Vent: Sleep woes...

SymphonyGirl · August 2009

I had a perfect sleeper. We would rock and sing 3 verses of a song, then he'd lay down awake with no fuss and go to sleep for 11-12 hours with no complaints and no wake ups. In the morning, he'd chatter to himself until someone came to get him.

We have a new little one on the way and so we've adjusted sleeping arrangements. We bought Ethan a new convertible crib, since he'll likely be ready for toddler bed sometime in the next year. His old crib was not a convertible crib and was a nightmare to put together so we didn't want to try to move it out of his room, so instead we moved his room. He has a new "big kid room" that he is super excited about, except that his sleeping absolutely sucks now. We moved him on Sunday night and all but one night he has woken up upset in the middle of the night or the early morning (~5am). This morning at 5:22, instead of his usual happy chatter I heard, "Wake up! Mommy, wake up!" in this very upset voice. I got him back to sleep for a little while, but I'm bummed that he's waking up upset at all. Tonight, it took me 3 tries to get him down. He kept crying and getting really upset. I've never been OK with just letting him cry, so I went in, soothed him verbally and had him lie down again. He begged me to sing to him, so I did that, too. I've really been avoiding picking him up since that always seems to start a bad pattern for us of him wanted to be rocked all the way to sleep. I think I've finally got him down for the night, but I just hate that we messed with a good thing and now he's having sleep troubles.

We also had really poor timing with this. DH went out of town on Wednesday for a job interview in Texas and won't be back until tomorrow night. So, not only have we changed his sleeping place, we've also got him short a parent and it seems to be bothering him more than when one of us travels for work usually would.

Anybody else have difficulty in moving rooms? Any suggestions to help ease the transition? I'm hoping DH coming home tomorrow will help Ethan be a little more settled, but I'm worried that alone will not be enough to make his sleep better.

RubyEggi · August 2009

we haven't changed dd's room but our dd is a pretty terrible sleeper. now she will sttn most nights for 10 hours max.

here are some things that worked for us:

- a regular nightlight (if we take it out, dd wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and crying - probably because she can't see anything)

-sound machine to help her fall asleep and then if she happens to wake up in the middle of the night we turn it on for 30 minutes. (we got a homedics sound spa lullaby from target)

-her lovey is a stuffed bear that she takes everywhere and she sleeps w/him for naps and at bedtime. the bear really helps her settle back down if she happens to wake up. is your ds attached to anything? if not and if you are open to the idea, maybe you can encourage a lovey?

also, did you move ALL of the items from your ds' room to the other room and keep the same layout and crib bedding as his old room?i think you should definitely spend at least an hour of playtime w/him in his room so that he can get more used to it. anyways i hth and hopefully your dh will come back quick to help you!