Parents of LOW needs sleepers I need advice! UPDATE #73 - Page 4

[lifeguard]

D-McG - Wow - I feel you're lucky that worked for you. Ds has NEVER fallen asleep that fast - even as a little baby. And every time I tried to leave him to try to fall asleep on his own he would cry like his heart was breaking - immediately. He could NOT handle it. I've got a pretty laid back little guy so to hear him cry with such emotion indicated to me he really couldn't handle it. Now at 2.5 & quite verbal we are finally able to work on him going to sleep on his own. I'm currently sitting in the hallway while he falls asleep - usually for an hour. I gotta say I miss my evenings to myself more than I can express but I know my child & he just hasn't been ready before now to make the transition on his own.

[ellemenope]

Yes, DD was able to fall asleep all by herself in a dark room about a month before she turned 2.5.  I would not have done anything differently.   Had we tried earlier there would have been a lot of tears.  As it stands now, she has not once cried when we left the room.  Sometimes she was not so sure about it, but there were NO tears ever.  I tuck her in, put on her book on CD, she asks for a final hug, and then tells me, "you better go out and do your work.  I don't want you to get fired."  (I am doing my work right now, lol. This is it.)

So, 2.5 might be a common age for this. 

It STILL takes her 45 minutes to fall asleep.  If I check before that time, she lifts her head up to greet the light from the hallway.

She never night-wakes.  <knock on wood>

 

Originally Posted by LadyCatherine185 

my 2.5 year old just (as in, 5 nights ago) started being able to go to sleep on his own. he still wakes (1-2 times) at night though and needs help to get back to sleep

OP-don't give up!  Work on getting her to be unconsious five minutes earlier each night.  Her waking up in the middle of the night might have something to do with all of this, yes, but it really needs to be treated as a separate issue for now, and IMO getting her an earlier bedtime is more important than that right now.  I have no doubt that when things get regulated, her whole sleep pattern will improve.  And, watch out for naps too late in the afternoon!  This will take at least two weeks!

[sosurreal09]

Oh man, got her to sleep at 8:45 last night and sh was up at 5am! 8hrs sleep? ARG then of course she already napped for 30 mins at 8am...now what 2 naps? I am done for...

I have no expectation of her falling to sleep on her own. I know plenty of 4 y/o that still need to be parented to sleep. I am totally fine with parenting her to sleep. IDK if something else is going on too b/c she has been SCREECHING like all day long for every single thing! I'm taking her to the docs today to make sure there is nothing medical going on...

[D_McG]

What did you do at 5am? Here, 5am is nighttime. We don't get up or talk or anything. I made a bad mistake of letting my DD get up at that time thinking it was a phase and all it did was reinforce the bad habit. She'd then fall asleep at 8:30 on the way to drop her brother at preschool.

One morning I said no more. We get up at 6:30 at the earliest. She screamed and cried and generally had a huge tantrum but I stuck to my guns. I think this went on for a half hour or so (a long time when you're tired and have as short a fuse for drama as I have) She was in bed with me at the time and if she tried to get up I'd just lie her back down again. "We're not getting up, it's nighttime". It just took one day and now she knows we stay in bed. 95% of the time she'll sleep until at least 6:30.

I guess I don't know how strict you've been but it sounds to me like she's really looking for solid structure.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by Tattooed Hand 

I feel your pain. My DD sleeps 10-11 hours a night and not a minute more. 

I would have thought DS was sick if he'd slept that much! Even at 18 months, he didn't nap and slept 8 hours a night. It's what he needed. He was born with a low need for sleep - slept maybe 10 hours a day total as a newborn - and is still that way now at 6. 

OP, at around your dd's age, I decided to just come up with things for DS to do that were quiet & entertaining. He could do those things if I was past my patience limit for the day. It worked out really well. There were plenty of people who insisted that we "make" him sleep, but really that's next to impossible to do. You can't force someone to go to sleep. He was like your dd. He didn't fuss, wasn't irritable. He would sit in bed with a book or quiet toy. He just was.not.sleepy. I felt much better when I stopped fighting it because then I didn't have that anticipation and let-down every night when I realized he wasn't going to sleep again.

[sosurreal09]

We didn't get up. I "slept" until 7 lol She jumped on my head and nursed mostly. She didn't cry. It was dark! We also have black out curtains in the room so it's even darker. She has no issue with being and staying awake in the dark with everyone else sleeping she just jumps around and stuff...

[D_McG]

With DD I couldn't let her do anything like that. She had to lie down, still so she wasn't disrupting anyone. Either way I hope the doc has some answers!

[LadyCatherine185]

my DS only needs 10-11 hours of sleep at night too and does not nap. When he took naps, he would only sleep about 8 hours at night.. and only took a 45 minute nap! Once we dropped the nap he started sleeping more total hours.

5 am is also still "nighttime" here. DH just lays in bed with Liam until 6 if he wakes up earlier.

sounds like something is def going on.. maybe teeth? does she have 2 yr molars yet?

[sosurreal09]

She has been teething for months. She's only 17 m/o. One molar cut a few weeks back and another one has a point sticking out so far...

[LadyCatherine185]

my DS1 was up for hours in the middle of the night with each tooth, he was a terrible teether. have you tried any homeopathic teething remedies before bed? amber teething necklace?

[sosurreal09]

Yeah I have tried it all. BTW went to the Docs today and he said she's fine and essentially to just let her CIO (our reg ped had the day off but I could only get the car today...) I just said absolutely not and walked out...

She is sleeping now, we will see what tomorrow brings..

[tuesdaymom]

It's probably the teething. Just make the best of it for both of you.  Hopefully it will pass.  Every child is diffrenet and reacts diffrent.  My dd slept from 3 months until like 15 months in her crib lights off never cried and then it changed  @ 15 months she now doesn't go down as easy you will find what works for you eventually. 

[sosurreal09]

UPDATE: So she ended up putting herself back on track with an 8:30ish bedtime and she is now STTN!!!!!!!!!!! Guess I just had to follow her lead...