My DD is 27mo. She has always been a challenge to put to sleep. Some weeks/months are fantastic, but most have required endurance and creativity beyond what I perceive to be par for infant/toddler sleep.
Our current setup:
She sleeps very part-time in her crib, which is in our room, and joins me in the big bed by morning if she isn't there already.
She is night-weaned.
She used to fall asleep reliably in her crib, but this winter she learned how to climb out. Now, it is a challenge just to keep her in the thing. We converted it to a toddler bed in December, and it was a nightmare. We spent 3 hours straight putting this little girl back in her bed. She was just as strong at the 3 hour mark as she was when we started, *immediately* hopping out. It's also a challenge to keep her in the big bed. We spend most of our time right now trying to enforce her to stay and rest. Even if she is just sitting in bed quietly, that is cool. But she insists on trying to escape and testing her limits instead.
We cannot figure out what she needs to fall asleep. Every night for the last week, DH and I have been at a loss, and bedtime has stretched on for hours and hours with lots of frustration and crying, from all of us.
My and DH's sanities are crumbling.
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We are moving in a few weeks, and I think we are going to do the Montessori-style floorbed in her own room, with a very tall gate in her doorway to mitigate these issues, essentially turning her bedroom into a very large crib, but one she can't escape. We plan to open her gate once she is asleep so she can come freely to our bed in the middle of the night if she needs.
We cannot do this in our current home. Our current gate is way too short and flimsy (but will be remedied once we acquire a taller, sturdier gate), and our bedroom is not completely childproof due to the amount of furniture in it (she will climb), and easy access to the kitty box in the bathroom (off of our room), and the large closet full of STUFF.
I have a couple questions:
1) What on earth can we do right NOW, in the three weeks while we are in this house, to relieve all three of us at nighttime?
2) When we do the floorbed at the new house, how do I ensure that she actually goes to sleep? This might seem like a weird question, but she has *never* been one to curl up in a corner and pass out. She has done it in her crib, but her crib has a single pillow and her doll, if that. I fear that we will kiss her goodnight, and she'll burn the midnight oil and create an interesting sleep/wake cycle that we can't cater to. She will just keep going, and going, and going... I'm thinking it's going to have to be a pretty boring room...
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