My husband and I are desperate! Our 22 month old twins have not slept through the night for the past month. it started off with my daughter being sick and has not gone back to the normal sleep pattern like she usually does. The worst part is they are waking each other up within minutes of screaming! We are so use to running in to get one baby before the other one wakes but now they are both up screaming their heads off. I swear the neighbors can hear them down the street! They both get so worked up coughing and gagging are usually involved. I can't remember the last time my husband and I woke up in the same bed together....one is usually on the couch with a child. It was never like this before....this has been the longest run with them not returning to their normal sleep pattern. The most I do let them cry is 20- 25 minutes but I usually never have to wait that long. I have a feeling that NOW my daughter could scream for hours if I would let her......do I?? My husband and I both work so the sore necks from the couch and tired eyes are not helping. Please give me any advice.....is it normal for them to scream as loud and insane like they do? We though about separating but the rooms are close together so they still may wake each other up. We also thought about switching to toddler bed but I am so not ready for that! Could this also be separation anxiety.....Adelynn screams for me the whole time??? Appreciation in advance for you answers Kristin
:hug: Kristin! My twins have their own rooms right next to each other and I can tell you that if one is freaking out, the one who is still sleeping doesn't hear the other one. I also have a fan going in their room with a tot clock that does white noise, so that also helps. Just a consideration if you do decide to separate rooms. It's very possible that your DD is going through separation anxiety right now and being thrown off her schedule from being sick doesn't help. The only thing that worked with my two was doing cry it out...if I knew they were okay and didn't need to be changed, weren't getting sick, etc. I would let them go and eventually they'd get back on schedule. I know there are people who are not fans of cry it out and have used other methods and those have worked fine. A book that I found helpful with sleep issues is Sleep Solutions for your Baby, Toddler and Preschooler by Ann Douglas. She does go over various sleep issues and the causes behind them and also reviews all of the major sleep methods and tells you how to do them. Good luck!
My girls started having sleep issues around 12 months. It started as one night a week and at it's worse around 16 months was 5 nights a week. They are now 22 motnhs and we still have issues with them not sleeping. We tried everything. Noise machines, music, getting them up, night lights, water, food, rocking, letting them play, etc etc etc. When we finally got tough on the CIO method they eventually learned. We did it like this..... 1. hear them cry and wait about five minutes to see if they stopped on their own, 2. if they did not stop go in their room, DO NOT turn on a light or say anything. Check for fever by touching head, check for dirty diaper (by smell), maake sure they have their lovies, lay them back down and walk out. 3. after 30-45 minutes if they were still screaming we would do step two again. 4. once we did this practice for a couple of weeks we stopped going back in the second time unless they were just going crazy. 5. after a while we pretty much stopped going in their room at all unless we knew they were not going to stop. We know that they still wake up in the middle of the night. SOmetimes they will cry for a few minutes, but most of the time they play quietly. I eventually got to a point where i had to just turn the monitor off. I can hear them crying so there was no need for me to hear them playing. I have jsut resigned myself to the fact that i have BAD sleepers. Even there 14 week old sister refuses to nap during the day. It is hard to do, but CIO was the only thing that taught them that they could be awake all they wanted but screaming was not going to get them anywhere. One more thing. Make sure that whatever you decide to do you are consistent with it and that you and your husband are on the same page and do it the same way every night.
I often have to go back to sleep training basics with my two after they are sick or teething or just decide 4 am is a great time to play. I typically go in at first to make sure there's nothing wrong.. diaper, comfortable temperature. I put a book and their lovey in the crib, and rub their back while I explain it's not time to get up yet. Sometimes this works and they go back to sleep right away. Other times they throw a holy tantrum, but as long as they're not in any danger or uncomfortable I leave them to cry it out. My kids are expert manipulators at getting to sleep in bed with us, so this is usually what they're going for. If we leave them to CIO they usually get the hint and find their way back to sleep.
My bad sleeper (Jack) gets like this when he has bouts of night-waking. It's almost like he's having an out-of-body experience; he's screaming, hyperventilating and sounds like a wild animal. What really helped for us is to give him a "pep talk" at night before bed. We tell him it's night-time, time for sleeping, Mama and Dada are right here, but if you wake you need to try to go back to sleep, etc. This seems to be really reassuring to him. We started this just after he turned one (after a 3 month stretch of no sleep for any of us!), and he's gotten MUCH better. He still has times when he'll wake at night, but it's not nearly as often, and usually he'll go back to sleep if we go in and rock him for 5 minutes. When he does wake up, we give him a few and see if he settles back down. If he doesn't, then one of us goes in and rocks him and tells him that it's still night-time; basically do the "pep talk" again, and tell him that we're going to lay him down in his crib. Strangely enough, even though the boys share a room, Nate almost never wakes up during all this! :blink: Good luck, I hope you find a good solution. Trying to function on no sleep is not easy! :hug:
