My Lot In Life.....

seems to be my 17 1/2 month old daughter's sleep issues. Since 5 1/2 months it's been a struggle. Problems began when she began teething. She went from sleeping through the night to waking up several times. I would nurse her back to sleep...by 12 months I was weaning her to almost no nursing during the day and just at night....3-4 times per night...

I had to get her to fall asleep on her own because I had never taught her that...I nursed her to sleep. She began going down for naps and bedtime without nursing but still woke up several times in the middle of the night. Then I realized I just replaced nursing with standing and rocking her in my arms...I was still putting her down asleep. Once I got her to go down awake she was only waking up once or twice a night... I can handle that for now....then she got the rotavirus...that knocked EVERYTHING OFF BALANCE..

For the last 3 weeks we got back into our routine again..then she got this stupid cold. She's been congested and has a cough. She hasn't wanted to nap or sleep in her crib at night. I've indulged, since letting her cry only made the congestion worse and the coughing worse...

The last 2 or 3 nights she's woken up for 2-3 hour spans...she sleeps if I nurse her or rock her but as soon as I put her down she starts yelling and will yell for hours.

Today I've decided she is well enough to start training AGAIN...she's been yelling, talking and kissing the stuffed animals in her crib, yelling somemore and then she's silent..all for the last hour. Now she's saying "no" to something/somebody. Anyway...once we get back on track she sleeps like an angel but she's gotten several colds and that stupid rotavirus and it throws it ALL OFF!

It's enough to drive me batty...I feel bad for her...I know she desperately needs sleep but if I keep nursing her and rocking her to sleep and then just hold her while she sleeps, she'll NEVER sleep on her own again. It gets her back into that habit...

I'm just really venting. I keep feeling like I've failed. Why can't she just sleep. She's done it before. What have I done wrong? And sometimes, when it's 230am and she's awake I feel like I'm being punished for something. My hubby has been so supportive and encouraging but I don't feel like this is normal. I know kids have sleep issues but this bad? Maybe it's not bad. It just seems like it will never be normal. As soon as we get good something messes it up and it's like the reset button is hit and we have to start over.

Ugh...

Thanks for listening.