15 Month Old Not Sleeping Again!

I highly recommend the short book "To Train Up a Child" by Michael Pearl. His website is nogreaterjoy.org. Have you tried co-sleeping. It works AWESOME for us. The baby feels so secure and snug and she won't miss a thing if you're right there with her. My son is a great sleeper at night due to co-sleeping! Naps require training, I highly recommend the above book. Hang in there and cherish your baby as much as possible!

Hi M.,
This might not be a popular opinion but I'll tell you what I did. First of all, for me, I did not believe in cry it out for my baby when he was young. I just think they need to have every single need met when they're tiny so they learn to feel secure. However, once mine was older than a year I felt like he could "take it", for lack of a better word. He usually goes down super easily but during those phases when it's normal bed time, he is clearly not in pain, nothing is going on and he still does not want to go to sleep, I do let him cry for a couple minutes at a time.

I will talk to him and tell him I love him, it's time to go to bed, I'll see him in the morning and leave. It's all very loving but firm. Then 2 minutes later if he's still upset I'll come back in and pat his back or bum and talk to him. I won't pick him up, just let him know I love him and I'm sorry he's upset, etc. He's usually down within 10 minutes. Now if he's super upset, and it feels "wrong" then I'll just pick him up and let him watch tv with me for 30 minutes and try again. I believe he is a great sleeper bc when the time was right and he was old enough, we tought him that bed time was bed time and he needed to go to sleep, it's what's expected of him. Don't know if that helps or not but it's what worked for us. Good luck!

Your daughter could be cutting molars at this age. Have you tried Baby Orajel?

If she is not taking a nap during the day then she must be extremely tired and fussy by the time bedtime comes around. What we do with our son is he gets his bath right after supper, cause thats when he's the most dirty. The Bedtime bath does relax him a little more. He gets to play until bedtime and then we put a movie on and rock him. It may not be the best way, but it works for us. Nothing else works. Sometimes it takes him a little longer to fall asleep,but he definately starts to relax just sitting with us. Then eventually falls asleep. We also wait about 5 or 10 minutes for him to be fully asleep before putting him in his crib because he will wake up and won't go back to sleep for along time. Hope this helps at least a little. Good luck.

What worked best for my dd (23 months- but we started this at 12 months)is a very consistent routine. Ours is 7:30 bath, small snack, brush teeth about 8 dh and I take her to her bed, she picks out 3 books and we read together by her bed (she has been in a toddler bed for 4 months, we used to do this in the rocking chair when she was in the crib and that was a little harder because then you have to physically seperate from her at the end),we say prayers, she lays down then she picks out 3 songs- after 1st one lights out, after second one hugs and kisses and we turn her music on, after second one we do butterfly kisses eskimo kisses, make sure she has her blankie and stuffed animal (puppy)and nightlite- then finally say night night.

We also keep a sippy cup of water by her bedside so she can get one if she wants. If she does cry we tell her to sing to her puppy and usually she does or talks to heself for a bit and falls asleep.

Setting a routine that fits her likes will be a huge benefit and if she isn't in the big bed yet- setting a nice routine now will be imperative to that success. Rocking to sleep ended up making us miserable because our dd would wake endlessly to be rocked through the night. We love our time with dh each evening- it's fun!

When in the crib I would go in if she cried and give her the sippy with water, she'd drink and I'd lay her back down and she went back to sleep (this is after we began the routine and she learned we weren't picking her up unless diaper needed changing).

I would make sure that there is not a reason that she would not want to sleep...

Then either develop or stick to a soothing routine in the evening. She may need more activity in the early evening so she is more tired when bed time comes around.

Perhaps reading her a story and letting her know bedtime is coming up... show her a clock (yeah I know she is young- but they understand more than we give them credit for)... and perhaps set a timer and when the timer goes off, it's time for bed. Be consistant... if she has to cry for 15-20 minutes-it's ok.

At this age, they are also learning what kind of control they have... if she knows "I can keep crying and they will come get me..." she will hang out until you give in. After 15 minutes, go in lay her down, tell her you love her... and leave again... it may take a week or two, but she will learn.

My son would run- literally just run up and down the house when he was tired. We learned if we just made him sit still- he would be out.

My friend used natural remedy for kids at www.zoneofnaturalremedies.com . They have kids sleep help in the kids section. Good luck-W.

I agree with other posters that said that you need a routine and then stick with it. We had the same problem with our son and it was soooo hard! He was 14 months old before he started sleeping through the night. I did the routine where you sit in the room and each night move the chair closer and closer to the door until I eventually was out in the hall. I just sat quietly and didn't talk to him. If he stood up crying, I laid him down without talking and went back to my seat. It was tiring and frustrating but it worked.

We use a fan in our girls' room one during the day when there are lots of noises that will wake them up. I just point it away from them and turn it on low. We also have a CD player in our kids rooms and we turn on soft music when they go to bed. Our son is 5 and still loves his music at night.
If you think she might be teething, try the Orajel Nighttime. It lasts longer.

Good luck. Hang in there!

This actually happened to me too when my son was around 15 months old. It got so bad and my nerves were so frayed that my wonderful husband ended up taking off 3 days of work to stay at home with me so we could work it out together. A great support system is so important! Anyway, we really implemented the "cry it out" method with our son. We would go and check on him about every 10 minutes because it never failed that he would cry so hard that he pooped! I'm not kidding...it was ridiculous. The first day he cried almost the whole hour. The second day it was about half that time. The third day it was much better. We did this for both of his daytime naps. And now...magically...we place him in his crib and shut the door and he doesn't cry. It has gotten so much better! But I think that you and your husband need to be really firm about letting your baby cry for at least a week. I promise you it will get better after training. We also invested in a little fan for white noise that works and we also got the black out curtains for his room too. Good luck!! I really do know how you feel mama!

Hi,
I am a mom to two girls ages 2 and 4 and both of them went through phases like this at around 15-18 months.

My husband and I -- hard as this sounds -- used the "cry it out" method. It is HARD, but it is effective. We would go in after 30 minutes of baby crying, and in a loving but stern way we would say "goodnight, see you in the morning" pat her on the back and leave the room. Obviously, we kept checking on her if she continued to cry - and both of mine did - but we wouldn't go in the room again (and she didn't see us until morning). We figured if we kept going in the room then she was learning that each time she cries, we come.

Anyway, the first night we tried this was the hardest -- I remember the crying lasted around 1.5 hours. The second night was around 45 minutes. The third night and so on was less than 20 minutes. By the end of about 10 days, she just went to sleep when we put her down with no crying.

Our method isn't for everyone, but it worked well for us. Both our girls go to sleep now without any problems each night.

I hope you can find a way that you are comfortable with that gives you, hubby, and baby a good night's sleep! Good luck!