My dd is 20 months and for the past month or two she has been waking up through the night and we go in to find her standing up in her crib. All we have to do is lay her back down again, but she does this 3-4 times a night. It is becoming VERY tiring! We have thought of letting her cry it out but once our dd gets going she doesn't stop, it's easier just to go in and deal with it so we can all go back to sleep. Does anyone have any advice as to how to deal with this so we can all sleep through the night again? Help!

Maybe she's ready for a toddler bed instead of a crib? I don't know, just a thought.

I think the best permanent solution is to tough it out for a couple nights, letting her learn to go back to sleep on her own. My DD is about to beon enad starting the same type of nighttime behavior; I think the more times I respond and go to her, the more she will think she can get my attention in the middle of the night. it is hard to let her cry but she learning to accomplish the task of going back to sleep on her own; when I do go in, I very simply lay her down and say night, night...

Our DD started standing up in her crib as soon as she learned to pull herself up. At that time she was still about 10 months old, so she didn't know how to lay back down, but now that she is 16 months, we tend to let her cry a bit longer and see if she will lay down and go back to sleep. Our DD has always been a bad sleeper at night, but she is getting better. She has been teething for a little while, and unless we give her baby advil, she's up every few min crying very loudly and almost panicky. Last night, I went and picked her up and nursed her for the first few times, but after she nursed for about 30 min, and was still awake, I simply put her into her crib, told her "night night" and left her alone. She stood up, talked a bit, played a bit, and then eventually she put herself to sleep...and she always seems to sleep better when she puts herself to sleep. It took a while for her to learn that it's ok for her to go back to sleep without us....but she still fights it. If your DD is 20 months old, I believe she is old enough to know what she's doing (almost like a manipulation of you and Dh to get her way or to get you into her room) but if she learns that no matter how hard she may seem to be crying, you will let her put herself back to sleep, she will learn quickly how not fun it is to stand there and wait. There was a time that I told Dh it was better to get DD when she was only crying a bit instead of letting her get going which makes her wake up, but eventually I had to learn that she only gets that way because I always gave in. Now she has learned that it doesn't work so well. KWIM?

I pray you have some relief, I know how hard it is to not give in when it's in the middle of the night, and all you want to do is go back to sleep, but she eventually has to learn that she has to soothe herself...and it's better to do it now while she's still in the crib.

Amber

One book that I would recommend is the Baby Sleep Book by Dr. Sears. That book gives some helpful, practical alternatives to CIO. I appreciate having a resource like that since I can't do CIO with my daughter. That book teaches the "fade away" approach.

HTH.