Help!

DD (16mo) was awesome at going to bed at night before we moved the start of June - our routine was dinner, bath/shower, read book and bed at 7pm. She would go straight to sleep and stay asleep all night until 730am. When we moved, that all went out the window - combo of teething and new environment I think - and her eye teeth have been giving her loads of grief, which the last one has just come through a week ago.

Anyway, her day sleep is awesome - straight in to bed at 1230-1pm, asleep no probs and stays there until 230-330pm. Night time though is a different story - we do the same routine but last night it took two hours of screaming, trying to calm her down, tantrums and more screaming until she finally crashed in my arms at 9pm (this is fairly typical, although most nights its just her being a ratbag, not the tantrum we had last night).

She does sleep through most nights but with #2 on the way plus being at the beginning of calving, I'm exhausted by the end of it and cant see how I can do that much longer.
She will calm down for DH but the second he passes her back to me, all hell breaks loose. He is needing to check cows and night, and possibly be calving cows so I really need to be able to handle bed time on my own for the most part.

Any ideas? Have been looking over the sleep store website - have had great success when she was about 9mo with the VR technique but not sure if that would work this time.

Any ideas would be awesome. Im tired and sore, and really want to get this sorted before Im much bigger.

Thanks

Shes always been a 7-730am riser but since shes been going to bed later, shes been more like 730 if the boys are noisy going to work, or anywhere between 8-830 if they arent. So cant complain but Id like my nights back.

I think its a combo of me being lenient with the move/teething which formed new habits and her pushing boundaries to see what she can get away with but after looking on sleepstore and talking to a few people, I think we will start VR again tonight. Going to be even more unpleasant than the first time but I think I just have to do it. Wish me luck!

No cause shes loves it in there in the day, and goes to sleep no problems for her day sleep. Wondered if it could be a darkness thing but I leave the light on outside her room and the door open so its not pitch black.

We've had a bit of thus recently too with dd13 months. I've stretched out the night time routine a bit, and we have some wind down time in her room before I out her in the cot. Usually involves a chat where we go round her room and say goodnight to lots of the things on the walls, her toys etc etc. It seems to have broken the cycle that we'd gotten into of tears as son as I'd put on her sleep sack. Hope you find something simple like this that helps- hopefully it's just a phase!

Maybe it could be then Kel. We are moving her into a new room in the next couple of months once I finish painting/get her single bed sorted so Im hoping it doesnt start it up again.
Shes in bed at the moment crying, been 15 minutes - just about to do another check in. Not as bad as last night but Im trying to drown it out with facebook/ohbaby/trademe

Sally - we did that tonight, instead of reading her books on the chair by the fire, I took her into her room and had a good solid 20-30 minute story/wind down time (rather than 10 minutes). Have also gotten rid of her sleep sack and just dressed her warmer - I think the restriction of it wasn't helping.

We have recently moved into a new house too, about a month ago, and my DS went through a phase of being a real pickle about bed time. Up till we moved house he's been an ANGEL at bedtime/through the night. It started with him realising he could open the door in his new room (he always could in the old house, but he never got out of bed so he never tried) and then he would come downstairs and want to join in the fun and wouldn't go back to bed without a tantrum.

We did VR basically, but also had to babygate the door as well as we are in a 3 storey house and DS is on the top floor - he can get down the stairs before a baby monitor registers he's out of bed so it's a safety thing for us. We just stuck doggedly to the night time routine, spent a bit more time in the room winding down as a PP suggested and tried VERY hard not to let DS see our frustrating when putting him back to bed. I did spend a couple of nights sitting outside the door on the stairs reading a book in between check ins too.

Since your DD is able to climb out of her cot, are you able to take the side off the cot till you get her single bed sorted?

Good luck, I hope you get things sorted soon.

KerryLea wrote: Ok so that didnt go very well. She climbed out of her cot and fell with a thud, followed by more crying. DH (bless him!) calmed her down and shes just gone down. At a loss...tomorrows another day

Oh no!!!!
Hope tonight has gone better.....

If I let DD sleep to long during the day she can be a pain to settle at night. I don't let her sleep after 2.30/3 anymore so that we can get to bed at a reasonable time. She gets about 1.5-2 hours for her nap then will sleep 11-12.5 hours at night (bed at 7 up anywhere between 6 and 7.30). She is a little bit older but we started this at around 18 months.

Could be worth a try if the VR doesn't work.