22 month old MON wakings

Hi all, our daughter is just over 22 months old and has been sleep trained for over a year now. Although she’s always been on the low sleep need end of the spectrum, and unless she’s sick, she’s been sleeping through the night.

Her morning wakes typically range from 5:30-6:30am (we’ve tried adjusting her bedtime, nap times, and duration—nothing seems to work, so we’ve accepted the early wakes). Her naps are from 12-1:45pm, and bedtime is at 8pm.

For the past few weeks, her canines have been coming in, so she’s been a bit cranky, but her sleep hasn’t been affected—until two nights ago. The last two nights, she’s woken up around 2am, crying hysterically and calling for me. The first night, I waited for 15 minutes, then picked her up and brought her to bed with us, thinking it was a one-time thing. But when she woke again last night at 2am, I decided to follow the sleep consultant's advice, which is to wait for 10 minutes of crying at level 10, then go in to comfort her without picking her up and leave again.

This, however, was a mistake. She completely lost it—screaming, trying to climb into my arms as I touched her to soothe her. After a while, I ended up picking her up but didn’t want to take her to bed. I tried rocking her to sleep, which took over an hour. When I attempted to transfer her to her crib, she woke up and started crying. Her cry was weaker, and she sounded tired, so I left her room, hoping she’d fall back asleep. But no. Her cry grew louder, calling my name. I waited another 30 minutes, and when it was clear she wasn’t settling, I ended up bringing her to bed to at least get some sleep.

I’m dreading tonight because I’m unsure of the right approach. Check-ins haven’t helped her (they never did, even after sleep training at 8 months), but CIO doesn’t seem to work either. She’s very persistent, and I feel bad letting her cry longer than 30 minutes.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have advice on how to handle this? Thanks in advance.