My 18 Month Old is Waking During the Night

The Abby sleeping saga continues and after much reading, I've decided to to diagnose her problem as separation anxiety. We decided to give her one last chance of sleeping in her crib before we switched it out for a big girl bed. Last night we put her down and used the pray and tip-toe method after laying her down, hoping that she would sleep through the night. Alas, this did not work, but, not to worry, we had a backup plan...muah ha ha ha. We had set up her pack and play (modern words for playpen) in our bedroom right next to my side of the bed. Once the clock tolled 10:30, and of course we had just fallen asleep, we heard the cries of a wee one in the next room over. Mat went in with her and attempted to put her back to sleep, but to no avail. He brought her in our room and she stood crying in her pack and play with my arms wrapped around her. The night before, she slept with us, but it killed my back, because she insisted on sleeping on top of me. Once her crying stopped I held her hand while she stood in her pack and play and I reassured her that I'd be right there next to her. I then fell asleep holding her hand, while she stood fighting sleep for a little over an hour. She popped back up about 3 times to make sure I was still there and immediately laid back down and fell asleep.

After last night's escapade we finally broke down and packed up Abby's crib and moved the twin bed into her room. I found myself a little sad, my baby is growing up, and to make matters worse the only sheet we could find was black. For some reason, I couldn't stand my baby sleeping in black, even though black was my favorite color when I was her age...weird huh?

While doing research on how to handle Abby's sleeping issues and talking with others, I was given MANY suggestions. Here are a few, maybe they will help others.

-Bring the child to bed with the parents
-Have the child sleep on a mattress on the floor next to the parents bed
-Read to the child until she falls asleep
-Lay in the child's bed with her
-Play music/a movie in the child's room
-Use the cry it out/Ferber method (let the child cry herself to sleep, going in and comforting her every 5 or more minutes
-Let her cry as long as you can stand, then go in
-Let her cry herself to sleep and do not go in (SO harsh)!

The cry it out method never worked with Abby, and besides, a wise old homeless man once told us, "that baby needs to be rocked." So, this baby wearing, rock her to sleep Mommy can not find it in herself to let the babe cry until sleep claims her.

On a happier note, we finally got paid today! After compiling a large shopping list and withdrawing the necessary funds we headed off to the grocery store to buy some much needed food. I continue to create our grocery list based on the next ten meals that I've planned out. I still intend to post these meals/lists eventually ;) We're attempting to stick to a much tighter budget for the foreseeable future, which includes planning out all our meals and buying only what we need. It's more work to begin with, but is much easier when it comes to the day to day deciding of what to eat for dinner.

I'll be sure to let you know how Abigab likes her new bed.