On Mar 12, 7:22 am, cjra wrote:
Am I left to resort to scream-it-out?

DD is 20 months, and though she went through a few months of 9-11 hour
sleep stretches, for the past few months she's back to waking up 1-2x
night. Always around 4am, and sometimes around 1am. It's getting
wearing on the whole household, although DH deals with it more than I.

We usually nurse to bed sometime between 7-8pm: we start bedtime
process around 7, but if it's bath night bedtime is a bit later.
Usually this works and she's asleep by 8:30 or so. We were all co-
sleeping, but around about November I realized that the All Night
Booby Buffet was keeping her up, so I moved to another room (we don't
really have a room for her yet, hopefully by August). That made her
start sleeping longer for awhile. If she does wake up DH will either
give her some milk, water, or snuggle and she'd fall back to sleep.
Lately, though, she's been having a harder time falling back to sleep.
If I go in to nurse her to sleep she doesn't really sleep, she just
latches on for hours - if I try to remove my nipple gently she
screams, so I know she's not fully asleep, nor am I

She has a 1-1.5 hour nap at daycare and is fine during the day with
other kids to distract her all day, but she's really cranky when she
gets home and I think that's because she's so tired. She won't take a
second nap (never has).

Apart from the fact I'd like my bed back, I'd like to get her to
sleep! We do put her in a crib which is in our room, but to do that we
have to let her cry. Usually that only takes a few minutes, but it's
not something I'd like to do. Is that going to be our last resort now
for the 4am wakeup?

As a mom to two kids (3.5 & 5yo) I empathize. My kids have never slept
through the night and I've given up. They go to bed at 8pm
consistently and fall asleep on their own. They come to our bed any
time after 2am (time varies) and sleep there until it's morning. I've
learnt to cherish the cuddles because I know pretty soon they will
pretend not to recognize me in public

As long as you are getting adequate sleep and you're okay with it, let
her come to your bed when she wakes up in the middle of the night.
Instead of you going to her, teach her to come to you.