One good sleeper, one not so much

Of my 18-month old twins, my son is a great sleeper. He falls asleep on his own for his naps and bedtime...sleeps through the night. My daughter used to sleep on her own, but has progressively gotten more and more resistant to the crib. Now, we are at a point where she needs to fall asleep while being held, and won't go in her crib at all. She sleeps very well in Mom and Dad's bed. If she does wake up, she needs one of us to hold her or cuddle with her to go back to sleep. I'd like to try CIO with her, but my son is sleeping in the next room. We run the bathroom fan so that he isn't disturbed by her night-waking, but if we let her CIO she may scream for hours. How do we prevent his sleep from being disrupted? Moving his crib to another room could mess up his good sleeping pattern. I'd prefer not to move her crib so that she gets into a good sleep pattern in her own room. I feel like I'm in a no-win situation. Any suggestions?

 

If it were me I would let her CIO in her own crib and not worry about her brother. If she wakes him up you could go in and soothe him w/o removing him from the crib. The goal is to have 2 babies who both STTN so it might be a tough couple of days but I think you should take the chance that it might not even wake your son up.

 

Can you start off by putting setting up a PNP in your room and transition her first from your bed to that, and then back to her room?

 

:hug: We almost have one awesome sleeper and one who occassionally wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. Ours are in the same room and their cribs are right next to each other! We've let the one cry for a bit to see if she soothes herself back to sleep, or my DH goes in the room and sits in the rocker and pats and shushes her and tries to avoid taking her out of the crib. Its tough, but I think I would let her cry a bit and maybe put a fan in your DS's room so it minimizes the noise. GL!

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! Much appreciated. I'm going to let her CIO...hopefully she won't disturb her brother too much. I'm wondering about naptime, though. Do I let her CIO then, too? I assume that I should to be consistent, but I'm thinking she won't end up taking a nap and will be cranky the rest of the day. I also think there is a better chance of her waking up her brother during a nap than at night time. I guess I just need to deal with a few hard days in order to get past this. Any other thoughts on naptime? Thanks again for your help.

 

We did CIO for naptime (not so much for nighttime). Ours will typically sleep through the other one's crying. We also have radios/lullabyes playing in their rooms to help block out noise. Hang in there, it can be a rough couple of days but you and the little ones will get through it!