My 16 month old daughter is not sleeping through the night (again). We sleep trained her when she was ~14 months and that seemed to work well at the time. But then she recently caught RSV infection and started waking up due to cough. Since she was sick, we started to pick her up/ rock her/ feed her (basically whatever worked other than meds) during the night.
Now she is getting better, but still not sleeping through the night. She wakes up in the middle of the night (no coughing, but just habit) and needs us to put her back to bed (which sometimes takes 2 hours).
We try to stay calm and not get frustrated, but sometimes we cant help ourselves as this has been the case for days and we are not able to get good sleep.
Please advice on what we should do to make this situation better and also keep our calm in the night.
Well, I suppose that you would need to train her to sleep again. It is indeed annoying, but brief sickness could disrupt a newly formed habit. In your case, it was not too long ago that she developed that habit. I guess that’s natural that she “forgets” her learning.
In my case, my daughter has the habit to tell absolutely everything in her day during her bedtime routine. In that case, I would give her proper undivided attention and, of course, the chance to bond. She talks for about 1 to 1.5 hours. All I need is to listen to her. I feel that’s worth doing since it is good for her development.
So, I think you need to answer the following questions: Does she need your attention? Does she get enough attention during the day? Does her sickness “open” a new perspective to her? Would your bed routine improve your bonding? I think it is natural that feelings and attachments may develop at 12-18 months.
Once her needs are addressed, you can move on to reintroduce the sleep routine. Perhaps introducing a plush toy might be useful—maybe some pretend play with her using that plush toy. Hope this helps.