BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: KelleB on November 29, 2005, 20:04:56 pm
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My sweet 5 mos old is not sleeping through the night. I have pretty much stopped trying to get her to sleep through the night, but I know I shouldn't quit. I don't even know any more how often she wakes up. We have begun allowing her to sleep in our bed with us and when she cries I pretty much just "plug her in". This seems to be the only way that any of us get any kind of decent sleep.
Part of our issues is that she shares a room with my (almost) 2 year old son. I have tried all the techniques the best I can with them sharing a room, including pu/pd, paci, blankie, whatever. But it seems to me that I am her world and she can't sleep without me. I'll be honest, there is a part of me that feels very special by this, but then I look at the whites of my eyes becoming permanently red and my patience as thin as ever and think, I can't let this continue. I am also practicing baby whisperer for toddlers and need lots of patience to make that work.
I think she isn't hungry at all during the night. She's 20+ lbs at 5 mos old and feeds throughout the day just fine. She has always bf very well. When she was three months old she slept through the night 2 nights in a row (11 hours both times) but then she got a stuffy nose and I allowed some nursing to sleep I hadn't been allowing before. Occassionally, she will actually fall asleep on her own but I'm afraid my "plugging her in" is going to end that. Obviously, we got off track - but how do I get back on?
How do I get back on track with a toddler in the same room? He stays awake until I get her to sleep - and by staying awake I mean toddler play on the other side of the room with squeals and giggles and all. That's how we began her going to sleep in our bed because it's the only way we could allow him to go to sleep and then get her to sleep as well. Any ideas are welcome at this point...
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My first thought is can you differentiate their bedtimes, so she goes to bed, while he is doing something else & then her later or the other way around.
Or if she is in your room already why not just move her cot into your room, so at least she isn't in your bed with you.
Increasingly she will be distacted by things (like her brother) & so you need to remove that if anything is going to work. My friend who has a 1yo & a 2yo who share the same room, has always had to put them to bed at a 1/2 hour interval, for both naps & bedtime.