My 18month old never has been the best sleeper. Now she wakes up about 3:00 a.m. and does not want to go back to sleep. She is sleeping on a futon in her room, so crying it out is not an option. She can get up and come into our room. I usually go into her room and lay down with her until she goes back to sleep, which usually takes about an hour. This is getting exhausting. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for all of the advice. We ended up putting the baby crib back up and started the Sleep Sense program. I am happy to report that DD has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now and taking better naps. I had forgotten what a good night of sleep was like. Life is good!
A crib and a crib tent would do the trick then let her learn how to sleep in that. 18 months is too young for a bed.
a couple of crib safe toys are good if they wake up they can keep themselves busy until they go back to sleep.
HTH
A. J
First of all, an 18 month old should not be ABLE to get from her room to your room! It's really not safe for a child that young to be able to wonder around the house. If you don't want to use a crib or pack n play, I'd invest in doorknob covers or a baby gate. That's the first thing I'd do. Second, you've gotta decide whether or not you want to continue feeding into the behavior, she has now learned that if she comes to you, you will come back to bed with her, so she is getting positively reinforced for the undesirable behavior. Is she sleeping too much during the daytime? Not enough? Barring medical conditions, a child that age doesn't need food/drink during the night and needs to learn to self soothe. It may mean several nights of listening to her fuss :( While that's not fun, it certainly beats several years of you both not sleeping. Good luck!
hi R.
i just wanted to leave a note to let you feel like you're not alone!! :) about a week ago now, my 23 month old decided to dive head first out of his crib b/c he wanted out THAT bad. We let him cry himself to sleep and it normally works except for wahtever reason, he decided he REALLY wanted out. He did this twice so b/c of the danger involved we put him in his toddler bed. WELL.....it's been killer on us but currently we are trying this method out where we sleep on his floor(my husband one night me the next). We started out close to his bed and if he tried to get out, we put him back in and each night we have moved farther away. Strange as it sounds, its working for him/us. I will say that last night he woke up 3x and climbed out each time but each time i layed him back down, patted his back and layed back down myself. If he wakes up, usually if he sees us he'll lay back down. I'm not sure this will def work but its working right now. We tried letting him cry, even closing him in his room and this did not work at all. he cried for hours and then played and then cried again. We were up for 3-4 hours a night. It was brutal on all of us. the baby gate idea won't work for us i'm sure b/c my son is aggressive and will do what he can to knock it down, he's already broke one. i hope this helps...good luck to you i totally understand how you are feeling but remember, it will pass just as everything else does!! :) stay strong, stand your ground and stay positive!!
S.
make a small "bed" on the floor in your room, if she wants to get up she can come in your room and lay down quietly there and fall back to sleep, that way you don't have to get up and you will be more rested. anther option is to explain that she can get up and play with one toy in her bed till she falls back to sleep there but that you will stay in your bed. My son used to wake up every night and want milk, which meant a trip down stairs and filling a cup with milk. the constant lack of a good night sleep does wear on you, I understand. All three of my boys grew out of it by age 2. best of luck
Hi R.
Try to find a specialist who can offer Osteopathy.
Our daughter had as infant ( from the first moment until almost 2 years) so difficult sleep problems. It was for us both a horrible time to have every night long interruptions.
Well, I had a wonderful lady in Switzerland (where we lived before) who helped my daughter with a few proceedings in Osteopathy, and they were really relaxing for the little one. Already after the first one, she slept almost the whole night.
She is now 8, and went never back on sleeping problems.
There was a little nerv who was jammed in her neck, probably from given birth with tools.
That doesn't has to be such a problem, but my advice is to look for this natural therapy. Maybe you can find someone in the internet.
Good luck. E.
We had th same problem when our son was a toddler, and the solution seemed to make no sense, but worked. We started putting him to bed 30 minutes EARLIER, and that kept him from waking up 2 or 3 times a night! He became a great sleeper again. He also was out of his crib at a young age (13 months, when he started climbing the side of his crib and was tall enough to fall out) and we had to put a baby gate in his door to keep him in his room. At first he cried each night at the gate, but he learned that we would not come back so he would just go and put himself right back to bed.
Have you tried putting a baby gate on her door. I did this with my daughter when she started getting out of bed at night. I worked for a little while until she started climbing over the gate. It might be worth a try.
R.,
I ran into the exact same problem I'm a mom to a 4 year old little girl and 19 month old boy. He would sleep around 9:00 pm and stay until about 3:00 am and would just disrupt everyone's sleep. I believe your problem may be that she knows if she cries that you will come and just stay with her. She has to know that there is no other option than to stay in her room and sleep. When she wakes up take her back to her room and tell her good night or whatever you normally do to soothe her. You might want to turn on a hall light or bathroom light because i wouldn't have her in darkness. She will cry but I'll tell you what my pediatrician in Atlanta told me, "crying is fine-it's the parents who have to get over it". You might want to also purchase a pack and play. They can get costly but you really only need it for sleep and you can find it at Walmart for $40-50. I've had very peaceful nights since doing this. And it will be hard no one likes to here there baby cry. I'm so horrible that I start crying too lol. But be consistent with this I'm sure it will work :)
Check out www.babywhisperer.com
You need to invest in a My Tot Clock. $50 or so. Best investment you will make for your toddler. It will work like a charm, you will be so pleased. This is a great invention. www.mytotclock.com Check out the website. Look over the whole website. You will be so impressed with all that this thing can do. It helps your toddler understand when they should be sleeping and when they are allowed to wake up. The problem is that your child wakes up and does not know that it is not morning time, she does not understand that it is too early, the totclock will help her understand that is a simple way that she can comprehend.
