New to 2nd year and questions already!

Wow i can't believe that im in the 2nd year already. I think im in a bit of a denial, but alas it happens...Somewhere inbetween 9-12months with the girls starting to crawl i feel off the twinstuff planet, but I'm back with questions and need help with some sleeping issues. Sorry in advance this might be long.


Normally the girls are awesome sleepers. Unless they were not feeling well, either allergies or congestion something like that they would STTN no problem. They would occasionally stir and wake but go right back to sleep without me having to go in there. The last week or so they have not been sleeping well at all. Previously if somebody was not feeling well they would wake up and not go back to sleep and we would pull them back in bed with us. This probably only happened once every few weeks maybe. Not very often at all, and even then it was ususally only 1 baby. Somebody has been waking up frequently or not going back to sleep. Twice last night being the last time, one of the babies woke up, Aurora and she wouldn't go back to sleep, this was before went went to bed. So DH held her for a while and then i took her and she fell back asleep in my arms. I tried to put her back down 3 times after falling asleep in my arms and she would not have it. She would wake right back up again. Then figures that i finally figure that she is going to have to sleep with me and within 30 minutes of her falling sleep, i hadn't even fallen alseep yet, and her sister woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. This happened last monday night as well.

They aren't sleeping all that well even after coming to bed with us and are waking frequently even being in bed with me. DH has had to sleep on the couch when this happens because the girls are getting so big now and we only have a Queen size bed, that he doesn't have any room. Last night i woke up with my back hurting so bad because i wasn't able to move. I was laid flat out on my back with an arm wrapped around a baby. I couldn't move and i couldn't roll on my side because i'm not able to watch the one behind me.

I know last night probably was an issue of being congested because they had a runny nose all of yesterday. But that is a new symptom. I don't know if they are teething, growing pains or what. Last week i tried motrin some nights and it didn't seem to make a difference. In fact the baby that i gave the motrin to ended up waking up and not going back to sleep. This is getting really old thou. I figure that there is some sort of a background issue going on that i am not aware of but i need help on what to do until it is resolved... Either ideas on how to sleep with them comfortably if they both wake up or ways to comfort both of them while in their crib or something.

Do you think it is true about them still having a sleep regression before reaching a milestone? Mine have never done this but Maya is taking quite a few steps lately and probably isn't far off from walking full time maybe in the next week or 2. Or i guess it could be something like i mentioned before like the teething (Aurora only has 5 teeth and maya has 3)or growing pains.

Do you guys have any suggestions??

 

I remember having several issues with sleep at this time. I don't know if you are a fan of it, but what I did was cio. If it was teething, I would give motrin before bed. If you aren't sure what their problem is, make sure it's not a soiled diaper, not hungry, then let them cio. Are they sharing a room? This is a tough time but it usually resolves within a few weeks. I never put mine in bed with me. I figured nobody would sleep well that way. They will only sleep in their cribs now. Are they still taking two or one nap a day now? Mine got to the point after turning one where they started to transition to one nap a day. Our schedule was very structured then and still is, but it was hard when they started that nap transition. We got up between 7-8am and napped once or twice depending on sleepy cues. Then we would go to bed around 5:30 at night and they would for the most part sttn. If they have a bad napping day, I would put them to bed 15-30 mins earlier. Sometimes they will really sleep in. Their bedtime now is closer to 6pm, but when they have had a very busy day, they still go down at 5:30. It takes 3 days to create a pattern or habit, so you may have to tough this out..if you are a fan of cio. I'm sure you will get advice for a non-cio way of doing this too. I am a big fan of my bible "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child." I still refer to it occasionally when we are going through a non-sleep phase. Good luck! It's really just a matter of figuring out what works best for you and your family.

 

There could be multiple things going on here. We used to bring our kids to bed with us up until around a year. But they started waking up more frequently and no one was getting sleep. We did a modified CIO where we checked on them every 5, 10, 15 minutes. We only verbally reassured them, but did not pick them up. They only sleep in the crib now.

If you think they are teething, try the motrin before bedtime
Do you have a humidifier? It can help with the nasal problems. Our pedi said we can use benadryl as needed for night time stuffiness. My DD is really sensitive and will wake up easily if her nose is clogged.

We also had a hard time with sleeping when they were changing from two to one nap per day. Everything seemed a bit off. Once we got through that, they did much better.

HTH!
Welcome! Beth

 

I was thinking that the girls could either be working on a milestone or getting a tooth in. I have had to do CIO with my DD during the SY because she went through a phase where she would scream when we put her down for bed.
My other question is what is your night time routine like? I also discovered this year that I needed to have the TV off at least 30 minutes before nap and bedtime because both kids would be too keyed up from it, so I started doing quiet time.
Are they napping okay?
I would also suggest, if you don't do this already, having some lovies in their cribs and that might help them to sleep.

 

I can completely commiserate with you. 2 weeks before they turned 1, I did CIO with my boys too. It ended up being painless. They were up twice for 10 minutes each, and settled themselves back down. The next night, up twice for 5 minutes each. From that point forward, slept through the night or settled themselves almost instantly.

Of course, there are times I check on them, if it's an unusual scream or cry, or if I know they are actually sick. But the CIO saved our butts, as we were always up with at least one of them for over an hour each night for about 3 months.

Oh, and excitingly enough, my one son seems to get night terrors. I'm at a loss as to how to stop this, and it's not particularly often, but there is usually an episode once a week. Holy cow.

 

My first thought was to wonder how many naps per day they're doing, and if they're maybe ready to transition to 1 less. Jack (my "problem sleeper") is prone to the Screaming Meemies when he's teething, transitioning to a different nap schedule, or when he feels like he's lulled us into a false sense of complacency. Bringing him into bed *never* helps; he just flails around and thrashes all night so that none of us sleep.

The only thing that's really worked for us is the nightly "pep" talk. We started this at about 13 months, when we'd been through about 3 months of night-wakings. It was so bad, I almost quit my job. One night I started talking to the boys about how it's night-time, it's time for sleeping, Mama and Dada are right here, you're never alone, etc. From that night he started STTN again and didn't night-wake again for months. He does have occasional regressions, but nothing like what it was.

I definitely think that night-waking gets worse during new milestones, too.

I hope you figure this out and get some good sleep soon! :hug:

 

well, lots of good stuff on previous posts...my boys are also starting to sleep differently than before...they are not going down for their usual 2 naps a day (today they've only slept about 45 minutes)....and logan gets night terrors and screams terribly every 3 or 4 hours...

but they sleep upstairs in their cribs so we aren't so tempted to go in and soothe them or bring them into our bed (although my DH does it from time to time b/c he just can't bear it)...this probably isn't the 'correct' thing to suggest, but do they use pacifiers? a lot of the crying we experienced from them at first was b/c they couldn't find their pacis...so now we basically sprinkle a ton of them around their cribs (logan reall, xavier only needs one at night) and it's cut down on the crying a TON.

we also started using a humidifier which helps not only for the congestion, but also provides some white noise to help them sleep. it's been a life saver!
:yahoo:
hope that helps...where in texas are you from? i'm in longview...
beth

 

Thanks for all the helpful replys!

Going down is easy. They get bottle (probably will be weaning soon) bath, lotion, jammas and bed. They both suffer from allergies and so they get zyrtec before bed. They will go down easy after very little fussing. The problem usually arises after 3-4 hours after they have been asleep. How do you do CIO after they have already been asleep and what about the other one? I will let them fuss for a little bit but i have been worried that if one starts crying too much she will wake up her sister. How does that work.

They are teething, i inspected gums this afternoon and i can see the bumps under the gums on the upper side so i think that might be part of the problem. I feel like if i know there is an issue that they are not feeling well then motrin would probably help. DH is more hesitant about giving them stuff on a daily basis. Now last night Aurora the one who woke first did get motrin last night, so i don't know it if is really helping much.

One of the things on my list to ask the pedi tomorrow is the naps. I kinda wonder if they are trying to drop a nap in the middle of this as well. They are starting to fuss more during nap times instead of going down easy, especially during the afternoon nap. Some days i will let them fuss for 45 min and if they still are awake i pick them up. We used to follow the 2-3-4 schedule (a LIFESAVER for me!!) but i find that it isn't so hard and fast anymore. If we are out and about and they miss the afternoon nap they are "ok". This nap is "usually" only 45-60minutes. On a few occasions this past week i wondered if they were waking earlier, like 6:30am compared to 8:30 because they were napping too much or getting that extra sleep during the day.

I don't know maybe it is a whole mess of things. Allergies, teething, milestones, and trying to figure out the nap situation...

DH was a sweetheart today tho and this morning when the girls woke up ready to play early i put them in their crib to play and he made bottles and changed diapers for me so i could take my time waking up!!

 

We are actually in north DFW, my DH has alot of family out in Longview and east texas!

 

it definitely sounds like there's a whole lot of stuff going on right now! i would suggest waiting on CIO as there do seem to be some genuine things they need your comfort for (teething, stuffiness, etc). my girls have been having serious sleep issues for almost 2 months now (teething, illness, vaccinations, Christmas, teething, illness, etc :headbang: ) so i feel your pain. what i've found to work well in our house is to not give them the motrin before bed, but to wait until one of them wakes. i'll go in, do a quick diaper check & cuddle, then put them back down. if they wake again, i give the motrin then, followed by a quick cuddle & back down. i try to keep the lights off or low & i don't talk to them because even though i'm up with them, i don't want to give the impression that it's time to play. some nights it works great (only one of them wakes up, they only wake once for a brief period of time, etc) and some nights it doesn't work very well at all. at the worst of it, i had several nights in a row where both girls were up on & off for 5 - 6 hours. these seemed to be the nights when they were at the worst of the teething (they would go to bed with red swollen gums & wake up the next morning with 3 new teeth!) i think the most important thing to do though is to have a plan for how to deal with night wakings & then be consistent with it. they'll figure it out. and when they're done teething and are ready to sleep again, they will. have no fear!