16 mth old won't sleep in her cot.

Hi,

Not sure what to do...

Our 16 mth old DD used to be a good sleeper at night.. Sleeping through no issues. About mid Jan, she started waking and not settling again in her cot. I tried feeding, tried just comforting in her room, and being in early pregnancy at the time, I was so tired, and at my wits end, let her sleep with us. Now we can't get her out of our bed. She can be sound asleep and as soon we put her in the cot, she screams. Often so much she makes herself sick. We can go through the same procedure each night and if we eliminate the cot and straight to our bed, not a peep all night..

The thing is DH and I can't both sleep in the bed with her.. She is the only one that gets sleep as she thrashes about so much, so we have resorted to alternate nights with her. 1 of us will sleep in our bed, 1 in the guest room, but we can't go on like that..

Is she just trying to tell us that she doesn't like the cot anymore? We have considered putting her on a matteress on the floor with pillows around her (to simulate when she is in our bed on her own) to see if we have any success. I am happy to sleep in her room with her for a few nights to help her get used to the change, and if it works, getting a bed for her.

What do you think? Any other suggestions on getting her to sleep out of our bed again are also welcome (except leaving her in our bed)..

Thanks
Heather

My DD had been a beautiful sleeper (mostly in her own cot) up until about this age too! My pet peeve was that her disruptions started right in winter time and I froze trying to re-settle her in her own bed. So she came in to us, but same as you, sometimes the constant thrashing about meant we had to take her out and try the cot again. Our solution might not work for you, but here's what we did:

I took the sides off her cot to turn it into the junior bed. She then had the freedom to jump out of bed and run into our bedroom when she needed us. No more getting up in the cold for me! I was worried she would fall over or run into something in the dark, but no, she belted in at full pace the first night without any light at all! Because she knew she was able to come into us I think it made it easier for her too. Maybe because I didn't have to get out of bed I just looked at it differently. ;) I think she started doing it less and less though. And we got a bit firm, you must sleep in bed with Mummy and Daddy, any playing and jumping around and you can go back in your own bed. In the morning she's also able to get up and play if she wants to.

Don't know if it will help you, but it made life easier for us.