sleeping issues

shawnjs

New to this board... I have an almost 2 year old and am 33 weeks GA with #2.  For the past few months our first child has gotten in the habit of waking up through the night, crying and we go get her and pull her into bed with us.  We know we made a mistake as the second baby is soon due and we are up a creek with this sleeping habit.  I tried sooo hard last night to let her cry it out and it broke my heart...  "momma please, rock Lucy"... screaming and crying.  I broke down and back to bed she went with us.  

 

Any recommendations?  Please I really don't know what to do... 

JaysonandKristin

There's no need to CIO if you're uncomfortable with it.  JMHO, don't let her cry for a prolonged period if you're not willing to let her CIO -- it doesn't do anyone any good.

Start by rocking her back to sleep.  You're going to lose sleep, but that's the price we pay as parents.  

Just don't bring her to your room.  She's old enough that she should be able to communicate her needs to you when she wakes.  Try to address them (within reason), and let her settle back to sleep in her own room.  

It may get difficult once you have two, but you can also consider the divide and conquer method.  DH took DS1 while I handled DS2.  Any sleep issue that DS1 was having was exclusively dealt with by DH, and I handled all things DS2 while he was a NB.  It worked really, really well for us.  It didn't matter that DH has to be up early for work in the morning AND has a terrible commute AND has to go to school FT at night.  We made it work.  Now, we have a 3 year old who STTN and a 17 month old who STTN.  

We are not opposed to CIO, but it was ineffective for our boys.  

WhitePicketFence

JaysonandKristin:

It may get difficult once you have two, but you can also consider the divide and conquer method.  DH took DS1 while I handled DS2.  Any sleep issue that DS1 was having was exclusively dealt with by DH, and I handled all things DS2 while he was a NB.  It worked really, really well for us.  It didn't matter that DH has to be up early for work in the morning AND has a terrible commute AND has to go to school FT at night.  We made it work.  Now, we have a 3 year old who STTN and a 17 month old who STTN.  

I agree with this. Rock her to sleep, sing her songs, snuggle her in her bed; do whatever you need to help her settle back down but don't allow her to come into your bed unless this is a habit that you will maintain once the baby is born.

We let DD1 CIO but she was only a year old at the time. I don't know how it would have worked once she was in a toddler bed and could verbally scream for me in the middle of the night. Once DD2 was born, DH and I took the divide and conquer approach like the previous poster. DD1 didn't wake up very often at that age but it did happen on occasion.  This actually worked really well for us.

Now that my kids are 36 and 17 months, they both STTN wonderfully - in their own beds!