[chipper26]

I keep waiting for that magical day when my 14 mo dd will start sleeping for longer stretches. Notice I didn't even say "sleep through the night." I'm not even thinking that far ahead yet. I'd love even consistent 3 hour stretches, because that would only be 3 waking and would be an improvement. Now, I'd say she probably wakes an average of 5 times a night, but that's just a guess. Sometimes, it's more.

I keep asking - why? Is it b/c she co-sleeps for most of the night? Is it because she breast feeds whenever she wants? Is it b/c she isn't eating enough solids during the day and not nursing enough when she's awake? Does she have an allergy? Is it just her temperament? She has always been a restless, unsettled sleeper. I know she's teething right now and it's a problem, but I also know that she'll still wake up on average, every 2 hours even after the teething issue subside. If it's an allergy, I think it might be pollen or dust, and those are very hard to control.

I just don't know what to do. Do I still worry about her nutrition at night? I don't like to deny her food, but at the same time, if I try to stretch out her feedings a bit, will that help? I always worry that she's hungry b/c she's so busy during the day. And, no matter how often I offer solids, she doesn't eat a lot.

Sigh... I really would just like some improvement. I've tried NCSS, but the Pantley Pull-off thing seems to be an issue for us when her best feeding times are right before and just after she has just fallen asleep (at night and during nap.) She also has good feedings in the middle of the night... she's a gulper. A bad "habit", I know, but I don't know what to do about it. Do I just ride it out a little longer until she starts eating more solids? Do I just hold my breath until closer to her 2nd birthday when teething are done and she's hopefully bfing less?

We have nap issues, too, but that's a different thread, I guess.

An experience or advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

[NiteNicole]

I feel you. Mine was like that as well. It was hard. For us, when we passed the one year mark and she was still up and down all night, I was starting to freak out (it took me another 18 months to figure out what to do about it). Once would have been understandable, twice I could have lived with but up and down all night long - ouch. TIRED!

I have been banging this drum for days but have you read Sleepless in America? It's not necessarily a "how to get your kid to sleep" book but it was the thing that finally convinced me that "go with the flow" was not helping me or my daughter. I figured out when her natural times of tiredness were, when she was usually hungry, most allert, likely to go to bed, etc and I started to structure our days around it. I saw improvments pretty quickly.

At first I just kind of sucked it up - like ok, I'll control the things I can - what our days are like, she'll have very deliberate nap time and bedtime routine, I'll get plenty of outside time at the right time, start taking things down a notch after dinner, etc, and in the night I'll just deal with the wakings. After a little while of structuring our days and setting up routines, the night wakings took care of themselves. I even quickly reached the point where I could stop staying up rocking her alll night long and just tuck her in bed with me. SUCCESS!

She still needs a fair amount of parenting to sleep (but it's like the dinner to bedtime wind down and maybe ten minutes as opposed to hours of rocking and crying and begging and going to sleep then popping right back up) and she usually wakes once a night and gets into bed with us but hey, it's so much better than it has been.

 

[chipper26]

Thanks for the advice. No, I haven't read the book, but I've read several others. I'll check it out. I have been the go with the flow kind of parent, but I've been wondering if more of a structure/schedule would be helpful now that she's older. It seems like I'm always feeding her solids right after she's nursed, and I'm chasing her around half the day with a bowl of something, trying to get her to take a few bites.

Transitioning to one nap has been a bit of a process, but I'm hoping we'll get a routine down with that too.