I'm beginning to think our case is hopeless. - Page 2

[MommyDOK]

I really feel for you.

I'm on my third dc now, and all have taken forever to sleep through the night. My first sttn at 15 months. She transitioned very easily to sleeping w/ daddy and there was no crying at all.

So w/ my second, I tried the same thing at 15 months--she would have nothing to do w/ it. All out, hysterical cries. So then, I waited a few months and still no. I tried Dr Jay Gordon's, but for her, it was really cio. I went to an ap therapist and he encouraged me to wait until she was ready. Finally at 24 months. Then she was (and still is) a dream sleeper.

This time, my little guy is 18 months and he is waking up 2-3-4 times per night. It is exhausting. I have no solutions for you.

I would highly not recommend that you take ambien. It is a very powerful drug and there have even been people that slept-walked and did crazy things. A friend worked w/ a guy that slept-walked to his car and went driving and killed a woman. If you google ambien deaths,you will see more. My neighbor takes it all the time and if you talk to her after she has taken it, she sounds somewhat normal and will talk for an hour and a half, but the next day, she won't remember any of it.

I'm curious about the homepathics.

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Originally Posted by melanie_rabbitbarn

I know you said he doesn't like the sippy cup at night, but I just wanted to share how I night-weaned our son at 15 months. I decided he was going to be weaned and I offered him the sippy cup of warm milk instead of nursing. He refused and screamed for about an hour before he finally gave in and drank the milk from the cup. After that, it was only about a week of substituting sippy cup for nursing before he decided it wasn't worth waking up for. I know it won't work for every little one, but this was my experience.

Thank you for sharing! I have gotten so sleepy-stupid that I didn't even think to put milk in the cup! We were just offering him water. Of course, he wouldn't even put his lips to it to find out what was in it, but I think putting milk in there would ease the transition if/when he finally took a sip. Were you co-sleeping when you did this?

Originally Posted by pianojazzgirl

Another vote for you sleeping with ds and have dh sleep in a different bed. This has worked really well in our family (with a dh who snores loudly, tosses and turns, and wakes up early with an alarm).

At your ds's age my ds was a serious night-waker. 4 times a night would be amazing, 10 times a night would be all too often. I would have just died of exhaustion if he wasn't sleeping right next to me so I could roll over and nurse him. At a certain point I would sometimes say no to nursing and he would be sad but I would hug him and he'd fall right asleep (this was usually earlier in the night). In the early morning if he asked to nurse I would nurse him because otherwise he'd really freak out (I took this to mean that he REALLY needed to nurse at that point), and also because by that time I was seriously tired and just wanted to do the boobie quick-fix.

Ok, I am now on the search for a twin mattress to put on his floor for us!

Originally Posted by MujerMamaMismo

Firstly, your son must be pretty special...he and my son have the very same birthday. Maybe it's a sleepless solstice sixteen-month old thing!?!

Our treatment has been so simple. DS has seen the homeopath twice and we've tried two remedies. The first one was ok and improved things marginally but the second one was exactly what he needed. Your homeopath may charge a lot for consultations but the medicines should be very inexpensive - that's one of the very attractive things about homeopathy.

I'm very impressed with our homeopath - while I thought her consultation prices were a bit high, it's been completely worthwhile as she is available via email (and actually asks for reports throughout the week AND makes new suggestions and organises new remedies between consults without charge) 24/7. I love her.

Like you, I'd pay just about anything for sleep! Good luck.

Yes, I remember you from our DDC! Solstice babies are very special.

I am going to talk to the homeopath I know. Was yours treating an underlying condition that was causing the sleeplessness or was she treating the actual sleeplessness? (If that makes any sense, lol...)

MommyDOK, your second child sounds much like my son. Maybe it is just a readiness thing... like child-led weaning. My daughter slept through the night at 9 months and weaned herself at 18 months. I have 2 very different children! So maybe there is hope that we will get there when he is ready...

Thanks again mamas!

[MujerMamaMismo]

Originally Posted by ChesapeakeBorn

Was yours treating an underlying condition that was causing the sleeplessness or was she treating the actual sleeplessness? (If that makes any sense, lol...)

Homeopathy treatments are truly holistic and work with personality, emotional and physical symptoms/characteristics. At this point some of DS's sleep issues have been narrowed down to food intolerances (we worked that out prior to seeing the homeopath and adjusted his diet accordingly), crappy teething (this kid teethes LONG and HARD - his eye teeth are currently giving him hell!), bad sleep habits (waking up every 40mins because the boob is right there) and personality stuff (he's a very busy, super active little boy.) I'm sure the homeopath sees it as more complex than that, but that's my general understanding of what's going on.

Is that helpful / what you're asking?

[kkfum]

I will second the suggestion about a homeopath. It was the only thing that helped our daughter. I took her at age 2.5 yrs...the homeopath first treated me (because she thought some of my issues might be affecting her) and then started treating her. Within two doses, she was sleeping through the night and self-weaned. It was amazing. We had tried almost everything...chiropractor, cranio-sacral therapy (which helped a tad bit).

However, one thing we never did try, mostly because of my stubborn-ness in giving it up, was eliminating dairy. I remember reading an article about a study where they found that after eliminating dairy, 90% of babies began sleeping either through the night or markedly better. I may try that this time around with DD2, who at 13 months, is up about every hour now.

Good luck!

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Thanks for the homeopathy info, Mujer and kk! That is amazing. We did buy a mattress to put on his floor so I can sleep in there with him. I am going to see how he does with it and if there is no improvement then we will explore the homeopathy route. (As an aside, DS has been dairy free since last year, so that's probably not a contributing factor for him. But I appreciate the thought!)