19 Months and STILL not sleeping through...

For some reason, Lily's always had more trouble than Lydia when it comes to sleeping all night... Lydia will go down at 8 or 8:30 and sleep 'til 8:30 or 9 the next morning most days... Lily, on the other hand, goes in spurts... She'll go a week with no problems at all and then BAM! she's up screaming half the night... And CIO does NOT work with her when she wakes up in the middle of the night.. it works fine when we lay her down to sleep (most of the time she doesn't fuss at all) but if she wakes up at 2am, forget it! She'll scream the rest of the night if we let her... DH gets so frustrated that I usually will get up and get her and cuddle her for awhile and give her a drink, then lay her back down... I just don't know what to do to get her to sleep all night... Anybody have any suggestions??

 

Have you tried CIO for a week? I know it can be hard when they cry/scream for hours but it is almost ALWAYS what works.
The way I reasoned it was was it betterto cry/scream for a few nights and then pretty much never again, or to cry/scream almost every night until we finally cave and go in. I think the first one actually results in less crying overall.

But if you are okay with going to her, there is nothing wrong with that!!!

 

I am normally a CIO'er. It doesn't work if you end up giving in, it takes at least a few consistent nights of doing it. Have you discovered any reason for the waking? Hunger, needs her blanket, etc? I had a bout of Ainsley crying for not-so-important things like "can't find Pooh" (he's right there in the crib) and I had a little talk and told her she can't cry for things like that because Mommy is trying to sleep too. I don't know if yours would understand that quite yet, but it's worth a shot.

 

My lily used to do exactly that. Wake up crying for no reason and just want me. It finally stopped for us when I got a nightlight and put it directly next to her crib. You might try it.

 

When you figure out a solution, let me know! I have one that just needs to wake up for a little loving, and then goes back to sleep. If I let him cry, he's at it all night long. I know I need to try a night or two of CIO to get past this, but it is just exhausting and hard, and I keep thinking they'll outgrow it soon. Good luck!

 

I am right there with you too. Lauren will sleep ok, she might wake for her paci, but then off to sleep right away. Mattie on the other hand, wakes up at about midnight every night and just wants some lovin from mommy. DH can't get her b/c she freaks, it has to be me. Sometimes she wants milk and I give her some. I am like Heather I hope they start sleeping before they are 5. I can't do CIO. Mommy's a softie and they know it :lol:

 

We've gone for weeks at a time with CIO and she still can't put herself back to sleep.. They have a nightlight that plugs into the ceiling (we live in the basement) and it's enough light to see the whole room, but not so bright that it's a problem... If we don't get her, there's no way we're getting any sleep either because the place we're at now isn't soundproofed very well.. We're moving in March, and they'll be downstairs and we'll be upstairs, so I'm hoping that she'll do better... It's just so hard because she's not talking well enough to tell me what's wrong yet, so it's still a guessing game...

 

Both of mine about a year ago started waking in the middle of the night and we had to do CIO with them in the middle of the night and that worked for us. Is she maybe having bad dreams or something?

 

That's a toughie. First off, I UNDERSTAND! Mine didn't sleep through the night until 20 months old. We did CIO to teach them to learn to fall asleep but they would still wake up several times at night crying.

My first thought is - do you use pacifiers? Mine would wake up crying for them, even though they could put them in their mouths when they were small. So we took those away at 11 months and then they slept better - but would still wake up.

The thing that makes me curious, is that you said some nights she sleeps through fine, and other nights she doesn't. That would lead me to believe something is going on. Have you had her ears checked to make sure she doesn't have an ear infection? Does she have reflux? Does she have allergies?

Mine has bad reflux from the time they were infants, and still woke up in pain despite being on Prevacid. They finally pretty much stopped waking up at night due to reflux in the last 3 months I would say (I don't say that to discourage you, just to let you know).

But how we really got them sleeping at 20 months was starting them on Zyrtec. They were stuffy a lot and often would wake up crying due to a stuffy nose. In hindsight I now know they have cat allergies. And we moved to a new house when they were 8 months old and the previous owners had cats. They are both very allergic and once we started zyrtec they stopped waking up due to allergens. For a brief period at 2.5 years I trialed them off the zyrtec and they started waking up again at night. So we went right back to it (I didn't know if the wakings were related to reflux or allergies a lot of the time, hence the reason I trialed them off).

Anyways, this probably isn't your case, but I wanted to throw out our experience to give you a few other ideas.

I hope it improves soon.

 

QUOTE(RHastings @ Jan 17 2008, 08:51 PM) [snapback]577138[/snapback]
We've gone for weeks at a time with CIO and she still can't put herself back to sleep.. They have a nightlight that plugs into the ceiling (we live in the basement) and it's enough light to see the whole room, but not so bright that it's a problem... If we don't get her, there's no way we're getting any sleep either because the place we're at now isn't soundproofed very well.. We're moving in March, and they'll be downstairs and we'll be upstairs, so I'm hoping that she'll do better... It's just so hard because she's not talking well enough to tell me what's wrong yet, so it's still a guessing game...


Does she ever have stomach issues? Becca had been waking up during the night and naps, her appetite had fallen off. She was still pooping, but her poop was hard. Took her to the pedi who said she was holding in the poo because she knew it would hurt. And that was why she wasn't eating. I can only imagine how much discomfort she was in.

If she has a history of stomach discomfort (Becca does, lots of trapped burps), maybe that's the problem?

I personally think if CIO doesn't work afer a few days - then there is something else wrong.