My DH and I are at wits end with our DD's sleep patterns. She has had periods when she's been a better sleeper, waking only for a potty-tunity around 10 and then going back to sleep peacefully. However, the last 4 -6 months seem to have gotten worse. She wakes multiple times in the night, cries out in full blown upset, loudly sleep-talks about things, fidgets us (she has a thing about rubbing/rolling my neck skin and we have struggles over this), and all around interrupts everyone's sleep, including her own.
We were co-sleeping up until about a month ago, when we got her own bed in the adjoining bedroom (direct open door between rooms) The sleep issues were present while co-sleeping and partly motivated getting her into her own bed, hoping to give us a little more peace. We also weaned around the same time, pretty peacefully. My unexpected pregnancy played into this, though we were on the way already. She has attended full day Montessori since she was about 20 months, and LOVES school. She's very bright, and very verbal since her language explosion right around 2 years. I suspect in part her brain just doesn't slow down!
She hasn't napped much for over a year, but as a result, she instead goes to bed between 6 and 7, and "sleeps" for 12 hours. When she was a napper, it took a lot of effort to get her there. She's always been far more likely to nap ON one of us than alone, except perhaps in the car seat, when she'll happily pass out on drives.
At night, whether in her bed or ours, we've read stories, sang, held hands, etc to get her to sleep, and then left her while DH and I get a few hours of adult evening time. So she's used to being in a bed alone.
Lately she's been waking more during our "adult hours," whereas she used to sleep through that, and in her new bed she will often wake around 2-3am,sometimes to potty (which is fine) but sometimes to get one of us to come sleep with her. Note: she specifically chooses for us to come to HER bed over coming into OURS. Once someone is in bed with her, she doesn't sleep solidly for those remaining 4 hours, with all the fidgety flippy talking issues happening, making for an exhausted parent...whomever falls on the grenade for that night.
DH and I are really, really tired, and feeling very stressed at the prospect of having a newborn with expected sleep interruption piled on top of our rough sleeping older child.
Any reassurance or advice you might offer would be deeply appreciated.
We were co-sleeping up until about a month ago, when we got her own bed in the adjoining bedroom (direct open door between rooms) The sleep issues were present while co-sleeping and partly motivated getting her into her own bed, hoping to give us a little more peace. We also weaned around the same time, pretty peacefully. My unexpected pregnancy played into this, though we were on the way already. She has attended full day Montessori since she was about 20 months, and LOVES school. She's very bright, and very verbal since her language explosion right around 2 years. I suspect in part her brain just doesn't slow down!
She hasn't napped much for over a year, but as a result, she instead goes to bed between 6 and 7, and "sleeps" for 12 hours. When she was a napper, it took a lot of effort to get her there. She's always been far more likely to nap ON one of us than alone, except perhaps in the car seat, when she'll happily pass out on drives.
At night, whether in her bed or ours, we've read stories, sang, held hands, etc to get her to sleep, and then left her while DH and I get a few hours of adult evening time. So she's used to being in a bed alone.
Lately she's been waking more during our "adult hours," whereas she used to sleep through that, and in her new bed she will often wake around 2-3am,sometimes to potty (which is fine) but sometimes to get one of us to come sleep with her. Note: she specifically chooses for us to come to HER bed over coming into OURS. Once someone is in bed with her, she doesn't sleep solidly for those remaining 4 hours, with all the fidgety flippy talking issues happening, making for an exhausted parent...whomever falls on the grenade for that night.
DH and I are really, really tired, and feeling very stressed at the prospect of having a newborn with expected sleep interruption piled on top of our rough sleeping older child.
Any reassurance or advice you might offer would be deeply appreciated.
did you change how you reacted to her when she woke up that first night? You said she cried for 2 hours. Did you let her get it out this time vs trying to stop her crying?
