at. a. LOSS

[ralsta]

my darling daughter, light of my life, has NEVER slept through the night. not once, ever.

she’s breastfed, still. i’ve tried to stop numerous times but then she’d get ill or there’d be new teeth etc

her routine is like this

7/7:30 wake (ALWAYS cranky/crying)

11:45/12pm nap

1:30/2pm wake

7/7:30pm bedtime

i’ve tried later bedtimes. nothing helps

do i just to stick the night weaning out….im a single mum with a 4 year old also who i can’t keep waking up. my daughter is a fog horn and would wake the neighbours with her screaming!

shes 21 months old. and im exhausted

i think im ready to stop breastfeeding, but im not 100%, maybe like 90% but she also has started gettibg criss, like tonight she was obviously really really tired and kept asking for milk but there was just nothing coming!

I decided to stop night feeding at the same age and offered milk before bed but not during the night. There was a fair bit of crying for a few nights when he didn’t get milk at night, I offered a beaker etc and eventually he got the message. He still woke up for a few weeks but could be settled. Then he started sleeping through.

The sleep deprivation is awful. My 17 month old has always been an awful sleeper and has only once slept through the night (last week for the first time!). His sleep is slowly but surely improving though. He is also BF

I think you are aiming for too much sleep in a 24hr period. Avg sleep for her age is 11-14 hours per day (with 14 hours being on the higher end of normal). Most toddlers don’t need 12 hours overnight, more like 10 hours.

It can take a good two weeks or so to notice any difference when you implement a change (ie later bedtime).

For what it’s worth my 17 month olds routine is

6.30 wake
12.30-2 nap
8.30pm bed

Since pushing his bedtime later and maximising his sleep pressure we are getting longer stretches

Re the night weaning I have no advice but I’m worried to remove the boob because it’s the only thing that will get him back to sleep!

thanks both

@Decorsos i did wonder this also, but she would just sleep and sleep and sleep if i let her! so i’m never sure what to do. she’s had less sleep today as she’s been with my mum, nanny’s are always more relaxed around sleep are they they. maybe tomorrow i’ll reduce her nap to 1hr 15mins then next week reduce it to 1 hr a day. and go from there…fingers crossed!!! i just keep thinking surely there’s a way i can get her to sleep better, but still breastfeed like it can’t be the sole reason she’s waking sooooooo much?! i don’t know haha

My boy would also sleep and sleep to be honest! If I let him nap for however long he wanted he’d easily nap for 3 hours plus! And if I didn’t wake him at 6.30am he’d likely sleep til at least 8.

However there’s only so much sleep he needs in 24 hours so if I let him nap the day away or let him sleep in it would result in major split nights where he’d be up for 2 hours in the night!

Hope things improve for you soon!