My 18 month old is such a sweet girl, but she is a bear when it comes to sleep.
Here are some of the issues I'm struggling with:
1. I used to nurse her to sleep for naps and bedtime. Now, only naps work, but bedtime has turned into a nightmare! It can take 1-2 hours to get her to sleep. I always bathe her, read to her, rock/nurse and then lay in bed. Used to work. Now, it does not.
2. Before resorting to tears (mine!) my daughter will start talking, clapping, standing, whatever, in bed with me next to her. I say, it's "night-night time," or "put your head down, it's time to sleep," etc. I have actually fallen asleep before her sometimes out of pure exhaustion!
3. When all of this does not work after an hour or so (more often than not), IF and this is a big IF my husband is home, he can usually rock her to sleep fairly quickly. She will not let me do this, she just wants "bobbie." My husband does not get home from work until fairly late, 8:30 is the earliest usually, and that means, she is up until then or, like tonight, until almost 10. That would be fine if she slept in, but she almost always wakes up around 6/6:30am.
I just can't do this anymore. She still wakes up every 2 hours to nurse--sometimes less. The other night she slept FOUR whole hours and of course I was up and COULDN'T SLEEP!
I tried to night wean her but after the first night, she got sick and then I got sick and we haven't tried again.
PLEASE HELP! What can I do? I can't take it anymore. I am always so exhausted and end up being so grouchy. I think night time should be so wonderful and instead it feels like a battle every single night.
Thank you.
Allyson
Here are some of the issues I'm struggling with:
1. I used to nurse her to sleep for naps and bedtime. Now, only naps work, but bedtime has turned into a nightmare! It can take 1-2 hours to get her to sleep. I always bathe her, read to her, rock/nurse and then lay in bed. Used to work. Now, it does not.
2. Before resorting to tears (mine!) my daughter will start talking, clapping, standing, whatever, in bed with me next to her. I say, it's "night-night time," or "put your head down, it's time to sleep," etc. I have actually fallen asleep before her sometimes out of pure exhaustion!
3. When all of this does not work after an hour or so (more often than not), IF and this is a big IF my husband is home, he can usually rock her to sleep fairly quickly. She will not let me do this, she just wants "bobbie." My husband does not get home from work until fairly late, 8:30 is the earliest usually, and that means, she is up until then or, like tonight, until almost 10. That would be fine if she slept in, but she almost always wakes up around 6/6:30am.
I just can't do this anymore. She still wakes up every 2 hours to nurse--sometimes less. The other night she slept FOUR whole hours and of course I was up and COULDN'T SLEEP!
I tried to night wean her but after the first night, she got sick and then I got sick and we haven't tried again.
PLEASE HELP! What can I do? I can't take it anymore. I am always so exhausted and end up being so grouchy. I think night time should be so wonderful and instead it feels like a battle every single night.
Thank you.
Allyson
