Toddler Sleep Training

[oceanstbride]

I posted a few weeks ago about DS's sleep going to crap with all of the recent changes going on in his life (us moving and then him starting a new DC last month). Well it has become much, much worse. We're at the point where one of us is sitting in the chair in his room until he eventually falls asleep and then sneaking out. If he wakes up, he starts screaming and freaking out and then the clock starts ticking again. He's sometimes waking up in the MOTN and I end up sleeping on the floor next to his crib. Up until now, we've been giving in because he's had a really hard time adjusting to this new daycare, so we've been going the "extra cuddles" and give him some time route. But it's clearly getting out of hand. We went shopping for a night light together and a special crib pal and so far that hasn't reassured him.

I read in the Positive Discipline book to make a bedtime routine chart together and stick to that. I plan on doing that with him either tomorrow or Sunday (we're staying with family Friday night to Sunday). But I think H and I need to have a "training" plan for when he inevitably freaks out. We are lucky in the fact that this is really the first time sleep has been an issue at 2+, but I have no idea what to do.

Ferber? Sleep Lady Shuffle?

[Deleted]

DH did Ferber with DS at about that age. He was not in a crib. The first night was AWFUL. Like, most of the night screaming. The second night was a little rough right around bedtime. The third night was smooth sailing. I won't say it solved all our problems forever, but it straightened things out for a while.

[kaycee]

You described my life until recently! I finally reached my limit because I was pregnant and couldn't sleep on the floor anymore. I also realized that I needed her to sleep better if we were going to have a newborn to care for.

I did cry it out. It was hard because she's older and typically pukes if she cries too hard, but she only cried like 10 minutes a night for a couple nights and that was it. That got rid of the wake ups, but we were still laying and waiting for her to fall asleep. We changed her bedtime routine around slightly and explained what was happening. The first night we put her in her crib and left she fussed for 5 minutes, the second night it was 2 minutes, and the third night it was 30 seconds. She now doesn't fuss at all and actually tells us to leave.

She has been a terrible sleeper since day 1, but I think she finally got to an age where we could explain things and it just clicked. Good luck!

[panicfoot]

We ferbered at 20 months and it was the best decision ever. He had never once STTN at that point.

He cried most of the night the first night, and a little on the second and STTN on the third.

We had previously tried SLS, but it just didn't work for him. I also couldn't go check on him while he was crying, but what did end up working was talking to him over the monitor.

He does still wake up sometimes, but I let him cry for a minute and if he doesn't calm down then I'll tell him to stop crying and lay down and I will sing him a song and that works like a charm. That doesn't happen very often though. He also does fuss for ten seconds or less when I put him in his crib, but that's getting better, too.

[Deleted]

DS was 18 months when we sleep trained. I tried the SLS for almost 2 weeks and never even made it to the foot of his bed, let alone to the door or out the door. It was also taking him longer and longer to fall asleep, and waking more MOTN. So we did classic Ferber and it went GREAT. Took 3 days and he's been mostly STTN ever since.