Sleeping toddler

I'm not going to claim victory yet, but we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel - we are finally out of a really bad sleeping rut. As some of you know Lucille has been a wonderful sleeper since sleep training her at 7 months. I kinda thought we were done having sleep issues with her. I figured once she had it figured out that was it. I guess I kind of expected to hit some road blocks when we loose the pacifier - but that's not this story.

She figured out she could open her door. That's all it took. We could barely keep her in her room let alone her bed. We had night after night of nearly 11pm bedtimes for her because we'd be chasing her around the house, putting her back in bed and the do it all over. Finally one of us would stay in her room until she fell asleep. Sometimes all night. 

She'd wake and come in our room at 3 am or so - which is extra hard when sometimes Gus is already there and then hubby leaves for work at 4 am. 

So I read every blog post on the issue and one stuck: the checking in routine. 

I've done it 2 successful naps and 2 successful nights so far. I wish I could find the original post to link to - but I can't so here it is in a nut shell. We do our routine which is bath and then books and then light out and 2 songs. The check in method goes something like this: 

I tell her "Mommy needs to brush her teeth, I'll be back in a minute. You need to stay in bed but you don't need to go to sleep. I'll be right back. I'll even leave the door open." Then I go brush my teeth and come back. If she stayed in bed I tell her what a great job she did at staying in bed and give her a little cuddle. Then I say "Ok, mommy needs to go clean up the dishes" (or something similar.) And keep repeating this check in process with longer and longer chores. Until she's asleep. So far she falls asleep before the 3rd check in. 

The beauty is that she is comfortable knowing I'm doing a specific task I think.

The extra benefit is that I come up with things to do while I'm checking in every night. Like put lotion on or wash my face - both of which sometimes don't happen otherwise. 

Now I just need to find a new fresh idea to get Gus sleeping better..... Open to suggestions, since he's a screamer - cry it out doesn't work plus it keeps Lucille awake. Oh well. One down.