Sleeping Troubles in Almost 16 Month Old

Have you tried nursing her to sleep or rocking her to sleep and then waiting until she is in a deep sleep before placing her in bed?

I know most people would say that's the worst thing to do. All I know is I did that with my boys, and it really worked for us. Sure at some point I had to ween them from depending on me to get them to sleep, but I found that so much easier to deal with.

I'm not a fan of the "self-soothe" concept. I think babies and little ones need human contact and shouldn't be asked to figure this out on their own.

stop breast feeding-she may start sucking her thumb and learn to self soothe.

Make sure 1) she gets plenty of physical exercise throughout the day, 2) her relaxation starts with a quiet, non-chaotic dinner, no yelling, horseplaying, TV or electronics for the rest of the evening, and 3) a warm soothing bath with dimmed lights, in the bathroom and her bedroom, talking in just above a whisper, slowing your voice down as bedtime approaches, rub her down with bedtime lotion and put her pj's on.

Stick to the same bedtime routine every day. Read a story or sing a song to her in a quiet, sloooow voice as you nurse her, put her down and leave, don't go running back in when she fusses. Leave just a nightlight on, if you go in do not turn on lights, don't engage and talk to her, just lay her back down. Get a darkening shade for her window, use it for naps and bedtime. Don't leave her toys where she can reach them if you don't want her to play with them, just a lovey for snuggling. Since she self-soothes turn out the lights, close the door and let her be, the less interaction the more reason to sleep.

As a side note, my parents had 11 children, the babies and toddlers slept through everything, we lived across from railroad tracks, so don't feel you need to keep it dead quiet. Just be consistent, no engaging and she'll have nothing to do but sleep, she'll get it.

I think your older child needs to be taught how to be quiet for a couple of hours during the day. That's your job. Swat his hiney and say It's quiet time for the baby.

Then it's perfectly normal for baby's to be up like this. That's what baby's do. They don't sleep through the night except for a very few. At about 2 you should see a change in her sleeping patterns. She'll have had a super growth spurt and will be close to the same size for about a year. Then she'll have another. That's when she'll stop looking like a toddler and more like a pre-schooler. She should be sleeping through the night after these huge growth/developmental spurts.