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HELP ME!! MY SONS A TERRIBLE SLEEPER.

2 replies

elijahandme · 11/01/2019 07:55

My son is by far the worst sleeper I have ever met. He's 13 months old and ever since he was born, he has really restless sleeps during the night. And its not so much that he's restless, but that he literally moves around all night, ends up in all sorts of positions and even hurts himself. I'm always on edge and never get a proper nights rest because I'm constantly up trying to save him from falling off the bed or laying him back down properly after being kicked in the face. Sometimes he even starts crawling around the bed whilst he's sleeping. Most nights he starts crying and howling in his sleep though he never actually wakes up during the night.

When he does wake up in the morning, he's a happy and smiley as can be and full of energy for the day as he taps my face and pulls my hair to wake me up and play and its as if he's had the best nights sleep and nothings happened except mummy looks like a zombie again.

I know you've realised that I've mentioned he sleeps on my bed with me, and that's something that's causing me an issue because me and my partner don't get a proper nights sleep or any alone time.

The thing is, the only reason I put him on the bed was because he kept waking up with bruises from banging his head in his cot from all the moving and sleep crawling. He'd bang his head so hard and then become frustrated at banging his head and proceed to bang it some more trying to get somewhere half asleep. It was so bad, that he'd actually waking himself up from the pain and then id be up trying to soothe his crying. Honestly, I was the last person who would've put him sleeping with me and first 8 months of his life I didn't (how I managed, I have no clue), but that's how bad his sleeping is, in the end I opted for my king size bed because at least then he'd have more space and wasn't banging his head or getting his arms and legs stuck in between the wooden cot bars .

Mind you, I still have to build a little pillow fortress around my mattress every night and I'm still either dragging him back up from the foot of the bed, getting him off me or soothing his whimpering cries or frustrated sleep moans. I have literally tried everything. I brought thick baby bumpers but it didn't make a difference and in the end the cot was just too small for his bad sleeping ways. I've tried to get him more relaxed during the day, giving him a relaxing bath, more milk at night, less milk at night, sleeping with him, letting him sleep alone, singing, white noise, different lighting, different room temperatures YOU NAME IT and its always just been the same outcome during the night.

And now I'm about to move into a bigger place where he'll have his own room and whilst im excited at the prospect of him gaining some independence and being a 'big boy' in an ideal world; I'm worried about how we're going to cope. Especially as I'm back working now and studying for my Masters degree.

Anybody got any tips or products for a very sleep deprived mum who isn't having any sex by the way.

PLEASE HELP!!

OP posts:
JiltedJohnsJulie · 11/01/2019 13:49

I know he’s not a tiny baby but have you tried swaddling him elijah? Cool name btw Smile

Failing that, putting him a cot with grobag might help as they tend to reduce movement.

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution too? That helped us when our DS was a similar age Smile

As for the sex, get him to nap on a mattress on the floor with a stair gate on the door and have at the weekend in naptime, or early evening when he’s in bed Smile

MumUnderTheMoon · 12/01/2019 09:30

My daughter is a very active sleeper when she was little she slept on a mattress on the floor and I put a stair gate on the bedroom door so she wouldn't wander and made sure that there was nothing in her room she could hurt herself on. She has had a double bed for years and I recently a bought a back support pillow like this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love2Sleep-MATERNITY-SUPPORT-PREGNANCY-ULTIMATE/dp/B00T9Q37P6/ref=mpssa112?ie=UTF8&qid=1547285339&sr=8-2&pi=ACSX2366SY340QL65&keywords=love2sleep+pillows&dpPl=1&dpID=31t1loPmFUL&ref=plSrch and she stays in it like a little nest.

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