Fading fast

Hi There! Well, if you don't mind suggestions, I'd be glad to share some of my trials and tribulations I had with my DD. She didn't sleep through the night AT ALL until she was 10 months old. I finally sought advice from the doctor and as torturous as it was, I finally nipped it in the bud and she has slept through the night ever since. She is now 20 months and goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps until 8am.

My thoughts with Cadence: She is using you as her comfort to fall back asleep. She needs to learn to fall asleep on her own and this is where it gets tricky. My first question is? How do you put her to bed at night? Do you hold her until she is asleep? If so, you are teaching her to need you to go back to sleep when she wakes during the night? You are her comfort.

If this is the case, you need to start putting her to bed in the evenings while she is still awake. Start a routine. Bathe her and feed her and then put her in her bed. If she falls asleep while feeding, try to awaken her some so she is going to sleep in her crib on her own. If she cries, you are going to have to let her for a few nights, but she'll eventually learn to fall asleep without you. If it is too hard to handle her crying...go in her room after 5 minutes, do not take her out and just pat her belly. Calm her down and leave. If she continues to cry, wait 10 minutes before going in and repeat. (Just don't take her out to comfort her) Continue with this process adding 5 minutes each time until she eventually is asleep.

THEN...if she wakes up during the night, she'll go back to sleep on her own as well. The first few nights you may have to comfort her using the 5 minute intervals during the night as well. It's hard, but it took our little Marlee less than a week.
Am I making sense?
GOOD LUCK!

If I am off on what her problem is let me know. I'll give more suggestions.

Sorry for the novel, but I really hope this helps!

OH and once you have mastered this, I have suggestions for her as she gets older. =)

I will definetely try this tonight! I do beleive she is using me for comfort and she is going through seperation anxiety pretty bad too but I am willing to try ANYTHING to get a few hours of sleep!!!!

I agree with KLB321 - my daughter has, is having, has had - the same problem. She will sleep through the night until something happens - a growth spurt, new tooth, new skill, etc. and then she will wake up at 2:00 and at 4:00 am. And she screams her head off. A little comfort followed by space and maybe another visit for a second round usually does the trick. She is getting better at comforting herself but it doesn't happen overnight.