Toddler & Baby waking nightly

[marienic]

I desperately need help! I have a 13 month old son and 4 week old daughter, I am breastfeeding on demand with my daughter so I am up 3 or 4 times during the night which I expected, but my 13 month old son is still not sleeping through the night and I am completely exhausted.  He wil have 2 naps per day for about 30-45 mins one in the morning and one in the afternoon but this doesnt help.  Our routine is bath at approx 7.30 then bed with a bottle of warm milk.  He normally goes to sleep without much problems but wakes about 2 or 3 times for more milk.  He has never taken a soother and rocking gets him off to sleep but as soon as I try to lay him down he wakes again and starts crying until we give him a drink of milk.  I have tried water also and this doesnt work.  My other worry is that because I am so tired with being up most of the night I am not satisfying my daughter with feeds and her sleeping during the day is sort of 1-2 hours then feed.  Can anyone help!

[Jaime]

hi there,

first of all (((HUGS))) to you.  sounds like your baby is doing fine, so i think you should focus on your toddler.  here are a couple of ideas i had as i read your post:

- drop the milk at night
- i would check out the pu/pd board for tips on how to help your toddler go back to sleep at night (may want to check the toddler sleep board too)

once you have some ideas, formulate a plan, and then stick to it all the time.  it will not appear to work at first, and things may get harder before they get easier, but if you are consistent all the time, you will have your toddler sleeping all night so you can focus on your baby & your own sleep as well.

HTH a little...