Beware: Long. Sorry.
How do you tell the difference between a baby with normal sleep issues and one with a problem. Here's my story:
My 17 month old has never been a "good" sleeper. She wakes frequently and can stay awake for a long time. She also does something different every night. There is no pattern to her nightwaking or how long she stays awake or what will comfort her. We part time co-sleep. Sometimes she sleeps in her crib. Sometimes she sleeps alone on a futon. Sometimes she sleeps with dh or me on the futon. None of these things seems to affect her sleep. For awhile it seemed like she slept better with one of us but that hasn't really turned out to be true. Sometimes she seems annoyed if we are too close to her while she is trying to sleep!
She has had a few nights in her life when she has slept 6, 7 or even 9 hours without waking! But they have been few and far between. The other night, I put her down when she was still awake and she sucked her thumb until she fell asleep. Sometimes when she wakes up she can put herself back to sleep.
BUT more often are the nights when she is up every 30 minutes, hour or hour and 45 minutes-three hours is a long stretch. Last night she went down at 7:45 and woke up at 8:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep until 11 with much nursing and rocking and comforting. She was crying and inconsolable. A couple of nights at the beginning of the week she was waking up screaming-like scared screaming not mad screaming. But then she had one good night.
She has recently gone to one nap and for awhile it looked like that would be the "fix it." as she started sleeping better at night but that was short lived. She got sick for awhile and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She has had the 21 days of amoxicillin. Now her afternoon nap is shrinking from nearly 3 hours to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
She is fine during the day (except when she is over-tired). She eats fine and plays and nurses. She seems happy. I'm just worried that there might be something wrong with her that I am missing. I don't normally talk to my pediatrician much about her sleep issues as he once said to me at her 12 month appointment "Most babies are sleeping through the night by now." I REALLY like my pediatrician but we don't agree on everything.
My mama instincts are telling me that this isn't normal waking. There were two nights this week that I reached for the ibuprofen because I thought something might be hurting her. Could teething possibly last this long? There only seems to be breaks for a day or two at a time. Usually when she is teething, she also drools a lot during the day and is a bit cranky. The only other symptom she has had is a low grade fever every few days or so-not more than 99.8.
I'm so tired and stressed out. I feel like I am not taking good care of her. Thank you for reading this whole thing and I would appreciate any advice/support/ideas etc.
How do you tell the difference between a baby with normal sleep issues and one with a problem. Here's my story:
My 17 month old has never been a "good" sleeper. She wakes frequently and can stay awake for a long time. She also does something different every night. There is no pattern to her nightwaking or how long she stays awake or what will comfort her. We part time co-sleep. Sometimes she sleeps in her crib. Sometimes she sleeps alone on a futon. Sometimes she sleeps with dh or me on the futon. None of these things seems to affect her sleep. For awhile it seemed like she slept better with one of us but that hasn't really turned out to be true. Sometimes she seems annoyed if we are too close to her while she is trying to sleep!
She has had a few nights in her life when she has slept 6, 7 or even 9 hours without waking! But they have been few and far between. The other night, I put her down when she was still awake and she sucked her thumb until she fell asleep. Sometimes when she wakes up she can put herself back to sleep.
BUT more often are the nights when she is up every 30 minutes, hour or hour and 45 minutes-three hours is a long stretch. Last night she went down at 7:45 and woke up at 8:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep until 11 with much nursing and rocking and comforting. She was crying and inconsolable. A couple of nights at the beginning of the week she was waking up screaming-like scared screaming not mad screaming. But then she had one good night.
She has recently gone to one nap and for awhile it looked like that would be the "fix it." as she started sleeping better at night but that was short lived. She got sick for awhile and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She has had the 21 days of amoxicillin. Now her afternoon nap is shrinking from nearly 3 hours to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
She is fine during the day (except when she is over-tired). She eats fine and plays and nurses. She seems happy. I'm just worried that there might be something wrong with her that I am missing. I don't normally talk to my pediatrician much about her sleep issues as he once said to me at her 12 month appointment "Most babies are sleeping through the night by now." I REALLY like my pediatrician but we don't agree on everything.
My mama instincts are telling me that this isn't normal waking. There were two nights this week that I reached for the ibuprofen because I thought something might be hurting her. Could teething possibly last this long? There only seems to be breaks for a day or two at a time. Usually when she is teething, she also drools a lot during the day and is a bit cranky. The only other symptom she has had is a low grade fever every few days or so-not more than 99.8.
I'm so tired and stressed out. I feel like I am not taking good care of her. Thank you for reading this whole thing and I would appreciate any advice/support/ideas etc.
