Where do I begin??? Taylor has been sleeping through the night since she was just a few months old. Bedtime has always been super easy. She's had her off nights here and there but NOTHING like the past week. For the past 7 days, she has been waking up around 3am (last night was 1:50am). The first few nights I thought it may be her congestion and also teething. Both of those issues seem to be fine now but the pattern has continued and I have no idea how to stop it. She fusses till I get her out the crib then she lays her head on my shoulder while I rock her. As soon as I try to put her back in her bed, she clings to me and cries. I step away from the crib and she's fine. The only thing I've found to get her to go back to sleep is to put a pallate on her floor and lay there with her till she falls back asleep. I have let her cry it out a few times in the crib but that did not seem to work and it just makes her more mad.
PLEASE let me know if anyone has suggestions as to why she is waking in the night and what I can do to get her to sleep thru the night again. Is it a growth spurt and she's hungry? Is it teething? Is she having nightmares (every night at 3 am?)? Is she ready to be out her crib and in a toddler bed? HELP!!!
Friday, January 18, 2008
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11 comments:
That really stinks!
I don't know of anything, but I will certainly ask around!
Is she awake when you first go in there? Sometimes Libby has night terrors and boy is it worse if I pick her up! It just wakes her up and then she doesn't want me to go.
A few months ago she started fighting bedtime .At first it started like what you're experiencing. During one of her sleep cycles, she'd wake and then she'd want me to lay there with her. I'd have to tell her, "it's still night time", sing her going to bed song, lay her down and walk out. If she continued crying, I'd go back in after about 5 minutes, just say "night night" and lay her back down then leave. The third time I'd tell her, "it's still night time. I'm not coming back in here. night-night". and just leave. I may be a mean momma, but I tell you, she doesn't need the three tries anymore. When she does have a rough night, I just have to go in and say it's still night time and she lays back down. It worked for when she fought going to bed too. Now she still fights naptime.. fun fun. So now it's quiet time and I let her have a few quiet toys (a puzzle, book and stuffed animal) on her bed, she has to stay on her bed and try to rest and be quiet. It's worked so far. She sits and reads to her bear or puppy and then eventually goes to sleep.
Let the fun begin! It's like they flip a switch at this age??? ;)
good luck! I hope you find what works for Taylor!
Wow, I'm not sure what is going on. Like bridget said, I think Kaden has night terrors sometimes too. He'll wake up crying but you can tell he's not really awake when you get there. He'll shake some and not even know I'm there at first. Sometimes this will happen a few nights in a row. We definitely have problems when he's teething or congested, like you said. Never for a whole week though. He would eventually get back into routine when it all passed. I've gotten to where I don't pick him up out of the crib either. If I do, he'll stay up and not want me to go. I lay him down and give him his paci and leave. He has one of the music things on the crib so I play it too.
I agree with Bridget. It may be hard and Taylor may get more worked up the first few times, but you may need to just go in and tell her it's night time (without taking her out of the bed) and then go back in 5 minutes later and another 5 minutes later if necessary.
We had to do the same thing with Jack when he was about a year old. Out of the blue, he started waking up once overnight and seemed wide awake. We only had to do the above method a couple of nights and then he went back to sleeping through the night.
Good luck.
Jamie, how old is Taylor? I have a great book I want to reference, but need to know how many months she is.
Ok, I know you will feel like a cruel mommy, but we had the same problem last month with Anna Katherine. Our MD told us not to "rush" in there, to let her cry for at least 5 mintues...unless it became that "I'm in trouble get in here cry"-you know the one. She said if we HAD to, at 5 mintues pat her back or tell her she was ok...but NOT to pick her up. She said after 3 nights of picking her up out of her crib, we had trained her that THAT was the NEW NORMAL thing for 3 am. uggh! So, we had 3 rough nights of de-programming...and now she isn't waking up unless teething, congested, etc. If you still would like to read something more...a friend of mine who is a MD gave me the Sleep Lady book. I don't think taht is the official title, but I am sure you can do an internet search.
Kerri,
She's 22 months.
Jamie, I reference everything from "Touchpoints" by Dr. Brazelton. It says that around age 2 new language developments begin to show up in periods of light sleep and the child will wake themselves up and not be able to soothe themselves back to sleep. Not really asleep they will start talking and saying all her new words. If she is not waking up screaming I don't think it is night terrors. Has she been having any hard or stressful days lately? That could be the cause as well. Hope that helps.
I have to add that I started doing the 3 strikes and your out rule b/c Libby knew what she was doing. I noticed that she'd cry and whine for me to lay with her, then I'd lay there and she'd giggle and smile and want to play with my face. I had to nip it in the bud. If she's sick, I'm not quite so harsh. I guess it all depends on what's going on with Taylor. Libby has turned into a manipulative little girl! I'm amazed at her problem solving skills. What she comes up with to get what she wants ... crazy.She manages to get into things we think we have secured. eek.
Hope you all are getting some sleep again!
Hang in there, Jamie. . .all kids go through this. I agree with the others, don't take her out of the crib unless she is sick. TRUST ME, it doesn't make you a "Mean Mommy"--but:
1. a Mom who wants her child to know she can develop independent sleeping habits
2. A MOM WHO NEEDS HER OWN SLEEP SO SHE CAN FUNCTION!!!!
Hang in there!!
Jamie--
Is it getting any better? I was going to email you again,but decided to post here.
We went through it with Abigail about the same age. We did go in tell her she was ok and thatit was still night night time. We would then sit with our back to her in the room and tell her again you are ok I am not picking you up you need to go night night. After three nights when we were putting her to bed I told her if she had no crying that night that we would go to the park the next day to play. (I know bribery is not everyones favorite thing but desperate times can cause desperate measures.) The next mornign we ended up going to the park and I told her a couple of times that day that I was so proud of her being such a big girl and not crying at night!
Hang in there...looks like alot of us have been through it!
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