Mothers and parents I need your help please!

[featherfinder]

Most sleep research I've read (my kids are now 4 and 7) made the connection that "Sleep begets sleep" in other words start putting her to bed earlier and she might just start sleeping more. Both my kids were in bed by 6 when they were one, and in fact my 4 year old still goes to bed at 6:30 and sleeps for 12 hours. It's the idea that if they're sleep deprived they actually have a much harder time sleeping because they're training their brain to stay awake when they're tired. The book that helped me the most was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. It has a lot of troubleshooting ideas and I believe he also does consultations in severe cases.

I will have to look up that book. Right now she gets up at 7 and then naps at 9 and again in the afternoon and bath at 8 then bed right after. She doesnt usually start showing she is tired till around 8.



So now she will go down on her own but she will wake up at 2am or so and wont lay back down with out a bottle. I guess this is progress since she is not wanting to be picked up and soothed but still not sure how to handle this one. Maybe when she wakes up after I first lay her down give her a bottle with water then so she is not getting formula like cafarmgirl said?

 

[saraki]

If she's breastfed it's not uncommon for her to need a snack at night until she's older. Just make it as little interactive as possible...no light, no talking, no singing or snuggling. It's so hard, but it really is the best way to determine if she needs to eat or if she wants to play. It will get better, I promise! It sounds like she is making progress already! You are doing great!

 

[saraki]

I just saw you said formula. Duh, sorry. I think a lot of kids still need a snack at night at that age. Our pediatrician said it's pretty normal. I think it seems harder with breastfed babies because it's usually one parent getting up and doing all the night feedings. That being said, usually by the time a kid shows they are tired, they have passed the opportunity of getting to bed when their circadian clock tells them it's time to go to bed and you end up with an overtired baby. I would really encourage you to put her down earlier, even though it's notreally convenient and it seems abnormal. I put my two year old down half an hour later than normal last night, and sure enough, she was up two hours early this morning. You want to put them in the crib the minute they get sleepy, not start with bedtime routines because then you are training them to keep themselves awake even when they feel sleepy. Good luck, stick with it!

 

[saraki]

How's it going OP? Any luck with anything?

 

[Penny Hen]

Thank goodness she didn't have night terrors! With those they begin to scream but they do not wake up until you shake them. My oldest daughter had them and I lost a year's worth of sleep putting her back to bed twice a night, because "YOU SHOULDN'T LET YOUR KIDS SLEEP WITH YOU". At 18 months she caught an upper respiratory infection and I put her in bed with me propped up on a pillow so she could breath. She woke me up whimpering and I realized that she was beginning the night terror. I spoke to her, "Mommy's here, Mommy's here," and cuddled her close. She grabbed two fistfuls of my hair and heaved a shuddering sigh and fell into a deep sleep. I was stunned. You mean I could have been having a good night's sleep for this past year instead of being Zombie Mom! Those doctors can stick their books where the sun don't shine!

All the doctor's could ever tell me is that they don't know what causes the sleeping disorder of night terrors but that kids usually grow out of it. Yeah if their sleep deprived parents don't go off the deep end first! It took me until she was 4 to get her past the night terrors. I still had to lay down in her bed with her and let her hold my hair so she could fall asleep. If I took my hair out of her hand she would whimper and start to wake. So I found a wig at the thrift store that had the same texture has my hair and after she went to sleep slipped it in her hands so I could go to my own bed. It worked. Even after she realized what I had done the next day it still worked as long as I lay down with her long enough for her to fall asleep. It took another year but she was at last able to fall asleep with only the wig on hand if the dreams got scary.

Still I wish the doctors took the problem more seriously and would study the problem. It majorly disrupted the normal progression of our lives for about 5 years.