If you nightweaned your toddler but he/she still woke up

[Elora]

I want to hear from you. Did you let them have something to drink when he/she woke up?

I'm getting a little panicky. Ok, a LOT panicky.

I keep thinking that ds is going to start sleeping better before this baby comes...and he's just not. In fact, if anything, it's gotten worse.

He'll be 2 next month. He still wakes up every couple hours. It usually takes me an hour to get him back to sleep. And then takes forever for me to get myself back to sleep. I'm getting roughly 4 hours of broken sleep a night. I'm exhausted, but I'm making it. How am I going to manage waking up with him and a newborn? I don't think that I can function on any less sleep.

I need to hear btdt and made it through.

Or suggestions/advice on what on earth I can possibly do to help my ds sleep. Do I need to take his cup of water away? He drinks every time he gets up. Could it be WHY he is waking? I can't think of anything else to do.

[Rabbit]

He wakes up because he's little and still a baby. I was still feeding mine through the night at that age, whether it was breastmilk or a snack out of the kitchen. I go to bed when they go to bed, and nap when they nap, too, so that I'm not sleep starved.

[Happygrl]

:hug2 I understand those panicky feelings. E's sleep is one of the reasons we have the age gap that we do. :shifty :giggle

I have a 4yo who has been completely weaned for almost 2 years and still wakes up. I keep a sippy of water on her nightstand. She doesn't need a snack anymore but, at that age, she'd still sometimes wake hungry, so I'd keep a snack like pretzels on the bedside table and she'd eat a few of those.

Thankfully, at this age, it rarely takes long for her to go back to sleep. Its usually just a matter of redirecting her to her room and she's out. Still, its hard with another little one. I so understand.

[Elora]

I was still feeding mine through the night at that age, whether it was breastmilk or a snack out of the kitchen. I need to hear this. No 2 yr olds I know IRL wake up constantly all night long and there is nobody I can talk to about this. Their parents act like something is wrong with us so there's no way I'm even broaching the subject with them.

I go to bed when they go to bed, and nap when they nap, too, so that I'm not sleep starved. I do go to bed when he goes to bed...the nap thing though I can't do. I can when I'm on maternity leave from work and that is something I wasn't considering :think That does make me feel a little less panicky.

:ty

[ArmsOfLove]

Mine have all done that --thankfully dh does all the nighttime parenting except nursing but it still wakes me up when they wake up and I've had insomnia for years so it wasn't like I just slept through :shifty

They do grow out of it, and you can totally survive :hug

[Elora]

:hug2 I understand those panicky feelings. E's sleep is one of the reasons we have the age gap that we do. :shifty :giggle

I have a 4yo who has been completely weaned for almost 2 years and still wakes up. I keep a sippy of water on her nightstand. She doesn't need a snack anymore but, at that age, she'd still sometimes wake hungry, so I'd keep a snack like pretzels on the bedside table and she'd eat a few of those.

Thankfully, at this age, it rarely takes long for her to go back to sleep. Its usually just a matter of redirecting her to her room and she's out. Still, its hard with another little one. I so understand.
:hug2 How's it going with your new little one? I thought when I got pregnant "oh well I have 9 months and by that time ds will surely be sleeping better" :no

My sister said "well hopefully this one will sleep better" but I don't have any hopes that a newborn is going to sleep long periods of time!

[Elora]

Mine have all done that --thankfully dh does all the nighttime parenting except nursing but it still wakes me up when they wake up and I've had insomnia for years so it wasn't like I just slept through :shifty

They do grow out of it, and you can totally survive :hug
I don't even bother asking dh to help because even when he "volunteers" I have that same problem...it still wakes me up LOL. It is sweet of him to try to help, but ds wants mama anyway. And I do like the night time cuddles. I adore them. :grin: ok they're only little for so long right. I can sacrifice a few years of sleep. It will work itself out.

right? :shifty

[2sunshines]

We've always started bringing a sippy cup of water to bed with us when we nightweaned.

[Elora]

We've always started bringing a sippy cup of water to bed with us when we nightweaned.
I couldn't "nurse" but when I took his bottle away, that is what I did...brought a sippy of water. I was hoping that it was going to help him sleep better :shifty :lol All he did though was substitute the sippy for the bottle...no difference except without the bottle it takes him longer to fall back to sleep. I shoulda known :giggle

[Mama Calidad]

I was still feeding mine through the night at that age, whether it was breastmilk or a snack out of the kitchen. I need to hear this. No 2 yr olds I know IRL wake up constantly all night long and there is nobody I can talk to about this. Their parents act like something is wrong with us so there's no way I'm even broaching the subject with them.


I always wonder about people like you're describing. It just doesn't seem "real" to me. How can they not get that some people will wake up? I almost always wake up at least once in the night. Dogs barking or a kiddo coughing or something and waking a bit, then I have to go to the bathroom.... My dad's the worst -- up and down all night long. My aunt apparently "slept through the night", but she was up by like 4am every single morning. Perfectly normal adults wake at night. It's not rational to expect that no children will. (FTR, my 5yo still wakes up usually once per night and he'll climb into bed with me and DD2 -- who usually sleeps through the night and wakes up just before dawn. Most of the time, I don't wake up when DS does, 'cause he's sneaking to come trap me, so that I won't be able to get up and come to work in the morning. :heart )

I don't have any problems leaving a glass of water (or sippy) for a child at night. When I get up in the night, I seriously need a drink. My mouth feels gross and I'm thirsty.

Is his room quiet and fairly dark (to the extent he can go for dark)?

[Elora]

I always wonder about people like you're describing. It just doesn't seem "real" to me. How can they not get that some people will wake up? I almost always wake up at least once in the night. Dogs barking or a kiddo coughing or something and waking a bit, then I have to go to the bathroom.... My dad's the worst -- up and down all night long. My aunt apparently "slept through the night", but she was up by like 4am every single morning. Perfectly normal adults wake at night. It's not rational to expect that no children will. Good point. I think part of why they think I'm nuts is because we cosleep. I bet their kids wake up at night but they just don't know it...and since they never answered their children's cries when they were babies, their kids probably don't bother trying to wake them and just go back to sleep on their own?

so that I won't be able to get up and come to work in the morning. :heart ) :heart

I don't have any problems leaving a glass of water (or sippy) for a child at night. When I get up in the night, I seriously need a drink. My mouth feels gross and I'm thirsty. It would be mean make him go back to sleep if he needs water hunh :blush

Is his room quiet and fairly dark (to the extent he can go for dark)?
Not quiet. There's very loud traffic from the road. I have a white noise machine and a fan that drown it out to a certain extent, but when the road is wet and /or trucks jakebreak it is impossible to drown out completely. I know it's part of the problem sometimes.

[Mama Calidad]

I don't have any problems leaving a glass of water (or sippy) for a child at night. When I get up in the night, I seriously need a drink. My mouth feels gross and I'm thirsty. It would be mean make him go back to sleep if he needs water hunh :blush


:hugheart I don't think it's mean to look at anything that may help. There's a balance there between enough to float a whale and too little to sustain a cactus. Helping a toddler balance anything is tough, tough, tough. :yes :hug

[klpmommy]

E woke up after nightweaning & still at 5 y/o comes in for a nighttime snuggle most nights. Both P&E go to bed with a sippy of water still. E usually drinks hers during the night, P usually only drinks his as he is falling asleep (or stalling ;) ).

When he was eating at night, did he have a hard time falling back asleep or is this a new thing? I am wondering if you change his bedtime you can fix that. I know for me quick interruptions barely blip my radar, but those LONG interruptions really mess me up. So, what time does he go to bed? What is your bedtime routine like? How does he fall asleep initially & does he fall asleep fairly quick initially?

[milkmommy]

mine night weaned around 8 months and pretty much on her own but she still woke multiple times through the night from 8-14 months was the "worst" SHe also took her first steps at 8 months and that deffiently started the multiple wake ups she wanted nothing to do with food though.

Deanna

[Elora]

When he was eating at night, did he have a hard time falling back asleep or is this a new thing? I am wondering if you change his bedtime you can fix that. I know for me quick interruptions barely blip my radar, but those LONG interruptions really mess me up. So, what time does he go to bed? What is your bedtime routine like? How does he fall asleep initially & does he fall asleep fairly quick initially?
When he was having bottles he did not have as hard of a time falling back to sleep. It was the sucking I think (since there was water in the bottle also)

Our bed time routine is snack, jammies, teeth, daddy takes him to say goodnight to the snakes (we have pet snakes) and says goodnight. I read him a book. We turn off the lights and lay down after the book. I pat his butt and sing. Sometimes that will do it, and he'll fall asleep, other times he asks to be rocked. Sometimes he just fights everything every step of the way and cries about all of it. Depending on how much he fights, he usually is asleep anywhere from 8:30-10.

I get home at 6:30. By the time we have dinner and clean up, it's basically time to start "bed time" ... I can't really start any earlier without skipping dinner :/

Lately he wants to sleep with all the toys he can find :shifty I let him bring stuffed animals at first but it's getting out of hand. This past week he's tried to sleep with his book...a big hard book...in addition to about 5 stuffed animals and his boppy. Then he wanted to add a hard plastic zebra, baby teether he found, a squeaky frog that is actually a dog chew toy, and a dump truck. Last night it was a hand-me-down coat my nephew had given him earlier that day, and his own coat. He covers them all up with his 2 baby blankets that he *has* to have and then tries to sleep on top of the big pile. Of course he isn't comfortable so he keeps getting up to rearrange things. This I know I just have to stop because it really isn't conducive to sleep...but it just is adding to the "one struggle after another" frustration lately.

[Elora]

mine night weaned around 8 months and pretty much on her own but she still woke multiple times through the night from 8-14 months was the "worst" SHe also took her first steps at 8 months and that deffiently started the multiple wake ups she wanted nothing to do with food though.

Deanna
Yes, the walking milestone definatley had him waking more frequently. I keep wondering if he is getting his 2 yr molars and I just can't see them so I'm trying to be patient with him but pregnancy hormones and not being well myself have really run me ragged and left me a little lacking :blush

[klpmommy]

I wish you could get him to bed earlier, I really think that would help. Can you at least make up some sleep on weekends with an earlier bedtime? :hug

[Elora]

I wish you could get him to bed earlier, I really think that would help. Can you at least make up some sleep on weekends with an earlier bedtime? :hug
Getting HIM to bed earlier on the weekends you mean? I dunno. :nails I'm trying so hard to be consistant...he is a total night owl and it's taken a lot of work to even have him hit 8:30. I'm still not so sure his body doesn't view 8:30 as a "nap" because the first wake up he's raring to go, but I'm hoping soon he'll get more used to it. I know he doesn't always fall asleep at the same time, but I keep hoping that if I start the routine at the same time it will eventually help. Is that backwards thinking? I can try it and see what happens. Usually whenever his bedtime moves he wakes up earlier...which won't work for us either.

Getting me to bed earlier on the weekends? :giggle Maybe. Plus I can nap on the weekends ...so weekends I'm usually *all good* and play catch up. It's been so hectic on the weekends lately though that I've been missing my catch up sleep. We've just got too much going on.

[klpmommy]

getting him to bed earlier. The thing is (and this sounds so backwards, but it is true) that a later bedtime often ends up in worse sleep b/c of being overtired. So the body has hit the "second wind" (adrenline rush) and falling asleep & staying asleep are harder. If you get him to bed earlier-- before that adrenline hits-- he may sleep better & longer. The big struggle to fall asleep & the long wake ups in the middle of the night are what make me think he is overtired. So even if he went to bed earlier on weekends it would help with perpetual overtiredness. :shrug

[Rabbit]

Samantha likes to go to sleep with all of her "kids" in the bed, and other random objects. We let her go to bed that way, then moves them all to beside the bed.

[milkmommy]

I also wonder if hes not reacting to your pregancy sensing the upcommign change and kinda processing it through multiple wakings.

Deanna

[Elora]

getting him to bed earlier. The thing is (and this sounds so backwards, but it is true) that a later bedtime often ends up in worse sleep b/c of being overtired. So the body has hit the "second wind" (adrenline rush) and falling asleep & staying asleep are harder. If you get him to bed earlier-- before that adrenline hits-- he may sleep better & longer. The big struggle to fall asleep & the long wake ups in the middle of the night are what make me think he is overtired. So even if he went to bed earlier on weekends it would help with perpetual overtiredness. :shrug
Ah ok I see. I don't think that is it in his case. When his bedtime was 11 p.m. he never fought sleep or had long wake ups. At 14 months we had to move him to an earlier sleep schedule because my husband got a day job...and it's more like, the earlier his bedtime, the worse his sleep has gotten. But there may also be other contributing factors (like he was sick constantly there for a while and then we took his bottle away) so I don't know that the earlier bedtime is the reason his sleep has gotten worse. Although I do wonder if he shouldn't be napping so long/late and maybe he just simply isn't tired at 8:30. My MIL told me the other day that he sleeps 3 hours at her house and sometimes my husband has to wake him up when he gets there @4. On the weekends at home he naps 1.5-2 hrs at noon...which is what I told her to do and didn't know she wasn't listening until Thanksgiving when we were talking. He goes to sleep much easier on weekends but he does EVERYTHING easier on weekends when daddy and mommy are both with him all day.

[Elora]

Samantha likes to go to sleep with all of her "kids" in the bed, and other random objects. We let her go to bed that way, then moves them all to beside the bed.
LOL...at first I thought it was cute. But he doesn't sleep with them in there...he just rearranges, rearranges, rearranges...moreso with the hard objects because he can't get comfortable with them underneath him...but it doesn't stop him from trying.

I also wonder if hes not reacting to your pregancy sensing the upcommign change and kinda processing it through multiple wakings. :think That is very possible. He is quite aware that we are going to have a baby soon...he understands it better than I thought he would.

[Elora]

There's a balance there between enough to float a whale and too little to sustain a cactus. Helping a toddler balance anything is tough, tough, tough. :yes :hug
:lol This struck me as funny as I re-read this thread today

:heart