Hello Moms...I have truly screwed myself with my soon to be 2 year old daughter Sienna. Ever since she was born I have rocked and held her to sleep. There have been a couple handful of times I have gotten her to fall asleep on her own when just laying her down. She sleeps thorugh the night and if she wakes can get herself back to sleep no problem BUT the issue I am now having is that she just started daycare a few days ago for the first time. The first few days she had no problems with the teachers laying her down at nap time and falling asleep on her own, but now she is starting to pitch a fit for naps. I know that I need to break this night time cycle or I will find myself rocking her to sleep after she goes into a toddler bed.

I need to know what steps I can take to do what needs to be done. I have done the cry it out in the past and it worked, but now that she is older I don't know how well that would go over. I have heard of putting a chair in the room or sitting on the floor and moving closer to the door every night, but I know this little monkey and there is no way she will not cry and be okay with me in the room and not holding her. I am at a stand still and need some advise in a bad way. I need to do9 this asap as she will be turning 2 on Monday the 19th.

Thanks for your help!!

Sandy

Well, Sandy, she's definitely at an age where being in the room won't work. Remember, babies/toddlers have a higher level of understanding then we give them acknowledgement.

From reading what you wrote, her transition to daycare, instead of being home with you all the time, is more than likely causing the "fits". She will need time to adjust. You can only control the sleeping environment at night, so perhaps you can create a routine with her that will consistently show her, over time, to fall asleep on her own. Dinner, bath, story, song, lay her down, then walk away (or some form of that). The key: BE CONSISTENT!

At this age, I'm thinking she'll have to cry it out. She'll get tired, and eventually go to sleep.

Best of wishes.

Hello Sandy,

I was having the same problem with my son up until last January. My little boy would put himself to sleep sporadically, and ONLY when Daddy put him down. Whenever I tried to put him in his crib awake he'd have a huge fit! So last January my husband was off work 4 nights in a row and he put the baby to bed every night, with one catch - he would rock the baby until he was visibly tired and calmed down (you know, when they get really still about 2 minutes before they fall asleep) but still awake and VIOLA!! It worked - all 4 nights!! 

After that little run I learned when to put him in his crib while I was rocking him. It varied from night to night, sometimes 10 minutes sometimes 18 minutes. (And yes, I put a digital clock in his room so I could keep track of it by the minute.) After about 2 weeks of doing this I noticed he was usually calm after 10-12 minutes of rocking. Then I started decreasing the time I rocked him 1 minute per week and now I don't have to rock him at all. I just go through his bedtime routine and put him in his crib wide awake. He even sits up in his crib as I'm going out the door and says night-night! He puts himself to sleep every night - granted some nights it takes him 45 minutes to actually go to sleep (I hear him talking to himself on the monitor) but I do not intervene unless he actually cries. The only time I've had to intervene in the last 4 months was a few weeks ago when he had a cold and a fever and it was especially hard to fall asleep, then I rocked him all the way to sleep.

Now I'm working on weening him off the nighttime bottle.

I don't think cry it out is any kind of solution. Your child just needs your help and cry it out is just plain mean and traumatizing to the child.

My best suggestion is to keep trying. Watch her really close and learn how long into rocking her she actually calms down. Perhaps your husband would have better success because the baby is so used to having you rock her to sleep - maybe if your husband tried it would help convince her she can fall asleep without mommy there.

Any don't forget the all important bedtime lovey - my son will not get close to sleep without his little kitty kat.