Man I haven't even read this thread in weeks. Until 4 days ago we had been having a very very bad time at night with the kid. More below...
We've been doing EI with our son since August. He has said hello and duck but hasn't repeated anything. I take him to an EI playgroup on Mondays and another EI playgroup on Tuesdays. We took him to a toddler sign class and about a month ago his signing exploded. He knows eat, milk, more, help, hat, dog, and just started doing sleep. It doesn't sound like much but he links them together to ask for specific thinks. It blew me away when he started doing it. He also sees a SLP on Wed. and EI sends us one on Thursdays. Honestly it's fucking ridiculous what we're doing to try and get this kid to talk. lol He LOVES the groups so I can't really complain. Always takes great naps!
6 weeks ago up until 4 days ago we were in fucking HELLLL at night. He'd wake SCREAMING and wouldn't stop for 1-2 hours, he thrash his legs around and squirm like he was uncomfortable, and he was up 3-7 hours. Yes 7 fucking hours. He'd go down at 8pm and wake up at 9pm and be up until 3-5am. Literally fucking insane.
Neither my wife or I would get more than 2-4 hours of sleep per night for those 6 weeks. It was literally torture. I legit questioned reality sometimes and was happy when I could remember my own name.
He stopped doing the thrashing shit a couple weeks ago and at that point it was clear we had to start the sleep training. He'd fall asleep rocking but would jolt awake soon as we'd put him down. Started with the Ferber method. I'd go in every 10 minutes and basically make shit twice as bad. Took an hour of screaming to fall asleep. Second night I put him down and stayed out. 20 minutes crying, 20 minutes sitting there and he was out. Third night half an hour and out. Tonight 10 minutes and out. Thank fucking god that shit worked because our sanity was in danger of never returning.
So protip: Don't fucking wait to sleep train. Start that shit early!