Since about May, Savannah has had a real hard time sleeping through the night. She wakes up 1-2 times sometime between the hours of 12-4. It wouldn't seem like such a big deal if she were a newborn because it would be expected, but because she is 1 and a half, Aric and I are scratching our heads going....what happened??
At first we attributed the sleepless nights to her ears. She had ear infections back to back to back before we got tubes. Once the tubes were in, she did ok for a couple of weeks....
Then we went out of town and I don't know about other kids, but Savannah doesn't do to well sleeping in an unfamiliar place. We caved and ended up putting her in the bed with us while on a trip. We were desperate! Well, that definitely didn't help things because as soon as we got back, she wanted to sleep in our bed, so when she started waking up in the middle of the night again, we knew we had to let her just cry it out. That worked for a few days....
Then she got sick. (tummy virus) That was no fun for her or us. We felt so bad for her because she wasn't holding anything down, we put her in the bed with us again so we could be prepared if she got sick. She got better but kept on waking up in the night so, we just knew we HAD to let her cry it out....
Then we went out of town again and well, you can probably figure out what happened. Yep, we had to put her in bed with us. This time is was from our most recent trip to NC. We were basically in a dorm where the walls were pretty thin and we felt bad just letting her cry as it would probably wake up the whole dorm.
Since we have been back she is still waking up crying in the middle of the night. Last night she woke up 2 different times and both times she probably cried at least 20 minutes.
Aric has been WONDERFUL in that, anytime we decide to go in and change her diaper or just check on her real quick, he gets up EVERYTIME! (with no complaints) We are trying to cut back on that a little because we don't want her to get used to him going in there all the time.
Savannah never has a problem going "night-night" (as we like to call it around here). She will go to bed without any kind of fight. Honestly, we have been spoiled, because as an infant she always slept so soundly. Now it is totally different and with Thomas coming in a month, I'm afraid we are looking forward to many more sleepless nights. Of course it will be expected with Thomas when he wakes up crying, that is what newborns do! But when he wakes up and Savannah wakes up...that is going to be interesting.
Let me also mention this...you would think because of her restlessness at night, she would be very tired during the day and would want to nap all the time. WRONG! She is just as happy and playful during the day and will take at least one nap during the day lasting a couple of hours.
(BIG SIGH) This is something I know we will get through, but it is hard. I do realize though, that we are extremely blessed and if this is the only problem we are having right now, then great! We may be a little sleep deprived but I am so thankful for my family and all of our many blessings that God shows us every day.
Happy Friday!!
Emily
2 comments:
Oh Girl you KNOW I sympathize with you here! We've gone through a couple months of this. It's weird...like she only does it every other night or every couple of nights, like she is a werewolf toddler or something when the full moon is out? J/k! She screams but stops as SOON as we go in there. We are so tired and just want the last couple hours of sleep we can get that we give in and put her in bed with us, but she's a really restless sleeper and ends up sleeping sideways and leaving us each 3 inches of mattress to sleep on! Ugh! I think you are doing the right thing by letting her cry it out. I would reassure her everything is OK, change a soggy diaper if needed, and then leave. Do you play lullabyes or music? We do as Sydney goes down at night and will turn it back on if she has an episode. Also, we cut her off with liquids at dinner time. She gets nothing else to drink after that so her diaper doesn't wake her up. She's also really sensitive to heat/cold. We have to make sure her room isn't too warm but sometimes if she's wearing a two-piece shorts pajama, we have to make sure the fan is off because she kicks her covers off and gets cold. I guess just hang in there and keep trying! She'll get it. She probably senses something is up with y'all preparing for Thomas. Is she keeping her same room?
Wow! Savannah and Sydney's lives sound so similar! :)
When we put Savannah in bed with us she sleeps sideways too!
We usually play lullaby music when she goes down. Here lately especially. We set the timer for an hour and if she wakes up, we usually turn it back on, just like y'all do. We also have to watch the temp of the room. Sometimes it gets so hot in our house (we have an older home) that I put her down in a onesie and if that is the case we usually turn off her fan (it eventualy cools down during the night) because she also kicks off her blanket.
Yes, she is keeping the same room. We are STILL trying to get Thomas' nursery ready. (that is another can of worms)
I hope Sydney established a good sleeping pattern soon. I really think about y'all a lot. It is tough but we will get through this!
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