I thought our little son was the best sleeper. I thought. Compared to his sisters, it’s actually true. Sleep has always been a struggle at our house when our children are babies and toddlers. My very first blog post was about sleep, and I only had one child then!
This picture is Brielle at 10 months. I was trying to train her to sleep in her crib at nap time. She was by that point sleeping in her crib at night, but she fought her naps so hard, she would make herself vomit (you can kind of see some in the picture if you care to look hard enough). She would cry for 90 minutes and sleep for 30. Not an ideal situation.
I read soooo many books about it, and nothing really seemed to help. Brielle wasn’t really even napping by 14 months. I have sleep horror stories!
So on to Cadrian. He’s a self scheduled baby. He pretty much comes to me at 9 o’clock on the dot to be put down for his morning nap. Same thing at 2 o’clock. He even does it at bedtime too. He’s our first baby to be put to bed awake and who will put himself to sleep. BUT.
He was nursing SO often in the night when he was sleeping with us, I was feeling really tired. Really, really tired. He was 10 months, plenty old enough to sleep through the night. We moved him to his crib, which is in a corner of our room. Ever since then, we have been sleeping in the guest room, and I’ve been getting up with him at 4 o’clock in the morning. (Sometimes he sleeps later, but he’s trained me to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning.) He usually goes back to sleep after nursing, but I can’t.
If we don’t sleep in the guest room, and try to sleep in our own room, he wakes up at least three times in the night. Last night it was five. He will Not Settle without being nursed. He escalates to terrified horror movie shrieks within minutes if he isn’t picked up. I’m beyond exhausted, I tell you.
I am at an utter loss. I am so tired, I’m perma-cranky. I have The No-cry Sleep Solution coming any day now. Maybe you can help me see another solution.
Incidentally, we don’t really have another place for the crib. Our upstairs doesn’t have heat, and anyway all the rooms but the guest room are icky. The guest room doesn’t have room for a bed and a crib. Aviana’s quiet time is also in the guest room, and Cadrian wouldn’t nap if she were in there.
I remember this time, beseeching God why couldn't he grant me sleep when actually in the bible it says "he grants sleep to those he loves" Ha the very next verse goes on to say "children are a blessing from Him"
So He has an excellent sense of humour.
I have no advice except to say they do grow out of it eventually. My oldest was 4 when he started sleeping through, now at 16 it really isn't an issue anymore.
What if you put the crib in the guest room and that way you could sleep in your own bed. Then at nap time had Aviana do her quiet time on your bed? Just a thought.
We have all 3 in the same room at night but during nap/quiet time they are all parceled out to various rooms so they are separate.
I feel like I was reading my own story here! E's crib is in our room and there is no room for it anywhere else (The same thing at our old house when little A was a baby). Our upstairs is unheated (and unfinished) so that is not an option at this point. I nursed little A until he was 16 months. He would wake up in the middle of the night to nurse until he was fully weaned. I tried everything and he wouldn't go back to sleep without me nursing him. I feel like the same thing is happening with E now and I am so frustrated. Everyone else I know has a baby that is sleeping through the night and mine won't. The CIO method does NOT work with him at all. He just gets more and more upset and doesn't calm himself down. My daughter would fuss for 5 minutes and then she was fine, so I know that for some people the CIO method does work. It is not something that worked with little A or works with E. I have heard GREAT things about the no cry sleep solution. My neighbor has been reading it and she is going to let me borrow it when she is done. I wish I had some sage advice but I don't. Know that I completely understand how you feel though! I'm so sleep deprived I look like a zombie most days. At this exact moment E is fussing because he wants to nurse so he'll nap. He has 'decided' that he doesn't want to take naps unless I hold him the ENTIRE time.
My lil bean did the same thing from about seven or eight months, he'd make himself puke, and bite on the crib, yes BITE on it, and bang his head on it because he knew we'd have to check on him or clean his puke…….we were so worried he'd hurt himself that from about ten months old until he went into a toddler bed, he slept in his pack 'n play. It was Wonderful. He couldn't hurt his little head, and it was easier to clean up after he made himself gag……….his lil episodes only lasted a few months, so there's hope!! He has always been just a very affectionate baby, and never has liked being alone. He's seriously the happiest, easiest child ever. But NEVER likes being alone. I don't blame him for that, though. I like company, too!! Hope you get things worked out soon!!
This Australian lady does EC, but she also has a great section on breastfeeding and sleep, maybe not advice, per se, but it makes me feel better about nursing my babies to sleep…
http://www.tribalbaby.org/Feedingtosleep.html
Since I do EC, taking them to the potty when they wake helps them to sleep better through the rest of the night. Or maybe Cadrian was just going through a growth spurt when you got so tired, and if you brought him back into your bed he wouldn't wake so much and you'd get more sleep?
Either way, this too shall pass. (=
You might find help from the Feingold program. I highly recommend it. See http://www.feingold.org