Sleeping Poorly
The long weekend wasn’t too bad. We had something to do for each day, so it wasn’t really very relaxing. It sucked going out in the cold, but not going to work for 4 days is absolute bliss. I am of the opinion that 4 day weekends should be standard. Two days is just way too little time.
Babyice got LOADS of Easter eggs. In hindsight we probably shouldn’t have bought him any ourselves. He got over enough from his great aunt, great grandmother, grandmother and Rudi’s parents. He had 3 marshmallow easter eggs on Sunday and two yesterday and some pieces of chocolate from a large hollow egg Rudi’s parents bought for him. We still have lots of easter eggs in the fridge. Guess who will be working chocolate off of her bum on the elliptical?
Babyice was sleeping through the night for a few months and recently has started waking up again. He wakes up every night now for a bottle and hasn’t slept through in over 2 weeks. I’m not sure if he is teething. There are no other ‘symptoms’ to speak of, although he had a bum rash last week which has cleared up. He woke up twice last night. He just will not stay asleep. Sometimes he wakes up screaming and it takes forever to get him back to sleep. He will fall asleep in your arms, but start crying again as soon as you put him down. This can go on for over an hour sometimes (and has gone on for two!). We’ve tried Pegasus Sleep 30 C (herbal), it hasn’t helped. We’ve tried giving him Parmalat growing up milk instead of formula in his night bottle, it hasn’t helped.
His daytime nap has also gotten shorter. He used to take one nap a day and sleep for about 2.5 – 3 hrs and sleep fine at night. Now his day time nap can be as short as 40 minutes (as it was yesterday). He does not take afternoon naps, has not for quite some time. He has slept for 3 hours since he started waking up again, but it didn’t change what is happening at night. I don’t understand why he is suddenly waking up again and what we can do to help him sleep through. Any advice would be appreciated!
I hope you all had a fabulous long weekend!
What? I wanna sing!
Naughty little devil!
So the dirt goes in here?
Hold still! Your face is dirty!
Ball pit for one
How old is he? It sounds like there are LOTS of moms having the same issues at the moment … I JUST posted an entry this morning, about the total lack of sleep happening in our house at the moment! http://waitingforluca.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/trying-to-make-some-sense-of-it-all/
He is almost 15 months (will be on the 2nd of May)…if this is such a common problem right now…is it possibly change of season? #grabbingatstraws
I really don’t know what to say … I am going to be repainting L’s room in a muted colour, as apparently the bright mural I have in there now could be worrying him. Also need to get a big toy chest to pack all of the toys away at night, so they don’t freak him out. Need to put batteries in the night-light, in case he’s scared of the dark. Running through the list of possible reasons for his sleeplessness until the process of elimination is complete and we (hopefully) have an answer … *sigh*
Now I’m stuck. Babyice’s toys are strewn in the house, not in his room. His room is a light grey colour, so not bright. Will get the night light up and running tonight, just in case. Was also told he shouldn’t watch TV after 16:00 in case he is overstimulated…not sure this makes sense since he goes to sleep for a few hours before waking up. Sherbet. I hate that so much of parenting is a guessing game!
Oh yes, Toddler Sense also says that if your toddler is having sleep issues (but this is more from around 18 months) then you should stop TV altogether. I will only allow him to watch In The Night Garden / Teletubbies in the morning when I need to have him sitting still so I can get ready for work and MAYBE one 30 show in the early afternoon. I do think that the TV is having an adverse effect on his imagination and affecting his dreams and what not. Poor dude. But who knows? I am so paranoid because of the issues we had with L’s ears. He’s SO much better after the grommets but I still worry that something could be *wrong* …
Babyice has had grommets since he was 7 months old and we have not had any problems with his ears since…We only put Baby Genius Nursery Rhymes/Children’s songs on for him, usually early in the morning or after work when we have to get ready to go to gym, etc. He has started losing focus while watching TV now though…so I don’t know what we’re going to do.
Oy… its been such a long time since I had to deal with anything like this! Is he hungry? Is he thirsty? I do remember with my knucklehead that like me, he gets very thirsty and sometimes all he wanted was some water… I dunno. Strongs. He’s getting so big and cute man!
Amazing how our kids do this just as we think they’re going to sleep through the night forever.
My advice, firstly, check that he’s not cold. Secondly, stop giving him a feed, if he’s been fine without it, he doesn’t need it and the last thing you want is for him to become dependent on an extra feed.
If you’re exhausted, put him into your bed and move him back to his when he’s sleeping. If you don’t want him in your bed, put a mattress next to his and lie with him there.
Eventually he’ll sleep through again.
Good luck:)
Amy started to have night terrors around this age, she would wake up screaming and if you tried to settle her she would kick and fight and struggle and still scream for half an hour. We tried everything and then in desperation we did some sleep training. The first night we made sure she was warm enough, had enough to drink before going to sleep and wasn’t ill in any way and then when she woke up screaming we went in, laid her back down, gave her the dummy and a pat, told her Shhhhsh and then walked out. We did this every 8 minutes until she fell asleep after 50 minutes. It was exhausting and quite emotional but she was fine, she wasn’t scared, distressed or ill, just waking for no reason. It took a few more nights of consistently following this routine and she would wake once, scream and then go back to sleep when we gave her the dummy and a pat. She still woke occasionally over the next few months but it was nothing like when it was happening twice a night every night. Sleep training worked for us with Stella as well but its not an easy thing to do, you have to be very brave and very consistent. Good luck!
Sjoe. It could be any number of things. He could be very well be teething and he is also at the age where night terrors are prevalent so it could even be that.
I would first check if he is cold/comfortable. Then, to rule out anything else, I would actually take him to the Dr/Paed just for a general check-up then decide from that point what the best way forward would be.
I am not sure if he maybe just needs some sleep training. I personally can’t stand a crying baby so usually do whatever it takes to maintain a no-crying routine. Ultimately you will have to decide if this is possibly a route that you want to take.
I hope that you can get to the bottom of this and then take things further from there.
Good Luck.
x