why aren't my kids sleeping?!?!?!?!?

for a few weeks now my LO's have been waking up in the middle of the night and bc I'm pregnant, my DH has been getting up with them. they wind-up in my bed which = no sleep for my DH and i.

any ideas why they are all of a sudden waking?
any tips on getting them to STAY in their own beds?

 

Honestly now they are used to going to your room when they get up, so it's an expectation. The only advice I can give you CIO. Hopefully someone else has a better suggestion.

 

My girls cosleep with us on & off as needed but when I was pregnant with Emmett there just wasn't enough room. I didn't want to spend tons of time on a no-cry solution because sleep was at a premium & I wasn't comfortable with CIO, so we set up a little "nest" on the floor at the foot of our bed for them to sleep on. During the day we practiced getting up & moving quietly from their bedroom to their nest & talked to them about bringing their teddy & water & tucking themselves in so they didn't have to wake us. They needed a reminder here & there that they needed to sleep in their nest not our bed, but otherwise it worked like a charm. Still does. Although now we usually get a night or two a week that they sleep all night in their own room. :good:

 

Other than the other suggestions (which I agree with trying either/or), are they still napping during the day? I wonder if their nap is too long, if they need to cut it back so they'll go back to sleeping during the night.

 

yes they are napping and they need to nap or they turn into little monsters by late afternoon.
they wake around 7. nap from 12 - 2 and bed around 8. HOWEVER, lately i can't get them asleep. they converted into toddler beds about 3 weeks ago and it's non-stop playing and talking.

 

When my kids started fighting bedtime or night waking, we dropped naps and bedtime became normal again. It took about 2 weeks for their bodies to adjust to no nap, and we put them to bed early for awhile to help offset the no nap, but once they adjusted it was fine. Sometimes they will still fall asleep in the afternoon if they get up too early, or go to bed too late. But I try to wake them after 45 mins or so otherwise they won't sleep at night again.

 

they nap at their sitters. i am only home for a short-time on maternity leave and then they'll be napping again. everyone in her whole house naps from 12 - 2 so I'm trying to keep their lives consistent with the new baby coming and then me going back to work.

 

My boys have gone through this occasionally and I have found it works best for DH or I to go into their room and just sit quietly in their chair while they lay back down and fall asleep. Sometimes I will bring a blanket and just curl up and fall asleep myself!

 

My DS is prone to night terrors/nightmares and any time his sleep routine is disrupted these make their appearance. I am sure that the transition to toddler beds/later bedtimes is the reason your boys are waking at night. Eventually this will get better as they get used to being out of their cribs, but you probably need to move their bedtime earlier until they start going to sleep quicker. Our kids are locked into their room at night because they would just climb baby gates, so we don't have to worry about them coming into our room. When DS wakes at night, we do not take him out of the room. Most of the time we do not even pick him up. We lay him back down, tell him he's ok but that it is still time to sleep, and rub his back until he calms down and falls back asleep. The only time we have ever taken them out of their rooms during night waking is if they are sick. I would try to stop bringing them into your bed, especially because once the baby is born they will test their limits even more!

 

This is our approach as well. We have never taken our boys out of their room if they wake in the middle of the night. We either sit in a rocker with them for a bit and/or rub their backs to get them to lay back down. The ONLY time they have slept in our bed is when they were sick with croup or a bad cold that affected their breathing, which has happened 2 or 3 times. I am so glad our boys don't expect to come in our bed either. That would drive me batty, LOL.

 

Another option which I've done if the kid seemed to be scared from a dream or something is to make a bed on the floor. Heck, I've known a single mom whose twins slept on the floor in her room. It gave them security and let her have some sleep too. We had to cut out the naps like a pp mentioned for the kids NOT to play around at bedtime. They were destroying their bedrooms at night. I removed their mattresses in protest many times. cutting out the naps really did it for us but I understand your situation though.

 

We've just recently cut out naps too. They would be awake at night forever if they had a nap. It's gotten back to normal.