My 13mo has started waking up 3 times a night. She will nurse a little and then go back to sleep. Last night I was so tired by the third time I just let her cry for awhile, then my hubby got up and got her and she went back to sleep with him. I'm a wreck,I'm not getting any sleep. I'm not a huge fan of the cry it out method, and would love any advice I can get. I would rather not have her in bed with us as I still can't seem to get my 3yo out. (thats a whole other issue for later)
Thank you
~L.
She's old enough for milk now, and when my 13 month old did this same thing, I had a chilled bottle/cup of milk ready by the bed in a cooler bag. The first night he drank all of it (in many wake ups), the second night he drank half, and the 3rd, only 2 oz. After that he slept through the night and seemed to figure that if cold milk was all he got, it wasn't worth waking up for. No crying at all. Good luck.
With my older daughter, I had to eventually let her cry it out, it was hard but it only took one night! We eliminated one wake-up at a time and then all slept better. i didn't want to let her cry either, but she was fat as could be and certainly wasn't hungry. Her crib was in our room, so I would sing her the ABC's when she woke up. This helped me, because I knew she knew that I was there, and loving her, and not ignoring her, but was going to sing instead of picking her up. I'm sure not all kids stop in one night, but many do. My second daughter is 10 months and sleeps through the night, i think because I always laid her down when she was still a little bit awake since she was born, so she is used to falling asleep without suckling. I have let her cry a little bit only if it was just fussing, not full on mad. It has worked with both of them. I just consider it to be better that I am not a total low energy grouch, than if they had to cry for 15 minutes.
We have a 19.5 month old and we got the same issue. We got him to sleep a couple months ago but had to let his grandparents keep him one night which totally screwed up his sleep and we were 3 steps back from step one. heh.
One of the things we found out was that the sleep environment (since he sleeps in our room and we just rearranged everything) was causing him to wake up more often.
We are back to 3 times per night. Our pediatricians assistant said try a sippy cup instead of a bottle and we found out it's a comfort thing. My husband will start to feed him a bottle yet go less and less w/ the water.
My suggestion- Wait till your child does escalate the situation- many children are active in their sleep and we accidentally wake them up if we immediately respond and not let them settle down for themselves. After you realize that sh e is in fact awake and getting a bit more upset go to her. (We use the easy but longer method of help since we hate the 'cry it out method') But we have a rule- take whatever works but DO NOT take our child out of the crib. They get used to staying in the crib -after some sleepless nights- and allowing comfort in the crib.
Once that becomes a consistent knowledge to your child go to the next step of giving little bit less help. We stay with our child less and less, maybe just patting him instead of hugging him IN the crib. Then they start realizing they require less and less help going back to sleep.
We are down to giving a bottle 3 times a night to him. (Far from where we started. heh. Remember all your family successes to make it a forward process) Now we are going back to what worked last time. A 3oz bottle of water. Then 2oz after that. Then 1oz after he adjusts. Its a longer process, but seems more 'humane' to all of us.
Some good books are "Happiest Toddler on the block", and "The no-cry sleep solution". YOu can get them from the local library to see if a solution works for you."Happiest Baby on the block" might have some tips, but it's been a while since we used that books benefits.
-steffi
I'm in the same boat with my 13mo daughter. Lately she's been waking up between 2 and 4 am and won't go back to sleep for a half hour or more -- she's happy to snuggle and rock in silence, but she won't tolerate being left in her crib all alone. I look forward to what people have to say!
J.
L.,
My daughter was the same way. BTW she's just turned one. She weaned early so I don't have the nursing issue, but here's what I did: When she'd wake up in the middle of the night I'd wait a couple of minutes to see if she'd go back to sleep on her own. Once the crying changed from a fuss to a "get me the bleep out of here/I'm really mad now" cry I'd go in and either rock quietly with her in the rocking chair in her room, or just sway with her in my arms right at her crib until she calmed down and started going back to sleep.
We have a dimmer switch in her room instead of a night light, and that helped too. But when I do go in to her room I keep the light the way it is, and talk softly and as little as possible. Your daughter may be confused a little as to when sleepy time is and when playtime is, I don't know though.
Hope this helps,
Melissa
Tracy Hogg has some great books, baby wisperer, and she has one for Toddles too.
I got my 3rd child out of our bed when he was 2 because we were having baby number 4. It was hard, we did let him cry some, but my hubby started sleeping with him, in his room. Now he sleeps well alone, most times still my hubby has to sleep in the same room until he falls aleep but after 5 months (LOL) he does sleep all night in his room all night.
