Parents of bad sleepers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would consider hiring a sleep specialist. I don’t want to tell you how old my child was when she started consistently sleeping thru the night and it is a big regret to me that we did not get professional help. We were so tired for so long!

(Assuming baby is not hungry and Dr has checked ears and tonsils.).

+1

It's time to bring in the professionals. Yes, there exist children who are bad sleepers and there's nothing you can do, but they are like <1% of the population and you don't declare that to be your kid without trying a professional first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would consider hiring a sleep specialist. I don’t want to tell you how old my child was when she started consistently sleeping thru the night and it is a big regret to me that we did not get professional help. We were so tired for so long!

(Assuming baby is not hungry and Dr has checked ears and tonsils.).

+1

It's time to bring in the professionals. Yes, there exist children who are bad sleepers and there's nothing you can do, but they are like <1% of the population and you don't declare that to be your kid without trying a professional first.

I'd love to know who you define as a sleep professional because many quote unquote sleep trainers get a certification off of the web and have no real certifications. What OP really needs to do is have her primary or ENT order a sleep study where they can actually see if sleep apnea is a problem.

The other option would be to ask your daycare to wake up at 2:00 or 2:30 after a one hour to 90 minute nap but at 11 hours total your kid is on the normal spectrum of sleep needs it's just on the lower end.

[Anonymous]

Mine did not sleep through the night until he was 21 months old, when we moved him out of the crib. We went from wake-ups every 2 hours, completely with screaming to the point of vomiting, to sleeping 10 hours without issue.

I never imagined I'd take my child out of the crib that early. But one night I was nursing him to sleep, because putting him in the crib awake just lead to aforementioned screaming and vomiting, when he popped off, said "night night, mama!" and laid down on the floor next to his crib. I was confused, but maybe he was suddenly no longer needing to be nursed to sleep. So I scooped him up, said "night night!" and put him in the crib.

Nope, screaming. Repeat nursing again, him hopping down, "night night!" and laying on the floor.

So I took the mattress out of the crib, and he laid down on it happily. I sang a few songs, kissed goodnight, and left. And he slept for 10 hours. I have no idea what the difference was, but it worked. He slept. And the next morning he woke up and called out "Up, mama! I up!" He never tried to escape, and for years afterwards, he would call out to let us know he was awake. People told us we were crazy at best, absolutely insane and negligent at worse. But he slept. And I slept. And it worked for us.

I have no idea if moving out of the crib will flip that magic sleep switch for your child, OP. And frankly if someone told me to try it, I would have thought they were nuts. But it worked when nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing else worked. This was a child who would wake up in his crib, scream bloody murder and then vomit within 30 seconds. It was awful. If he was willing to lay down on his own and sleep without the crib, I was so desperate I was willing to try it.

[Anonymous]

I have two terrible sleepers. My oldest first slept through the night at age 4. Suddenly she just stopped waking, leading me to believe it was developmental. We tried EVERYTHING including many medical specialists, tests, and interventions to address it when she was a toddler. My second wakes exactly the same and is a year old. But this time we’re not fighting it and just take shifts dealing with it.

[Anonymous]

We have one that's an incredible sleeper (almost too good of a sleeper, honestly), and his twin is an absolutely terrible sleeper.

They actually share a bedroom still though, so our bad sleeper tends to occasionally wake his brother up in the MOTN when he eventually drifts awake/refuses to sleep at all.

It's awful. Please, send coffee.

[Anonymous]

I have a 15 month old daughter who is also a terrible sleeper and I also think it is developmental and have stopppes worrying about it and just deal with it. She becomes hysterical if we let her cry even two minutes and vomits, and I think it’s wrong to put her through that because someone thinks that she should be sleep trained. I don’t think sleep
Training works for every child. Kids are really different and have different needs. We are doing all the same sleep hygiene steps everyone else is doing but my daughter just has different needs. And yes we’ve been the ENT already for ear tubes. They significantly improved her overall health but did nothing for her sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Wait, OP, bedtime is 9???? My kids are 1, 4, and 7. They all go to bed by 7:30. The 1 year old naps 1-2:30 and bedtime is 7. Other than, let them cry for a couple nights.

[Anonymous]

You don't want to hear this, but 2.5 years old. You have to stop the naps...I literally had to tell our nanny NO NAPS. It was a struggle. But they are perfectly health adults who sleep just fine (but, notably, don't need a ton of sleep and thus are high-functioning and high-achieving).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did they really, reliably start sleeping through? Yes, we sleep trained and they fall asleep independently at bedtime. No, it didn't make much of a difference. DC is 18 months old and wakes up crying/will not stop until attended to multiple nights a week. We are not infrequently up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Naps at daycare which may be an issue, thus the late bedtime.

I'm so tired.

1. How much sleep are you aiming for total?
2. You say naps, as in plural? If more than 1 nap, you need to cut that ish out! If one nap, how long?
3. How much wake time and how much energy are you getting out before bedtime? What does he eat- are you serving him full fat foods? Dinner should have some type of fat- avocado, olive oil, nut butters, fatty fish, liver (get beef and beef liver meatballs), etc.
4. Has he been evaluated by an ENT?

OP here.
1. 11 hours a day total including a nap (would love more but I'll take what I can get)
2. 1 nap, at daycare it's 2 hours long
3. 6 hours wake time before bed (nap ends at 3, bed at 9)
4. Yes, has ear tubes for chronic infections

11hr per 24hr period is developmentally within range. If he takes a 2 hour nap at daycare he is only going to sleep 9 hours overnight. With a monster nap that doesn’t end until 3, he isn’t going to be all that tired even at 9, and he’s going to wake up at night. If you want him to sleep all night you will either need to push bedtime until 930-10 (which seems crazy), or cut his nap shorter. Not all kids take long naps and then sleep soundly from 8p-7a every night. I hated the day I took away my kids naps but it always resulted in earlier bedtimes and longer overnight sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two bad sleepers. They both started to sleep better 1 month after I fully weaned. So, 18 and 13 months.

Never fear, they are in HS now and can sleep until 11.

+1 Sadly, I, in my late 40s, am now the one who can’t sleep through the night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When did they really, reliably start sleeping through? Yes, we sleep trained and they fall asleep independently at bedtime. No, it didn't make much of a difference. DC is 18 months old and wakes up crying/will not stop until attended to multiple nights a week. We are not infrequently up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Naps at daycare which may be an issue, thus the late bedtime.

I'm so tired.

Have you tried upping the amount of real food you’re giving baby? We had a similar issue and I realized that baby was not getting enough calories during the day. Once I made sure to offer food more often (price much every hour or so) he started waking less often. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would consider hiring a sleep specialist. I don’t want to tell you how old my child was when she started consistently sleeping thru the night and it is a big regret to me that we did not get professional help. We were so tired for so long!

(Assuming baby is not hungry and Dr has checked ears and tonsils.).

+1

It's time to bring in the professionals. Yes, there exist children who are bad sleepers and there's nothing you can do, but they are like <1% of the population and you don't declare that to be your kid without trying a professional first.

I'd love to know who you define as a sleep professional because many quote unquote sleep trainers get a certification off of the web and have no real certifications. What OP really needs to do is have her primary or ENT order a sleep study where they can actually see if sleep apnea is a problem.

The other option would be to ask your daycare to wake up at 2:00 or 2:30 after a one hour to 90 minute nap but at 11 hours total your kid is on the normal spectrum of sleep needs it's just on the lower end.

Board certified pediatric sleep medicine doctors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would consider hiring a sleep specialist. I don’t want to tell you how old my child was when she started consistently sleeping thru the night and it is a big regret to me that we did not get professional help. We were so tired for so long!

(Assuming baby is not hungry and Dr has checked ears and tonsils.).

+1

It's time to bring in the professionals. Yes, there exist children who are bad sleepers and there's nothing you can do, but they are like <1% of the population and you don't declare that to be your kid without trying a professional first.

I'd love to know who you define as a sleep professional because many quote unquote sleep trainers get a certification off of the web and have no real certifications. What OP really needs to do is have her primary or ENT order a sleep study where they can actually see if sleep apnea is a problem.

The other option would be to ask your daycare to wake up at 2:00 or 2:30 after a one hour to 90 minute nap but at 11 hours total your kid is on the normal spectrum of sleep needs it's just on the lower end.

Board certified pediatric sleep medicine doctors

Who will do a sleep study... literally there is no diagnosis- or treatment- they can provide without a sleep study.

[Anonymous]

You have to do extinction

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son didn't sleep through the night until my daughter was born, and they shared a room. He was 2 yrs 4 months old. In the words he had then, he told me he saw her before he was born and was waiting for her.

This is so sweet. I love when kids remember heaven and past lives. Fascinating.