NEW Support thread for those non sleeping toddlers 18-24 months!!

[andyrobo237]

Just thought I would start a support thread -no hostility in here, jsut good old plain advice and friendly support for all us suffering with poor sleeping kiddies!

DS is 21 months and luckily I can get him to start the night in his cot, and he sleeps for 3-5 hours on his own, and then he wakes up asking for me, so for an easy life, and yes I like the snuggles, he comes in with us. He will then sleep until 7am when we get up. He eats ok and has one sort nap in the day (less than an hour), and has a run around after tea, and then we do the following (for we read I as DH is a waste of space!):

Between 6 - 6.30pm bath with big sister - lots of fun and splashing and have to prize him out

6.30 - 6.45 he is given his beaker of milk downstairs and he drinks what he likes

6.45 - 7pm he goes in his grobag on my knee and we read, he snuggles and has more of his milk - sometimes drinks it all, or leaves a bit

7pm - take him to his room - he happily goes. I put him in cot, kiss, and then sit in the chair in his room with low light, no speaking (I read a book) and within 10 mins he is asleep

7.10 or so - creep out, pull door to and go downstairs to DD who is 6

I used to have a bath around 9 to 9.30 but he would always wake after that, so I have a quick shower after their bath, so I dont disturb him!

He has been waking around 12am these past few days, previously it was 10.30 to 11 ish, so at least we have gained an hour of peace! He wakes up stands up in cot and shouts for me, which if you ignore becomes a cry and sobbing, which fortunately doesnt wake his sister usually. I then bring him into our bed and he settles until 6.30 to 7am, when we get up.

He is not tired when we get up and we get up the same time every day even weekends as DD has early morning activities. I just cant get him to stay in his own bed longer. Have tried the early evening routime again (without the milk) and he does appear to go back to sleep, but when I move he springs up!!!

THis is not as bas as what some people have to cope with, but it is not what we want, I needmy sleep and prefer to have half a kingsize bed not the corner!

We will support eachother and get these toddlers to sleep better!!!

Did she stop screaming after the 7oz milk or did she cry for more?

She cries briefly when the milk is finished (she totally drains the bottle) but as soon as she lies down with her dummy in she goes back to sleep. Last night she seemed totally unsettled from going down at 7.30, had to go up a couple of times but she more or less went straight down again until 2.2o. I gave her milk and she went back off till 6, then came in our bed till 7. So better, but only marginally!

I would maybe think about reducing the milk down to 6 oz now. She's been having 7 oz for about a week now hasn't she?

actually no. my one and only bottle has started leaking so have not actually been measuring, just kind of filling it up in the early hours and I would say she has been back to 8 or 9oz. I will have to start reducing again I guess. Sorry .

LOL you don't need to say sorry to me bless you!!

OK what I would do is reduce down to 7 oz. If she doesn't cry for more milk and settles down to sleep after 7 oz give her 2 nights on 7 oz then drop down to 6 and so on.

Will do. Thank you x

how are things going berrysmum?

Well, I have taken her out of her Grobag and put her in a fleecy sleepsuit and that seemed to settle her a bit better; but now she is full of cold and also did a very teething type of poo yesterday so I suspect she's not feeling at her best. I think maybe need a couple of days to get her back to 'normal' again!

lol how many ounces of milk is she taking in the night now?

Last night I didn't have to feed her till five am, although she took about seven attempts of going back in and laying down to go to sleep at 7.30 am and about four times at around eleven. I was pleased about the five o'clock though. She has about seven oz now.

Did she stay up between 5 and 7:30 then?

How did last night go?

Oops thought you posted saturday not today. hope tonight goes aswell.

No, she went down again after the five o'clock bottle. Last night she woke at around three and I could kick myself as I went down on auto pilot and made up her bottle. By the time I got back upstairs she was more or less asleep again but I gave her the bottle in her bed and she slept till six thirty. I reckon could have gone till five again if I'd left her. Know five will sound not great to most, but is a dream come true for me!
I think that not bringing her downstairs is helping too, she seems to be stopping the hands up pleading to come out gesture.

Just realised that on Sunday's post I put 7.30am not pm. Oops! I didn't try getting her to sleep at 7.30 in the morning, honest!

ooooh if she wakes before 5 tonight wait 5 mins to see if she goes back off to sleep first.

Can I join? Although I've read most of the thread and it makes me feel like a freak...

dd is 17 months and is usually bf to sleep, occasionally rocked to sleep by dh. Usually we go to my bedroom, we both lie on the bed in the dark and I feed her until she falls asleep. I have to wait a while longer until she is spark out and then I can lay her down on the bed without her waking. I then stay on the bed with her (MN-ing on laptop) until I'm ready to go to sleep. We co-sleep.

She has never gone to sleep on her own.

(although she has once or twice detached after a feed and then dropped off next to me)

She starts to wake about 4-6 times a night but I instantly feed her back to sleep and so her eyes never open. If I don't feed her she wakes up properly.

Aside from when she's teething (wakes a dozen times screaming in pain) I find this tiring but manageable. I'm not currently doing anythng proactive to change things.

Oh, and we go to sleep whenever and wake whenever - led by dd really. If she's had a late nap because of a car journey then it mucks up any chance of an early bedtime so it will be midnight to bed, and 11am to rise!

My hope is that she will just grow out of night waking and become more able to sleep independently. I'm trying to be patient and let time take its course.

I think it's harder to stop gently if you are bfing cos you can't reduce the amount of milk she has gradually or water it down. if it works for you vlc then it doesn't matter.

SOOOO good just to know there are other children who don't sleep. Husband and I met over conversation about our respective insomnia so I guess the writing was on the wall....! We did use controlled crying with no1 and he eventually slept through until 5am. Can't work out if waking the whole house would be worth it for no2. She wakes 1-3 times every night (20 months) but her eventual uptime can be as late as 7am. any similar experiences?

When she wakes in the night how do you get her back to sleep?

milk... she will have very good bones. Her brother never drank milk after I stopped bf so I'm happy she is drinking it. Am thinking of trying some of the volume cutting and watering down you've all been talking about. She eats well during the day and I'm sure we've created this problem. We were just so relieved that she would go back to sleep after her brother regularly being up for the day at 4.30 or 5am!

ps he's 5 now and of course will drink milk from the wee bottles at school with his friends but still never anywhere else!

Can I belatedly join?

DS is 22 months. Last night he went to bed at 7.30, woke at 4.00 and came in with us for a nurse/cuddle and we all went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

That was the best night's sleep we have had in about 6 weeks.

I have tried CC, and it did work, I did it when he was 9 months (before that he had never slept through, not once) and after about a week he slept 8-10 hours every night, but we got out of the habit when he had chickepox and just wanted me all the time.

I am still BFing at bedtime, and if he wakes, and frankly I know that is why he wakes, he wants boob. He goes back to sleep straight away when he gets it.

I know, I know....

Am hoping now he has all his teeth he will start to improve. Going to try a bed after Christmas and introduce new bedtime routine to try to end BFing.

laurena - does she have bottles or is she breastfed?

georgimama - does he feed to sleep at bedtime or does he go down to sleep awake?

Oh no, he feeds to sleep and always has done (except when we did CC, he would go down awake, cry for a few minutes and then settle), I really am that crap at this.

I am going to have to go back to CC, I know I am, but as I am about to disrupt him by moving him to a bed (waiting for January sales!) I am loathe to make too many changes, all to upset things again in a few weeks. I am just venting.

The first thing I would stop doing is feeding him to sleep at bedtime. When he wakes in the night he knows he wants to go back to sleep but to do that he thinks he needs to breastfeed so cries for you.

If it were me I would still feed him to sleep. Move him to his cot still asleep. Then gently rouse him but not so he is wide awake. Just so he sort of half opens his eyes, rolls over and goes back to sleep.