Oh where oh where did my sleeping through the night toddler go??? As I was rocking Hadley back to sleep, again, Matt and I discussed that neither one of us could remember the last time she slept through the night. We use to just lay her in the crib and leave.. not anymore. We have tried rubbing her back until she falls asleep, rocking, singing (I lost my voice so last night she just looked at me like what are you doing?!) milk, keeping her up a little later to make her extra tired and nothing works! I rubbed her back for 45 minutes last night and she would not fall asleep. After I left, she cried a minute and then was quiet. I thought maybe tonight is the night she will sleep - WRONG. She was up about an hour and half later. Thankfully it was not a night terror but she had already cried for 30 minutes straight so we both went in there. It took me rocking her, rubbing her face and back and sneaking out of the room for her to sleep. Then she was up for the day today at 4.
I have talked to the pediatrician and have done my own research and know that this can be common at this age. Along with the night terrors and crying and waking up early - Hadley and the rest of us are T.I.R.E.D.
If you don't know what a night terror is vs. a nightmare they are completely different. There is some great info about them out there on the web. It really scared me but our pediatrician and I have talked about it and I definitely feel more comfortable about the situation. It is not super common, but kids do have them and they are nothing to worry about. Witnessing a night terror is very traumatic for us. I have left her room bawling my eyes out because it upset me so much. Thankfully she has no idea she has them and no recollection of them. It basically happens when they are going from one stage of sleep to the next and their body has a little bit of a disconnect. It's not caused by any underlying issue or represent any psychological problems (which honestly I was worried about). There was one article I read that said if you feel like you need to call in a priest to perform an exorcism it's probably a night terror. I video taped it to show the doctor and Stacy watched it and was horrified. They are awful.
We don't know what to do to help her sleep better. Is it time for her to move to a toddler bed? Or will that make it worse? We just don't know.
Matt and I usually don't sleep for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time if we are lucky and only more if one of us takes on both kids. I have no idea how single parents do it and I have no idea how you have many kids close in age (my new favorite saying - twins the hard way) when neither one of them are sleeping.
At this rate, Matt and I feel like we may never sleep again. Dramatic sounding? Yes. But is that how we truly feel? Sadly yep
No comments:
Post a Comment