Sleep training

My boy was always waking during the transfer so when we moved him to the big cot I started climbing in and breast feeding him in his cot, is this an option for you? I’ve tried patting and shushing but it was killing my back so now I just climb in to settle him then climb out when he’s asleep. Not ideal but he’s a terrible sleeper

@Lisa I wish! She’s bottle fed and is so dependant on her dummy while sleeping. I’m also pregnant and have very bad pelvic pain so climbing in and out would cause so much pain. I’m going to give it a shot because I’ll try anything at this point

@Tammy she’s currently in a sleeping bag and usually loves them, 😭 I’ve tried rocking and tapping and have resulted to leaving her for a few mins to cry then picking her up to cuddle in my bed till I feel like she’s in a deep enough sleep because her screams just keep getting louder and louder. I’ll then place her back in her cot when I feel like she’s asleep and attempt to fall asleep myself then she wakes up again screaming to be held. I feel like I’m really loosing it tonight 😔

Omg I understand you so well. My little girl 15 months old is a terrible sleeper and I am pregnant for the moment. It is so difficult the lack of sleep. What we do is we sleep in a room with her and when she wants to be held we hold her and lay down in our bed hugging her and she gets some sleep. When she is in deep sleep I transfer her to her cot

There is a sleep regression at 8 months so it could be that. What's the timings/routine for waking, naps and bedtime?

@Imelda we do this exact same thing but she constantly wakes up once I’ve transferred her or even as I’m transferring her😭 took her 3.5 hours to get settled last night she slept for 4 hours then woke up, I cuddled till she fell asleep then transferred again after 40 mins then she woke up at 6 this morning. She’s now back asleep in her cot! I’m so exhausted 😔

@Natalie omg I didn’t know this! I thought I’d seen the last of that struggle when she was 4 months 🥲. She has quite a good routine it’s usually : 7:30am wake up 10:30/11am nap for 30 mins 2pm nap for 20 mins 3:30 nap for 1-1.5 hrs 8pm sleeping or falling asleep She has 3 meals a day and around 4 5/6oz bottles Her dad was admitted into hospital for the last 3 days and came home yesterday so she has been with her aunt for the day over 2 days then I would collect her in the evenings so her routine was very out of place she over slept a lot while she was there, could this also be a reason?

@Sabrina there are quite a few still to happen. Id say the day needs swapping around. Ideally you want the shortest wake window in the morning and the longer nap in the morning then wake windows get longer as the day goes on with the shorter nap in the afternoon to build the sleep pressure for overnight. Currently it's 3-3.5 before nap, 4 hours between but then only about 3-4 before bed. Id try 3 in the morning, 3.5 between naps then 4 hours before bed. You say she overslept - how so? Could it be that the naps just finished later so the gap wasn't long enough before bed? It taking a long time to fall asleep suggests timings aren't right.

@Natalie this is super helpful! Thank you. So she doesn’t take ages to fall asleep usually just last night. I was just so confused because so much had changed over the last few days. How do I get her to sleep longer in the mornings? She used to do this up until a month ago. Also she was taking 2/3 hour naps over at her aunts because she was so anxious and would cry for ages till she got tired and she’s not used to being there.

@Sabrina no problem. You may find that bringing the nap forward a bit may allow for a longer nap cos she's not gone down at the wrong point and then struggled to connect cycles. Sounds like she was exhausted from being upset so slept a lot. If she was having a 3 hour nap that started at her usual nap time then the gap wouldn't have been long enough before bed so she fell asleep when she'd had enough of a wake window. I see you've adjusted the timings on your post which suggests to me even more than the timings aren't right cos between nap 2&3 there is about an hour gap. If it's getting that close I'd drop to 2.

@Natalie Yh I thought about her timings over the last week or so and realised those times were more consistent. I’ll try to adjust the naps and see how I go. Thank you for the advice 🥰