Thursday, April 22, 2010

Any Ideas?

Drew doesn't sleep through the night. I can't say he never has, but I can count the times on a single hand.

He naps no problem at day care and resists a little at home. He falls asleep for the night, most of the time with no problems. But, he doesn't sleep all night long.

Drew sleeps in his room at night, in his crib with his soothing music playing, cozy blanket, his turtle that shines stars and the moon on the ceiling and his glow worm. I've tried to make it as cozy as can be, but still he wakes up twice a night. I've even tried cuddling with him on the couch when he wakes up in the middle of the night, but after an hour he wants to move around (like he does in his crib, roll over this way, roll over that way) so that becomes a challenge and I move him back into his crib.

We've tried many different things to help him sleep, but nothing has worked. We've tried the "let him cry" routine, but I didn't like that and it just made things more difficult after 4 nights of trying. It felt like the trust was gone and we had to build that back up. We've established a routine before bed (bath, relax and rocking to sleep) but that doesn't seem to hold him through the night.

So, what I'm asking/begging for any suggestions to help him sleep. I'm exhausted and need sleep myself. Or is this something that will just correct itself one day and will be all good? Or is this something that will continue for years? I'd like to just prepare myself if that's true.

8 comments:

floreksa said...

The "rocking to sleep" is most likely the issue. If he doesn't know how to put himself to sleep, crying it out would NEVER work because he doesn't have the skill needed.

I would suggest minimal rocking and putting him into his crib while he is still awake. He needs to figure out how to fall asleep on his own. Once he masters that, the night-time wakings might be a quick fix.

Deleted said...

How long are his naps?
Do you still have all those things going for him during the night (stars, music..?)

Amanda said...

I'll try cutting down the rocking, at times I put him in his crib still semi-awake, but not all the time. So, we'll work on that.

And the music and stars shut off after time. The cd runs about an hour and the start shut off after 45 min.

Deleted said...

Always the way ..lol,

So he'll have a nap at daycare and one at home?
How long will he go for?

Amanda said...

When he's at day care, he has two for the day (they are working on just having him do one so he can move to the toddler rm sooner) and then is up until he has to go to bed. When he's at home on the weekends, he has two naps. They are about 45 min-an hr long.

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S. Lott said...

My little girl is only 5 months old and not on a real sleeping schedule so I don't know exactly how it works for toddlers. I do know that my girl will sleep for 7 hours at night whether we put her to bed at 8 or at midnight. So we choose 10 pm for bed time and 5 am for wake up. If he is sleeping a set number of hours, perhaps try putting him to bed at a different time?

Brooke said...

Lots like I am a little late to the game...
We used the book Babywise and Rach started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. (even through teething...which DID wake her up at night crying but she would go back to sleep after about 5 minutes). Some people think that things in the book are a little extreme, as do I, but you pick and choose things out of the book that work for you. Just an idea...if anything, it gives you an idea of how much sleep they need and when they should be dropping naps and possible solutions to different problems.