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Please help my toddler and me to sleep

2 replies

lifethrowspastamakebolognese · 15/05/2020 13:15

I have a lovely 2 year old (just) DD and I am 13 weeks pregnant. I'm at home with her at the moment, DH is a key worker and out Mon-Fri.

She's an absolute joy but falling and staying asleep doesn't come easily to her. Until she was six months old she woke every half an hour or so (sometimes twenty mins, sometimes forty, very occasionally every two hours). At six months she started to sleep for two-three hour stretches which she still does now.

When she was tiny I would rock her to sleep and by about four months could lie her in her cot awake and sit with her until she fell asleep, but she'd always want milk on waking in the night (and still does).

At about a year old I gradually worked up to being able to pop her in cot and leave the room and she'd play for a bit and then go to sleep happily (but still woke distressed in the night.). Unfortunately she was woken a couple of times in a row when we were downstairs by deliveries/dog barking which frightened her and she wanted me to sit with her again after that.

After a period of illness she tried to feed to sleep each night but I now let her have bedtime milk (feeds have cut down more or less to nighttime now) and then sit with her while she goes to sleep on her own. Over the last few months I've started bedsharing because I was becoming really tired and it's so much easier to roll over and feed her every couple of hours than get up and go to her.

I have seen two different sleep trainers. My DH was away when she was tiny and we don't have family nearby, so she's very used to me at bedtime. For specific reasons due to a medical condition she has, I have not tried controlled crying or similar but am now at the point where with pregnancy it's becoming too much being woken often (if she's overtired it's actually much more frequently like hourly) and I'd like to night wean - although I'm not at all confident it will actually make any difference to her night waking at all.

My DH is on board with trying to help at weekends but has never put her to bed before. I know there's no magic solution but would like to make a plan that we can stick to consistently and fairly to at least help her to sleep a little longer, or if not, allow DH to comfort her at weekends so I can get a bit of unbroken sleep a couple of days a week.

Does anybody have any suggestions? I have night weaning books etc.

OP posts:
lifethrowspastamakebolognese · 15/05/2020 13:18

I should add that although I generally think her sleep at night is not detrimental to her (she's waking naturally at the end of a sleep cycle) I do also think it would help her now to have more tools herself for nights when she is more restless and wakes more

In a way I'm happy to carry on as we are as far as my health is concerned, but I think it's in her best interests and the baby's that something changes and that's why I want to move forwards now

OP posts:
memememe · 15/05/2020 14:41

hi i am a sleep consultant and also an attachment parent so i can help with the breastfeeding and co sleeping transitions etc. please feel free to pm me and ill talk you through it xx

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