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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
ally81698
member
Can you sleep-train a 17 month old?
ally81698
member
I have definitely created a big mess and have no idea how to get out of this. So when we took DD's pacifier away 2 months ago, she couldn't soothe herself to sleep so I laid with her on the bed in her room and when she fell asleep, I put her in her crib. Now, she is completely used to this routine and is asleep within 5 minutes. To be honest, I don't mind doing this, however, she is now waking up every night around 1-2 am, realizes I'm not there and starts crying her eyes out. She literally won't stop until I go in there, take her out and lay on the bed with her again. But this time around, she doesn't really fall back asleep. Every time I get up to move her to her crib, her eyes open immediately. Even if I open my eyes to look at her, she's staring at me. Then she sees I'm "awake" and she starts talking and cooing and snuggling all over me. DH can't comfort her, he's tried.... she only wants me. I haven't slept a "normal" night's sleep in over a month and I'm slowly losing my mind (since I have to be up for work at 4:45am).
Is it too late for sleep training? Any recommendations? She is 17 months.
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Re: Can you sleep-train a 17 month old?
It's definitely not too late to sleep train. I did it at 18 months. My son had never really STTN before that.
Sounds like you should do your normal routine, and tell her how she's going to fall asleep in her crib by herself. Does she have a lovey she uses? If so, make sure she has that.
I put my son in the crib, and he SCREAMED and jumped up and down and generally made a huge fit. I'd let him go for a few minutes, and then go in and say "it's night night time, go to sleep". This usually didn't do anything, but that's all I'd say, and then I'd walk out the door. After that, I wouldn't go in again. When he woke up in the middle of the night, I would go in the first night, and repeat the phrase, but after that, I wouldn't go in. It was so hard to be in bed and listen to him cry. After maybe 3 nights, he was STTN. I wish I'd done it earlier!
I don't think it's ever too late! We sleep trained at 15 months because I was being driven crazy by the lack of sleep and was not a happy mommy. I had always nursed her to sleep for bed and nap times and was nursing her in the middle of the night when she woke up just to get her to fall back asleep quickly so I could go back to sleep.
I still nursed her before bedtime, but once I put her in the crib we turned on her projector and left. We let her cry for 4,6,8, then every 10 minutes, checking in on her at each interval to give her a hug to calm her down then would lay her back down and leave. It took like an hour before she would finally fall asleep. I was ready to give up because I couldn't take the screaming and crying, but after a week it started magically working and she would put herself back to sleep when she woke up in the middle of the night! Good luck!