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Original poster

Support thread for the over 1's who still don't want to sleep through

115 replies

PenguinArmy · 30/03/2011 18:44

I know I need a place to moan about how tired I am and if I tell anyone anywhere else, again, I may get punched Grin

tbh I feel that we've given her the tools and she will do it, when she does. No major active 'sleep training' from us, although that may change when we move house and she gets her own room (though more a change in strategy)

anyone else?

OP posts:
Mamateur · 11/05/2011 07:28

Good luck Sara. It think it helps to resettle them as quickly as possible before they're too awake. I slept next to DS and shushed him back to sleep the second he stirred.

We're thinking of contacting a sleep clinic, just because we can't think straight any more. I've been googling early waking this morning but not really found any likely strategy

SaraF82 · 11/05/2011 08:28

well what a disaster that was!!
DD had gone down at 8pm and had already woken at 8.50pm- DH had resettled her. She is getting her last 2 teeth through so don't think that's helping so DH had given her some calpol. i was so tired when i got home from work (9pm) that i thought i'd have an early night and was up on my airbed by 10pm. as soon as i lied down i was wide awake and couldn't sleep. She slept till about 11pm when DH cam upstairs and this must have woken her ( I was still awake). i resettled her but now of course she knew that i was in the room. i must have nodded off at about 12am. she woke then at 2am and for the next hour cried every 10 minutes!!! by 3am she was sat up holding her arms out to get out of her cot so i gave her some more calpol thinking her teeth might be hurting. By this point DH had had enough and had gone to sleep downstairs as is not a morning person and was due to be up at 6am. She then slept till 7.15am
so i'm now up after 5 hours of uncomfortable sleep and still no light at the endof the tunnel.
even worse is we're going to Tenerife next week and i'm dreading it if this is how she's going to sleep :(

dontrunwithscissors · 13/05/2011 12:39

I've just found this thread. I have DD1 who started sleeping through just after her 3rd birthday. Curiously, I think it was the arrival of DD2 that finally got her to sleep through. I'm still amazed that we don't hear anything from her all night after the torture of her first three years. Of course, DD2 has inherited her sister's terrible sleeping ways so I'm up and down with her instead. I found that things did get easier once DD1 turned 2. We were able to work on explaining to her why she needed to sleep. I'm just hanging on until DD2's second birthday in January....

mrsSOAK · 13/05/2011 22:16

hellooooo,
i am still here and still awake! as is dd!
Nothing has improved from the last post I put on which was end of march.
She has her bottle and a couple of stories at 7pm ish (depending if its bath night) she gets all calm and I lay her in her cot and bam! its like she is wide awake agin. I read a couple more stories whilst she sings, shouts, cries, bounces around in her cot. Eventually she will settle and sleep but it has taken until 9.15 on some occasions, then she is awake at 2am and comes into our bed and as soon as her head hits the pillows she is gone, then she sleeps til about 5.30am. Haven't had a full nights sleep in 22 months (did't sleep well when heavily pregnant) the one night she did sleep through I actually woke up to check on her as it was so unusual!
I can't bear the idea of controlled crying (its fine for them that can; i just can't - pfb?!?)
i feel like we (dh & I) are slowly losing our reason, obvious knock on effects of her not sleeping means we are tired and snappy with each other (not with her v often) Desperate to know what to do.

Mamateur · 17/05/2011 13:03

I'm really confused. A couple of nights ago DS slept through, from 8pm to 7am which is absolutely unheard of and indeed didn't last. The following nights he woke at 4.30 then 3.30 last night, sounding like he was being mauled by a hot cat and took ages to resettle (with milk). Everyone told me to stop letting him sleep so long in the day, so I cut his nap to 1 hour but it made no difference (he's easy to get to sleep in the evening anyway).
Yesterday he had no nap (he didn't want one till it was too late in the day) but still woke at 3.30.
I got a book that explains all the sleep phases and advises on timing of naps and bedtimes etc. but I'm too tired to read it..

And now he can hop out of his cot in no time. Last night I went in and he was sitting on the floor next to his cot holding his foot and crying, so he'd obviously hurt himself falling out.

SinisterBuggyMonth · 17/05/2011 14:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MovingAndScared · 18/05/2011 20:15

Hi - can I join - 15 mo - slept through about 4 times - and those he was up well before 6 so not that helpful - goes to sleep ok - wakes once in the night but can be for quite some time - I have tried leaving him - he doesn't cry really -more is just noisy but he won't settle until we come in - no idea what to do - although I think DS1 was a little older before he realiably slept through

TheOldestCat · 18/05/2011 20:26

Ah, my people.

No advice as I have not had a proper night's sleep in a year and a half (DS is 15 months and the last few months of pregnancy were wakeful ones) - him waking up twice is a good night, and he tends to think 4:45 or 5ish is a perfectly acceptable time to start the day. Sheeesh.

I work part-time and am slowly losing all reason. I am either looking after the kids (DD is 4) or working - no family help nearby.

Anyway, here is some hope for those in the same boat. DD wasn't a great sleeper (never this bad, mark you) but things got better eventually. And now she's great, apart from the odd night terror.

Enjoy the sedation, SinisterBuggyMoth (sounds like bliss! seriously, hope the surgery goes well).

wonka · 19/05/2011 21:41

My mother sent me this link...

SconesForTea · 20/05/2011 09:27

Can I commit what I'm sure is a MN faux pas and leapfrog on at the end of a thread without reading it (sorry) and ask, can any of you recommend a good toddler sleep book?

Mamateur · 23/05/2011 09:17

Hi scones we've just seen a vast improvement with teach your child to sleep, the millpond book. I held out because for night waking you have to choose between cc and gradual withdrawal and I'm too soft the first and too lazy for the second. Actually all that happened is I kept resettling him but without interaction and he got it in one night. No crying, just a bit of whinging (I honestly don't know what I would have done if he'd really got upset). Last night he slept 7 till 4.30 when I went it, lay him back down and tucked him back in and he was instantly back to sleep. Slept till 7.40.

DP worked it out from the book which was great because I was so lost in the problem I couldn't see even the really obvious stuff Blush

Original poster
PenguinArmy · 12/06/2011 06:18

Just refound this

How is everyone doing?

OP posts:
Fumblina · 23/07/2011 22:30

Found You! I last posted around April when DD was 11.5 months and disappeared because all of a sudden she started to sleep through...

For precisely 3.5 weeks. Hmm

Then she got laryngitis, learned to stand/walk, sprouted 8 teeth and has slept through on exactly 2 nights since. Oh and to add to the joy Hmm she will not bf anymore, I have been spat out, spurned, rejected Sad

We have been blatently bottlefeeding her back to sleep thus far, telling ourselves its because she is learning/poorly/teething etc but to honest I'm not sure she is any more. I'm beginning to wonder if we have created one of those negative sleep associations.

What do you all think?

I am now back at work and I am tiiiiiiired

Ineedacoffee · 24/07/2011 01:06

DS is 14months and has been screaming for an hour :(

Always been terrible at sleeping- doesn't go to sleep, wakes up for 2-3 hrs and likes to start the day with times that start with 5.

DH has been very resistant to the idea of sleep training but cracked 2 nights ago having been up for 3hrs and left him to cry.Last night I put him down awake (unheard of) he went to sleep in 15 mins and slept for 11hrs!!!! First time ever. ITonight a disaster but I'm thinking having started this we have to be consistnt for a few nights to try. Very very hard right now though :(

Minzer · 25/07/2011 14:13

Hi All, I've been browsing through the forums whilst feeding my 16 mnth old to sleep and have been so compelled to register and please join in with your support! My DD is 16 months old and never slept more than 3-4hours (on a good night) at a time, always breast fed back to sleep.... I felt like I'd failed...done something wrong...despaired at how I'd got myself into this situation and lonely that no one else understood. I can't leave her to cry, despite everyone telling me thats what I need to do. DH says I should bottle feed her 'because bottle fed babies always sleep through' but she's never accepted a bottle and I don't see the point of struggling with that battle now. Im tired, never made it out the house past 6.30pm in the last 16 months, but was so relieved to read your comments that I now know Im not the only one .... she will (hopefully) grow out of it, and until she's ready Im not a 'failure' by continuing to feed her back to sleep. It feels like there's light at the end of the tunnel

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