Hi everyone,
I’m on the edge of a breakdown over my daughters sleep, well both daughters really!
Background - my eldest is nearly 7 and has never been a good sleeper since birth. She struggles with falling asleep and staying asleep. My youngest is 5 and used to be a good sleeper but is currently also in a poor sleep cycle and is really really hard work in the day time because of how exhausted she must be.
it’s nearly 9pm on a school night and Youngest DC has just fallen asleep. Oldest DC probably has another hour in her of getting up/finding a problem then feeling upset/dispair over something because she’s so tired.
my nearly 7 yo gets around 8 hours Of sleep a night in segments, she may get up around 3 times a night typically.
I’m exhausted and at my shots end & looking for any words of wisdom.
- We do no screens 2 hours before bedtime
- all read a story together
- talk about our day early in the evening so any issues aren’t brought up at bedtime.
- they share a room now (due to space) but it’s calm and clear.
- they have teddies for comfort
- my eldest I will hug but try not to talk to when she gets out of bed (she wants us to lie with her to fall asleep, we have done this in the past but it won’t help her in the long term if we continue)
- Tried not to focus on the ‘not being asleep’ part. I don’t want oldest DC to stress about not being asleep by a certain time. I’ve told her the process of sleep and why it’s important.
What can I do? I’m exhausted now. I’d like to be in bed myself but I struggle with sleep now after having such broken sleep for 7 years. If I go to bed and they wake me up/disturb me any more than 2 times I’m awake for hours on end no matter the time.
I’ve been awake since 3.30 am today!
thanks for reading all this x