Helping toddler to fall asleep on her own?

[mamma2j]

Does anyone have advice or experience with this?? My DD is now 14 months and she goes to bed between 7-8 in her own crib after being rocked to sleep.  She almost always wakes anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hrs into the evening, and at that points ends up in our bed.  She finally sleeps through the night (which took about a year!)  I'd love for her to be able to stay in her crib all night, but my bigger concern is getting her to be able to fall asleep on her own.  How and when do we work on this??? I do not want to let her "cry-it-out", but is the only alternative then that I just have to suck it up and do this rocking/soothing for years to come?  Based on her track record, I highly doubt that she'll just start falling asleep on her own someday.

What about letting her cry? I really don't like the idea, but has anyone felt that at a certain age it's no longer "CIO", but rather, teaching a toddler that bedtime is bedtime?  I'm just curious.  If your opinion is simply "crying is awful, how could you even entertain the idea", then please refrain from commenting.  I'm just looking for BTDT help from others with similar situations.

DD is our first, and I'd love to have more soon, but I can't imagine caring for a newborn with all the attention that DD requires at night! 

[flavorfull1]

My advice, DS is 17 mo, is to keep helping her and be patient while she figures it out just like she has figured out walking and talking.  Each kid does it at their own speed and sleeping seems to fall into the same boat.  DS was a wake up every 15 min kid up until 12 mo and has slowly (very slowly) progressed into sleeping five hours before waking up and only waking up 2-5 times over night. I didn't do anything to make this happen and I am glad I didn't try to force it. However, I wasn't stressed or just "done" with the effort it was taking, so that is one of the ways we might differ.  I guess what I am saying is that I totally did not believe that my kid would move into the pattern of sleep that he is on his own.  I laughed at people that said he would and said I wished that would happen before he was a teenager. I think the thing to remember is that life is so different, even at this age, month to month.  Maybe next month will be a little better?  Hoping it is soon for you and hugs, hang tight mama, little sleep and unpredictable sleep can be really tough.  

[mamma2j]

Wow!  "Only" waking up 5 times a night!  Ha...thankfully DD never woke up every 15 mins.  Do you co-sleep?  If not, what do you do to get DS back to sleep? 

[flavorfull1]

We do cosleep. It has always been easiest to just nurse him back to sleep.  He never really liked rocking and then putting him down.  Now he is regularly down to 2-4x/night of waking and nursing.  I feel like DS is definitely way more on the more frequent night waking spectrum.  I am a light sleeper too so I totally understand, I just won't mind it when he figures out how to just turn over and go to sleep.  Not really near to that by what I can tell right now though, so, I will just appreciate the nights it is only 2 :)  Hope things are a little easier soon.