Seeking Advise to Get My 19 Month Old to Sleep in Her Crib at Night

G., I also have a 19 month baby. I wanted to share with you that 80 % of the world has their babies sleep with them. I feel that if you are ok with it, the family bed can be a wonderful experience. I would suggest doing a research on NightTime parenting, co-sleeping, the family bed, etc. Dr. Willam Sears is an expert on this subject. A really good book about the history of cribs and how sleeping was designed is Night Time Parenting by William Sears.

So sorry to hear you're not getting much sleep - that's very frustrating! You've gotten a lot of great advice and here's another one to try if none of the other ones suit your family. :) I really love the Baby Whisperer's suggestion to help with this - it's a compromise between crying it out and putting them in bed with you when they cry. It takes some tenacity and a lot of consistency but maybe give it a try? Basically, she would start them in their crib and whenever they would cry she would pick them up and when they finally calmed down she would put them back into the crib. This is done without any eye contact, keeping the room dim and she does not talk to them to communicate that it is indeed the time to sleep. She had to do this many, many times (maybe over 100 times with one of the kids) the first night and then less and less each night. She feels this technique tells them that she is still there for them but it is still time to sleep. After a while, the kids just gave up trying to sleep elsewhere and needing the presence of a parent to fall asleep and slept themselves. Hope this helps!

My son couldn't stand the crib either and sleeps with us. My daughter much prefers the crib! You could try moving the crib into the bedroom as a compromise. I also can't stand to hear my child cry for any extended period. Some would say to let them "cry it out", but I'm not a big fan of that concept. Still some swear by it (you let them cry for 15 mins and then visit them and tell them it is okay and that they should go back to sleep without picking them up. You keep this up until they accept the situation. It can take some time, but many swear by it. There is a book about this, but I don't know the title. I just couldn't do it and didn't mind having my son with us).

Both PP have great ideas. I have personally been a HUGE fan of the family bed until recently. With my daughter it worked great and when she was around 2 she was ready for and excited about moving into her own "big girl" bed. My son has been a different story. I finally realized why the family bed doesn't work for everyone or every baby. Up until a few days ago my son (13 months old) slept with us....and I use the term "sleep" very loosely. He would be up every 1-2 hours to nurse, I was essentially a human pacifier. That in itself, I could have handled...unfortunately 1-2 times a week, my son would decide in the middle of the night he didn't want to sleep. This would last anywhere between 1.5 to 4 hours at a time and my husband and I would try to ignore him so he would realize it wasn't playtime, but one of us would have to stay awake to make sure he didn't crawl off the bed or do something else dangerous. All of that being said, we recently started reading all sorts of sleep books. We were not (and still are not) fans of CIO; however we have had to compromise for our sanity. The Sleepeasy book is by far the best solution we have come across. Like I said though, we have had to compromise, as there is some crying involved. If you have any questions feel free to email me. We've read lots of other books too, so if you have any questions or want any opinions of them before you purchase them, ask away...

Hello G.
My 16 mos old son has had similar issues. I do my best not to pick him up out of his crib in the middle of the night, what works for me is if I give him kisses (if he's standing in his crib) reassure him that I am there and I lay him on his belly and either rock him side to side or "bounce" him, the mattress allows for a nice bouncing action! Just get one hand on the hiney and the other on the upper back and gently bounce him. Most of the time it works for me. IF that fails I then rock him in his rocking chair and put him back in his crib until he falls asleep. Also, my cuddle time is in the morning, when he wakes up I then take him into my bed and cuddle & play for 15 min or so. It works better because they are awake and not not going to doze off....it gets cuddle time in without the nap! I hope it works out for you! My son now does typically sleep though most nights.