Help me troubleshoot - sleeping at 22 months

3003girl

LO was night weaned over three weeks ago  and is still waking every 2-3 hours. She is cranky. I am cranky. DH is cranky. We need help. 

This is our routine. I nurse and rock LO. Dh takes her, puts her on potty, brushes teeth and does Jammie's. He puts her in her crib and reads her a few stories, then leaves.  This routine starts at 7:30 and takes about an hour. She is usually sleeping at 8:30.

She will sleep until about 11 and then wake up but go back to sleep without much fuss. She then wakes up at 1,3 and 4:30 or so. Sometimes she cries and fusses but other times she will go back to sleep. Then at 5 she is up every 20-30 minutes. I go in and nurse her at 6:30. She has been sleeping in the room with her. She used to sleep in bed with us  now she starts out in the crib and dh moves her in bed sometime in the middle if the night. 

Ive read ferber and sleepless in America. I thought night weaning her would help, but now she seems to be getting a more restless morning and has been so needy during the day. She wakes up cranky and fussy.

Any suggestions? I need some help. I want to take her to a chiro, but dh is against it.  

terri_doula2010

We are finally only sleeping better in the last month and my son just turned a year. I so feel your pain! DS night weaned only because of pregnancy. Now he'll ask sometimes but accepts when I say no. He is in a toddler bed and when he wakes up at night he comes and gets into bed with us. We really enjoy the snuggling (SO much more now that he isn't nursing at night) and don't have to get out of bed in the middle of the night anymore.

One thing that made a big change in our DS was when we moved him to a toddler bed at 19 months. He hated his crib and the independence of being able to easily get in and out of bed on his own really jived with him.

Lots of luck! It won't last forever.

ToastieSimons

Have you checked teeth?

DS has been working on his molars for 6 months, even though they're all broken through it seems because they're so large that ANYTIME they're moving he's up and restless all night.

How much daytime sleep is she getting?  Is it possible she's just not tired enough at night? 

nosoup4u

Can you nurse her starting at five? I stopped nursing between midnight and six, but DS2 wakes at five, so I just nurse him to get more sleep.

Night weaning didn't help my older son to wake up less, unfortunately. "Good Night, Sleep Tight" might be worth reading, too.

penguinem

So tough! We night weaned at around 16 months with my DD because she was waking up SO much suddenly and we realized she had kind of "discovered" how to get us to come in the room. She actually did really well with the weaning. We had another regression later, just after two, and as PP said, switching her crib to a toddler bed worked miracles. I don't know if you're familiar with education lingo, but I joked that her crib was not her least restrictive environment, meaning she needed a more independent environment to thrive. Now, doing that has risks. My DD never had an issue getting out and transitioning was great, but it could make things rough if your LO struggles instead of thrives. On the other hand. Maybe now is the perfect time! She's already up anyway, and why struggle to get her to sleep somewhere you would likely change soon anyway.

3003girl

Thanks for the suggestions. I was just hoping sleep would be better by now! But I think I may have figured it out. 

DH was gone all weekend. LO was super cranky on Saturday morning (hence my post) so we did an early nap - from 10-12. That set her up for going to bed an hour earlier - at 7/7:30. She slept much better. I also put her in a disposable diaper because I think the cloth diaper wakes her up. And I fed her at 4:30 when she woke up. So she slept pretty well - and woke up a few times, but just sort of called my name out and then tossed and turned a bit and fell back asleep. Then after I nursed her at 4:30 she went back to sleep until 7!  And woke up a happy baby for the first time in weeks! 

So I'm going to try to stick to that schedule and the other changes and see what happens. I hope, hope, hope it continues to improve.  

3003girl

Another update! She only woke up once last night! hip-hip-hooray!