to just want a night's complete sleep without one of them fucking waking us up

[hooochycoo]

We have a four year old and a one year old, not a night passes without one of them waking up and waking the rest of us up. Why oh why can the pair of them not understand that bedtime is for sleeping? so utterly sick to death of it.

[wickedwitchNE]

Oh dear. Currently expecting my first baby, wondering why on earth I clicked on this thread. Ignorance is bliss!

Think I might use the next 3 months to store up as much sleep as possible, that works right?!

[PigOnStilts]

Oh. Didn't realise this bollocks went on for years.

Do you get your looks back once you get more sleep, or will I look like a wrinkly jowly old witch forever? (Vain)

[GrassIsntGreener]

Yup. An almost 1yo and an almost 5yo here. The eldest finds things like having a runny nose or not being comfy to wake us up about, waking the youngest.

[CarpeVinum]

I feel for you.

My son is now 13, but I have not forgotten the 6 fecking YEARS where he did not sleep through the night.

I am currently yelling "School! Get up!!" at three minute intervals. It's annoying, but there is no comparison with the zombie years when I stumbled through life in a fog of knackeredness and sleep deprivation.

[NotYouNaanBread]

Ours almost never wake up now after what seemed like a lifetime of what you describe. They're 4.5 and 2.5. We're very excited about not having any more children. :)

[AllEyeEatIsCake]

This thread provides very little comfort to someone with a 23 month and a 6 month babies. What is it about 5am that wakes them up?!? And why poo as soon as you wake up and then scream cry until you get changed. Mummy wants to lie in bed ignoring you but no! Scream crying is unignorable!

[hooochycoo]

it makes life so so hard. today's just been shite

[TurnOffTheTv]

Same here. I've barely moved from the sofa. Just doing the school run wiped me out. 90 mins total sleep altogether, and I've got a cold. My poor toddler has watched endless tv. I just cannot summon up the energy for anything. Dreading the other two coming back from school and doing crappy tea time stuff

[nethunsreject]

Ugh, feeling your pain fellow parents.

It's crap, but I feel less alone

[NeopreneMermaid]

My 3yo is now waking from nightmares and this escalates into full-blown screaming tantrums for 40+ minutes. At 2.30am. I am so tired (in every sense) of this shit.

[moustachio]

After having my Ds, there is no way we're having another one!! I just cried for the first year, it was awful! I agree that one day they'll just click. I didn't even realise until a few months after and someone asked how he was sleeping and I replied "really well actually!!

[3birthdaybunnies]

Itchy bottoms at night are v likely to be treadworms (sorry), but at least you can take a pill for those and sleep is restored. No such pill for tantruming nearly 4 yr old who wants blackcurrant. Yes looking at you ds. He woke dh eventually so gave up and handed over to him!!

My 8yr old sleeps through almost anything. 6yr old has a pea sized bladder - no upstairs toilet so then paddy about not wanting to go downstairs alone (though do leave a light on for this purpose), ds will wake randomly- nightmare, needs a wee, ooccasionally already done a wee or of course because he feels like blackcurrant instead of the water next to his bed which he knows is the only drink allowed. I would say now that we probably get woken twice a week by one or the other. Unfortunately so conditioned to wake up my body just wakes up anyway.

[TheFowlAndThePussycat]

That did occur to us bunnies - I checked and no worms in evidence. As it was a one-off itchy bottom I thought probably not worms after all. Might be wrong though ... Any advice?

[3birthdaybunnies]

They're not always easy to spot, but hopefully not those, if it happens again then take a torch in for a peek before you go to bed, also any poos - sometimes if you wait a few minutes you will see movement.

Also make sure that you all follow general hygine even if no definite evidence- short finger nails, wash hands as soon as they get out of bed in the morning etc. Onesie pj help too! If there are visitors then you need to medicate everyone, boil wash all bedding, underwear, towels etc and deep clean everything. Eggs can live for months and easy to catch from other children at nursery etc.

[TheFowlAndThePussycat]

Thanks bunnies, I knew there must be some good reason for onesies! I'll do some boil washing as a precaution and keep an eye out for signs.

Not only do kids prevent you from sleeping, they subject you to this kind of horribleness!

(Wouldn't be without them obvs )

[bragmatic]

I'm still not totally convinced that my lot didn't conspire together before bedtime.

Psssst!!! Whose turn is it to wake her up?

[portraitoftheartist]

My kids are older but when they woke us repeatedly in the early years, my Gran said it didn't happen when she was a mum to 6 because they didn't let it happen. Babies were never fed or attended to in the night and if a child came downstairs after being put to bed they were sent straight back.
I couldn't do that and had 5 years of broken sleep. So it's all our own fault, according to Gran.

[hooochycoo]

i'd ignore them if they didn't make such a god awful noise.

[Rewindtimeplease]

I feel for you all so so much.

I just have to comment though, to first time pregnant who come to this board to morbidly have a look. These stories really are very extreme indeed. I say this as a mother of a six month old and three yr old. I've seen broken nights, to be expected, but nothing, not even close, to this scale, and out of my group of friends, only one experiences anything close.

[TheFowlAndThePussycat]

The problem is, you don't know which of the wakings don't need attending too iyswim. I doubt your gran left any of her children in a wet bed, portrait, or having thrown up on themselves. Once they have yelled and you've got up to have a look they damage is done!

I might be a bit soft on nightmares though as I have terrible ones where my blood runs cold and I wake up screaming - I couldn't leave one of the kids alone if they were experiencing that. I do think that this has led 'I've had a bad dream' to become an excuse for getting us up that they know will be acceptable!

I do think hope that we are reaching a turning point with this as the little one (the worst culprit) is become better able to deal with whatever it is (covering herself with duvet or whatever) and get herself back off to sleep.

[PigOnStilts]

No. You have to go to an upset child..more so than a baby actually ...with a baby you can at least look at the clock and decide what it might be

[NeopreneMermaid]

The unbelievable happened: both of mine slept through last night and let me get 8 hours! It's amazing how much better I feel.

Bunnies, would it be worth having a potty in his bedroom for night tiddles?

[hooochycoo]

I fucking hate this baby. Been three hours now she's been screaming. Fucking eighteen months if this shit, at this point I just hate her

[LovesBeingOnHoliday]

Oh sweetheart, can someone else take over today? Can you stay at a relatives this weekend and let them get up with tge baby?

[hooochycoo]

She's an utter nightmare. By this stage with my son, we were able to go away for weekend and leave him with grandparents. Not so this baby. They've had her for a night and were visibly greyed and shocked.