sleep help - help me!
kat81again2
member
Yes I did just see the other sleep help post and it will hopefully help. But we have other problems, too. DS is still in a crib, but now that I'm pregnant we will transition in the spring or so.
This is DS's nighttime sleep schedule recently:
7:30PM - we put DS in bed. He will cry/resist/complain for 15-20 minutes after he is left there, but is consistently asleep by 8 or earlier. If we try for an earlier bedtime, the resisting is longer. Sometimes a longer bedtime routine (e.g. more songs, more books) helps, but sometimes not.
9:00PM or thereabouts - an occasional "mommy!" or cry or cough, with a very quick settling down. (That's what they're supposed to do!)
12-1AM - crying/yelling, non-stop. For an hour. If you go in he will stop but start up again once you leave. So I've decided now not to even go in. I'm in my first trimester and this is when I'm REALLY deeply asleep. DH is away on business for a week right now.
5:20-5:40AM - "momMY! UP!" crying/yelling but not as aggressive as the 12-1 time. It stops at 5:40 or so and he is silent.
6:05AM - "mommy!" starts up again and I get him, because we have a rule of no coming in before 6AM. I think he knows when 6 is given the silence from 5:40-6:00. I do not think he goes back to sleep.
Any tips? What I don't get is why he can settle down when he wakes up briefly at times like 9PM, or even from 5:40-6AM, but he is hysterical for an HOUR right in the middle of the night. I don't mind (much) the bedime resistance and the 5:20 yelling -- it gives me a chance to hydrate and have a snack in bed before I get up. But the 12-1 hour is incredibly brutal.
I'm 6 weeks pregnant and I NEED my sleep. I go to bed as early as possible (as soon as I'm done with dinner, after DS goes to bed). And next week I start up an intense teaching schedule so I will need every spare minute for work or sleep (probably won't be able to go to bed at 9 as I have been doing). I can't deal with this! Please help! Right now my strategy is to just leave him because there's nothing else I can do.
Re: sleep help - help me!
ETA: I replied to this post before reading the other one
I don't know what I'd do if I was in first tri with a little one screaming in the middle of the night. I'm sorry. That sounds really rough.
I don't have many tips, otherwise I'd post them.
We did a second round of sleep training a few weeks back after the holidays when we'd been travelling and thus sleep was all wack. It seems to have done the trick. We respond, but don't go in his room when he wakes and tell him "it's ok. it's time to sleep now. Mommy/ or Daddy is in the next room." He kept crying out for the first few nights, but eventually began saying -daddy/mommy in next room - at bedtime. It's worked for us, but our main problem was lots of crying at bedtime and early waking.
At school he naps from about 12:45-2:15, though the exact times vary. Sometimes he starts after 1. He usually sleeps just over an hour. At home the naps are more variable. We try to put him down around 1 but often he doesn't get to sleep until 2. But then he may sleep 2.5 hrs! Or he will skip his nap altogether on the weekend.
I'm paranoid of doing the big boy bed when I am in first tri in case it is a big fail, and obviously can't do it before DH returns from his trip. But that is an interesting idea.
He has never climbed out of the crib but has proven that he is capable because he once did climb out onto me (I was right there). But I think without someone right there he is afraid of climbing out and falling onto the floor. I'm glad he is afraid of that because I am too! So...I do like the idea of containing him in the crib while I still can. But I guess if this doesn't improve for a while we can just try something new and set him up with the bed. We don't have a toddler bed, though. We bought him a regular twin.
Good idea. I will use that language more when he is going to bed and resisting. As for the 12am time, I'm not sure he can hear me from my bed to his. Our rooms are quite close but given the configuration of everything and my inability to shout while that sleepy I think I might just have to ignore him during that time. I guess it's just two more nights before DH returns.