Our 4 month old little girl is not on a good nap schedule during the day with my husband. She sleeps through the night most of the time. if she does get up its for one feeding. The thing is: i rock her to sleep at night. She's our last so I know that I want to take my time and enjoy this. On the other hand I know that I need to get her day schedule set. So that means that we are ready to start the 'cry it out'. Here's my question. How do i handle that with my 19 month old. He goes to bed at nine sharp every night. Right now she goes down at 9:30. If I am going to get her to go to bed on her own do I keep my son up later? Or do I let her cry while he is in there? I just don't know. At this point we have her in our room in a pak n play for naps during the day so that she doesn't wake him because she is so sparatic with her up and down times and the length is unpredictable too.
Like you said take your time and enjoy putting her to sleep, if she sleeps all night, why make her cry to fall asleep. She is only four months, she needs you, that's why she cries. Just enjoy her and keep rocking her to sleep, when she is older you can switch to a bath and a book.
You seem to have it pretty easy with your son, so you may not realize it yet that we don't put our babies on schedules...they put US on schedules, lol. In my opinion, 4 months is WAY too young for CIO. Is it really hindering you by rocking her to sleep each night? As for the nap thing, some babies just aren't regular nappers. Some kids need 16+ hours of sleep in a 24 hour period and some need much less. My cousin has a daughter who only sleeps 7 hours at night and NEVER naps, not even as an infant and toddler.
At this age you should be feeding on demand and allowing her to nap as needed. She is still growing so rapidly that her body litterally changes what it needs by the day. What works today may not work tomorrow and the sooner you accept this, the happier all involved will be :)
Could you leave her in your room a few nights and have her cry in there? It normally only took us about 3 nights to get past the crying.
My boys started sharing a room at 12 months and almost 4. The little guy often is talking and screaming and carrying on for about an hour before he falls asleep. The big guy just goes to sleep. I found it didn't bother him any more or less than when they were across the hall from each other. I think it might have taken about a week or two to really have him not care about the noise. I have enjoyed putting both my children to bed at the same time. Totally convenient.
I would put her down in my room to go to sleep and then move her once she is asleep.
Good luck.
