there has been a lack of sleep around these parts for so long, and these days the baby is certainly not to blame. she's going to bed early and getting up only once in the wee hours of the morning to nurse and right back to sleep. she is a dream, easily puts herself right to sleep as soon as she's in the crib (unless i mess with her nap schedule in which case she is all out of sorts the entire day, ahem). poor little man is having a hard time. some of it is potty training - however for the longest time he's been great during the night, only accidents during the day when we got to busy or distracted to remember. but the last few nights he's had lots of accidents. in addition he is waking up several times in the night crying and having a hard time getting long periods of good sleep. its hard to know what to do, he gets taken to the bathroom in the dark, no conversations or fun or lights on, back to bed. i go to him and comfort him and soothe him. and sometimes 2 minutes, sometimes ten minutes sometimes an hour later he is awake again crying. a quick search of the internet assures me that it is a normal thing and generally they are just doing a separation anxiety thing and want to know you are there and they are safe. or he is having a growth period or period of development. and he is more aware of his surroundings and is likely starting to dream and sometimes that can be confusing/scary. yes likely some or all of those things. but its just such a helpless feeling as a parent not knowing how to fix it. AND its so exhausting not getting the sleep that we need either. i guess i'm just venting. and waiting for him to wake up again. its already been a long night and its not yet midnight. phew.
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what's fascinating is that it seems we've mastered naptime. with daylight streaming through his blinds, my son says "love you" and lays down in his bed. and he doesn't get up. and he doesn't move. he sleeps soundly for exactly 1.5 hours. and then he comes to the door and knocks and says "good morning momma!". sometimes he wakes up a little fussy/whiney and needs a good 20 minutes of downtime to space out and actually wake up. its just strange how he does so well at naptime but at bedtime he fusses around and stalls and asks repeatedly to go to the potty and cries for momma. sometimes its quick and over in 20 minutes. last night it went on for two hours. and then it went on and on the rest of the night. its like he can never really get into his deep night time sleep. and i don't know how to fix it. i am trying to rest assured that its a phase. growing pains. something is changing and he is aware of it and it'll pass. i am trying to remember all of this. but tired mommas have bad memories. what i am really focusing on is trying to remain loving and patient and reassuring to him. because in the middle of the night when i am also missing out on my long deep sleep, i just want to cry about it too! seems counter intuitive but so does everything else from my favorite baby sleep book - healthy sleep habits, happy child - but i may actually try and earlier bedtime and see if it helps. the party line of the book is "sleep begets sleep" and i believe it. so maybe we'll give it a whirl for a few days and see what happens. thanks to my hubby for getting up with him early and giving him breakfast so i can steal an extra 20 minutes. its amazing what a difference that can make!
5 comments:
We are having sleep issues too. It is so sad.
have you tried hyland's calms forte for kids??? It can help them calm down if they are overstimulated at night and can't sleep well.
If it's any consolation, all mine have gone through this at his age. We have pictures of them sleeping on the floor, in the hall, etc. It's like they all of the sudden realize there is something to be scared of. Thea slept in our bed for awhile and then all of the sudden one night stayed in her bed and never came in our bed again. this was like 1 week before the new baby came so it was perfect timing. Good luck mama...praying things smooth out soon.
elizabeth, i will look into that, thanks! (and i have 4 coupons for free hyland's products because of the teething tabs recall so its worth a shot). its hard to figure out what it is. sometimes he's wide awake. sometimes its almost like he's crying/talking in his sleep. either way, a trip to the potty or mommy rubbing his back and singing always fixes the problem right away...just never know when its going to happen again (10 minutes, an hour???). hoping tonight goes better. am going to try a little earlier bedtime and we are cutting out the very tiny amount of tv he watches completely for the rest of the month too.
Hey S, just saw your sleep issue - I'm just throwing out ideas without having asked more questions - there are pediatric herbal (TCM) tinctures that may possibly help. A company I prefer is blue poppy - http://bluepoppy.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=1173&ParentCat=164
The formula listed is dry nites - it is for pediatric bedwetting. The waking from bad dreams could be from too much heat - not sure which one wakes him more? Since he's still so young, if he wore a diaper to bed would he sleep through that or does he wake anyway from nightmares? I know its hard to ask him and get an answer! Anyway, check out the site! Caroline
i honestly think this is just a test of wills phase that 2 year olds go through, i'm not panicking or ready to go to meds or herbals just yet. he is not wetting the bed. he just wants to be with us and is forcing himself awake - and when he figured out how to open his door it was a whole new level of independence he was wanting to exercise. we have since eliminated putting him to bed with a sippy cup of water so there are less trips to the potty and fiddled with the door so he can't open it from the inside anymore. we also moved his bedtime up to 5:45. he is fussing way shorter at bedtime and is staying asleep for much longer periods of time. he is napping wonderfully too. our biggest issue now is him forcing himself awake at 4:30 or 5 and refusing to go back to sleep for more than 10 or 15 minutes. the "healthy sleep habits" book talks about this as a common problem so i'll have to consult it and see what it recommends. that book has never steered me wrong so far with either child. this is one of those stick with it, stay consistent, wait it out things i think (i hope!).
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