Last night Eva had insomnia. She up for a couple of hours starting about 12:30am. And Micah was up for the day at 4:15am. Is it possible that our 17 month old child only needs 9 hours of nighttime sleep? He only sleeps about an hour in the day. At this point I still have hope it might be related to the last of his molars which is pushing through. Though maybe having hope makes it worse. I refuse to believe that the only way to get my full night's rest is to go to bed as soon as Eva is asleep. At this point. But I am swiftly moving toward bleak dispair. I hate the impact it has on my days and I hate how powerless I am in this situation.
We can't even try the "letting him cry" method until a reasonable hour- we share a wall with our neighbors and would feel terrible subjecting them to the wailing as well.
I am open to ideas about how to remedy this situation. Comment away!
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Okay, I really am not a very experienced mother but I'll offer some thoughts anyway. Is there anyway that noises are waking them up? What about playing some soft soothing music throughout the entire night? When kai has had some rough nights, I play his night time music and it usually soothes him to sleep. Is it dark enough? Warm enough? Is there something that he can play with if he wakes up (maybe you don't want to do this) but maybe if there was a book and he woke up at 5am he could just look at it? Kai loves his blanket and that can keep him quiet for an hour, is there any kind of comfort item? Could you choose a fav. blanket or animal to become a comfort item? I can't believe he functions so well on such little sleep, wow! As for crying it out, whether you have neighbours or not, I can't do it more than 5 min.even though Gary's mom says i should:) Hope tonight is a good one.
ReplyDeletethe noise thing is interesting - each of our children - and us, too - sleep with "white noise". Each bedroom has a fan that gets turned as high as it goes all night to keep out the mexican noise (dogs, horns, mariachis, cars, sirens...). I know you're more natural, but you could try some motrin (longer acting than tylenol) before bed...
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that Micah only needs nine hours sleep (10 hours total with the nap). Every child is different. Ayden needs far less sleep than the books say is recommended for his age...even at four months old he only had 3, half hour naps in the whole day! Fortunately for me he's always been more of a stay up late than a get up early type of person. He's not a morning person so at least he matches me.
ReplyDeleteMatthew needs more sleep in 24 hours than Ayden, closer to the recommended average, but he is our morning person. He runs out of gas around suppertime each day, will fall asleep sitting up if we try to keep him up, and gets up between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. regardless of how much sleep he got. For awhile he was getting up around 5 or so. Nothing I did could rearrange this.
I'd say that if he seems to function well on 10 hours' sleep in 24 hours, and consistantly gets up at 4:50, that's his natural pattern. You can fart around with it but you may have little success. Definately try the suggestions of Louise and Heidi--Matthew is still very willing to just play until we get up. It sounds like you're reluctant to let him bang around because he may wake up Eva...can you split them up again? If I recall, Eva's a light sleeper so that may not help. Ayden has a book flashlight, books, and some designated bed toys that he plays with after he's been put to bed, before he falls asleep, because I want him in bed earlier than his internal clock wants to sleep. Maybe some white noise, a crib toy and some books will help? Did the playpen in the bathroom work?
It won't last forever.
Also; is one hour sufficient for you for alone time?? If you went to bed an hour after the kids went down you'd still get more sleep and some down time. Of course that leaves no time for sex. That's a problem.
(I always need at least an hour to relax before being amorously interested in the evening...maybe you're different).
When Eva goes to preschool you could have a nap when Micah does. That may help!
What if Micah shortened or eliminated his nap???
I gave mine up when I was 10 months old. Most kids nap at his age, but if he's a minimal sleeper like me and Ayden, maybe he can do without it?? And sleep till 5:50 a.m.?
Hmm...