Do you sleep train your LO out of a sleep regression?

[okinawama]

My 17.5 month old son has always been a terrible sleeper, but he's been able to put himself to sleep since he was about 12 months old. He began sleeping through the night at 15 months but recently, he's been screaming his little heart out at bedtime. I am using the same routine, I've tried medicating with Tylenol just in case it's teething pain and overall nothing significant has changed. So it appears we are going through the dreaded 18 month sleep regression. So, did you CIO, did you get through it by any way possible (ie: rocking, walking, bouncing....)? I don't want to create bad habits and lose my independent sleeper, but if it's just a phase and is short lived, I don't want to put un needed stress on me and my little guy.

[okinawama]

suggestions...anyone?

I am now spending 45min-1.5hrs to get him to fall asleep, and I'm physically and emotionally exhausted. My DH has been out of town for work for a few months, and we have many more to go, and the thought of continuing this fight every night on my own is discouraging. Any BTDT stories? Do I re-sleep train him? Will things work out on their own? Should I begin cutting his nap slightly so that he's possibly more tired at BT?

[amom526]

What's his current sleep schedule?

At this age I would try to avoid doing too much that you don't want to continue. We never really sleep trained DS, but we did use a lot of the baby whisperer methods. when he has a rough patch, we just keep going as we always do. but I would look at tweaking his schedule first. Could he be overtired?

[Serepta]

don't really have advice, but just wanted to say I feel your pain! My DD is not a great sleeper, and at 17 months has yet to sleep through the night. Probably it's partly my fault because I just can't handle CIO - the few nights we tried it I was so stressed and anxious that I finally just gave up and had her sleep on the couch with me. It doesn't help that she will cry for over 3 hours non-stop! I did find that she slept a little better when I moved her bedtime back from 7:30 until 8:00, if that helps at all!

[Mommy_Mea]

Ugh,I feel your pain! ds2 (16 months) is a terrible sleeper, hasn't regularly slept through the night, but at least was down to one waking, and would go back to sleep on his own after a snack. But then he came down with strep, and it has been two weeks of fighting him for sleep, some nights being up until 1am, and most days not napping at all. the only thing that worked was driving him around in the car, which is just not a long term solution!

So yes, once we got the all clear from his doctor, we started sleep training two nights ago. And things are already getting better, he is going down for naps with minimal crying, and tonight only cried for 5 minutes. When he wakes in the middle of the night, I am still co sleeping with him for the remainder of the night, but I will tackle that hurdle later, and I am hoping it will resolve itself on its own (ds2 is a very restless sleeper, so I don't get much sleep when I co sleep with him).