Night wakings . . . again

Hello,

Okay, I know I have written about this so much lately; however, I can't remember anything I've read. I'm sure this is due to the lack of sleep. My DD and DS continue to have night wakings. For example, DD woke last night at 1:30 whining. She would whine for a few minutes and then stop for ten minutes. This continued and I let her be until about 3:00am (no sleep because I was listening to this). Finally at 3am I went up and rocked her for about 15 minutes and put her back down. She went down easily (not always the case). However, she started whining again after about 20 minutes. I let her whine for awhile and did the whole routine again. I finally decided that I had enough and she was just going to have to whine. DH decided to go up at about 4:30am and he couldn't get her back down so he put a blanket on the floor and they slept there together.

I am so TIRED (literally) of these night and early morning wakings. I need your advice. Even if you read this and think you have a minor thought then please share. HELP me please!

TIA

 

:hug99: some would say do CIO but i just can't do it i can't stand to hear them cry. what if they need me.

when my DD has restless nights i would go in there and hold her for a bit. sometimes she just wants to be held for a bit then goes right off to sleep. i also have a light show and plays music to lul her to sleep she sits there and watches it and it stays on for 20 minutes. it was only $20 at target and she likes it maybe you could try it out..look for light show soothers....is she teething? try hylands teething tablets...she doesn't have to be screaming and crying to need teething stuff. is she cold give her a blanket with your scent on it for her to sleep with. pm me if u need other ideas too ok

 

Could she possibly be teething? Have you tried giving her some Tylenol or Motrin when she wakes? Is she eating a good amount for dinner? Maybe try giving her banana or something like that right before bed.

Also, is she wide awake or is she still kind of out of it with her eyes closed?

If mine wake in the night with that kind of whining/crying I go in after awhile and just pat their back, leaving them in the crib. I try not to take them out of the crib but I could see why you'd do that after she'd been awake so long.

 

Oh, how I know what you are going through!! My DS has never been a good sleeper and it seems like it worse than ever. I can count on him being up from 12 to2 am every night...it stinks!! When he screams, it wakes me up for the duration.
I just saw their ped. today and she said either let him really cry it out for a week solid or to try some benedryl to see if he can get through that waking period for 5 days. I really don't like either idea, but, like you, I cannot even see straight anymore. So, I am going to try the Benedryl first and I will let you know what happens.

I am right there with you! Hang in there!! It is bound to get better, right?? :huh:

 

I know exactly what you're going through! We've been experiencing this for a few months here - it started when the boys got the stomach flu and were awake much of the night needing to be soothed. I also stupidly got them into the habit of expecting a sippy of milk to help them fall back asleep - this after a long, arduous process of night weaning them from breastfeeding! Now I think they're waking out of habit, and many days we've had our day start at 4:30 or 5.

Check out the sticky at the top of this forum for some really good sleep advice from a TS member - we have started to try her method ourselves, teaching the boys 'rules' about nighttime. This hasn't worked miracles for us as it did for her kids, but it definitely caused some improvement. I considered that the first phase, next I'm going to do a modified cry-it-out. I really don't like to let them cry - I'm a bit of a wimp about it - but after months of sleeping on a piece of foam on their floor so I could hold their hands while they fall back to sleep, I'm done! I've been reading the book 'The Sleep Easy Solution' and am going to try their method - sort of a Ferber-based approach with crying but also periodic check-ins (this is necessary in our house because one of my boys poops in his sleep almost every night).

So there you go, every bit of advice I can muster with my terrible lack of sleep. Hopefully things will bet better for all of us soon. Good luck!

 

As I read your post, it reminded me of my girls when they are teething. They just cry and whine all night. When I know they are teething, I put them to bed at their normal time and then before I go to bed (about 10pm) I give them Ibuprofen/motrin. It lasts 8 hours so that is about the time they typically get up in the morning. Sometimes I can tell it is wearing off because they will start whining around 5am.

One of the posters stated that their child wakes up and is up for a couple of hours. My girls used to do that and then we found out they had a dairy allergy. They had been sleeping through the night for several months. We introduced yogurt and cheese and they quit sleeping through the night. They would moan and groan or would wake up and want to play for several hours. We eliminated all dairy and within 3 days they were sleeping through the night. We reintroduced the dairy and they started waking up again. So we eliminated it. At 18 months (about 6 months later), they were offically diagnosed through allergy testing. Just something to think about. Specially if your child gets ear infections. They are also a symptom of allergies.

 

My boys do this as well (they are 26 months). We used to let them CIO but now they seem to understand what is going on and they won't put themselves back to sleep anymore. So... We used the idea from the sleep forum which worked well, but in the night we think they are waking due to :

Teething (2 year molars for months now) - so we give them motrin before bed and in the night if enough time has elapsed

Allergies to bugbites (they are swelling up!) - so we give them some antihistamine

Hungry- I always have mum-mums and a cup of milk ready. Last night, DS just sat in the corner of his crib and drank his milk and ate his "bickies" then promptly fell asleep and fell over!! It was so cute!

Also, we have started giving them a significant bedtime snack including; milk and yogurt and toast with butter etc. This really seems to have helped! I think they were famished by the middle of the night, but could not tell me this!!!!

Now though.... Grayson has learned that if he wakes up a little before our alarm goes off I will bring him into bed with me, so he doesn't seem to wake in the night as much... I think he is keeping it all for the morning!!

But we are still up at least 2 times a night for an average of 1h. I used to think my boys were good sleepers, now I am just going to accept that they are not!!!

Jen FB