a cuddle which I give her and then she goes to sleep. This in itself is not too bad but then at the moment she then goes on to wake up 5 times a night at worst and twice at best. When we go in she just whinges and whimpers and won't say whats wrong although sometimes she says ' somethings hurting me', 'I want to say sorry', 'I need something' etc. Sometimes we can settle her with a drink of water and a cuddle but other times we just leave the room and the screaming and banging starts again - thus waking DS. If she does settle after a drink of water then more often than not she can't seem to get back to sleep and like last night is crying and shouting for me again 20 mins later.
I try not to get angry with her but when I'm stood on the landing with both DD and DS crying, I don't know who to deal with first (if DH is away with work) and I just get so annoyed that she has woken DS up! What is the best way to deal with this? I know she needs reassurance etc but it seems that when I do try to do this she gets irritated and cries more and when I leave the room she's hysterical. I've tried a reward chart but this isn't working. Should I try leaving her to cry for a few mins before I go in and she what happens?
Any advice appreciated. I'm really worried that she's not getting enough sleep as she won't nap in the day now.
x