Kid Sleep without the PTSD {Giveaway}!
Monday night, Ollie was up at least 6 times. At first it was he needed to be wrapped in his blanket like a burrito, then water, then I have no idea. I blacked out from rage and exhaustion. It was an atypical night for us, so my body was thrown. I pretty much struggled all morning. I whined. I Facebooked about it. I basically threw an adult tempter tantrum.
Later that day I went to the gym and got talking to a dad who I was relaying my lag from lack of sleep. He went on to “commiserate” with me. Ya see his son didn’t stop waking up multiple times until he was 2.5. He was now pretty consistent at once a night…and he is almost 4.
I think my face was just like that. ::backs away slowly:: It was then I had that moment of realization that I needed to a) stop whining and b) give myself a back pat for all that sleep training I did.
That’s right. I sleep trained and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Landon began sleeping through the night like a champ at 9 months and Ollie at 6. Of course they’ve had their off nights with sickness, teeth, developmental leaps, and whatnot but overall they are really good sleepers. Every time I see those “my 4 yr old is up for the day at 4” pictures, I shudder. My brain can’t even process what to do with that. So today I am teaming up with the awesome folks at the Baby Sleep Site to give you some tips to ward off sleep issues as well as how to deal with the bumps in the road (that means toddlers). The Baby Sleep Site is a team of consultants to help get your kids sleep. They have blogs, books and provide consultation services to get you sleeping again! From infants to toddlers, they have seen a lot. So let’s dive into it, shall we?
Babies Eat Your Brains
Let’s start with your precious baby. You know the one who everyone coos at but at 3 am, you feel like are literally out to get you. 3 pm? Got it together. 3 am? EVERYTHING IS AWFUL. WHY WILL YOU NOT SLEEP?!?!
The Baby Sleep Site does a wonderful job commiserating with you and offering advice. Everything from ways to think about your kids’ sleep patterns to sleep training to 10 common sleep problems and tips to fix them. Wait wait…hear me out. You hear sleep training but you recoil because “I can’t just let her cry!”. They wrote a great piece about sleep training including the different methods and what they all mean. And while the post is chocked full of great advice, always be sure to check the comments on any article. The consultants are happy to answer your questions because they know all babies are different.
Toddlers Kick You in the Shins
If babies eat your brains, then toddlers are full of a whole new set of changes. Pushing limits, learning SO MUCH and saying ‘no’ are the name of the game with them. Does your toddler constantly get up? Suffer from separation anxiety? Are you dreading the transition to the toddler bed? They have you covered on all toddler sleep regressions. They’ve got something for everyone!
Daylight Savings Is Coming
ALERT: Daylight Savings will go into affect Nov 1, 2015. PREPARE YOURSELVES!
“The big deal is this: your baby’s internal clock won’t change along with your household clocks. And while we adults can process the time change and stay in bed until our normal wake-up time even after we “fall back”, your baby or young toddler can’t do this.”
The main tip around DST is to start moving everything forward. Move bedtime back by a few minutes each night for the week or so leading up to Nov 1. This is kinda handy since Halloween means they will probably be up later anyway! If your kid is very sensitive to the time change (or routine changes in general), move everything else forward too. Lunch, snacks, when it’s “ok” to be up for the day. Start the mind trickery soon. Check out Baby Sleep Site’s post about DST for more specific tips based on your type of kid.
But wait…There’s More {Giveaway}!
“Toddlers come with a whole new batch of sleep problems. (You may have noticed!) She may be waking too early or need you next to her to fall asleep. His nap is likely getting shorter and just as you put him down at night, he pops out of the bed.”
These changes, along with your toddler’s newfound voice and attitude, are probably making bedtime (and the rest of the day) a lot more challenging! A good night’s sleep for you both may be turning into a distant memory… and fast!”
That is an excerpt from Baby Sleep Site’s eBook – The Tired Parent’s 5-Step System to Better Toddler Sleep. This eBook is a complete toolkit of strategies, advice, sample schedules, and sleep logs to get your toddler to love bedtime – so you can get back in control and you can both get the sleep you need. I KNOW, RIGHT?! Wanna hear something even cooler? The Baby Sleep Site is going to give away 2 copies to one of YOU.
To enter, just leave a comment of your sleep issues with your little.
The contest will be open for 2 weeks. I will draw the winners on Monday, October 26th. Single entries only. This is open to all countries.
Disclaimer: I found Baby Sleep Site in the throws of sleep regression with Ollie. I found their site incredibly informative and not judgmental of your choices. I shouted them in previous posts and they reached out to me to do a giveaway.
Oh my. My son. I don't even know where to begin, He is 4. Every night he wakes up at random and stays up forever! He used to sleep so well…no sure what happend. But would love to try this! Thank you for the opportunity.
I sleep trained early and it worked wonders – but my daughter just turned 2 and its like she has never gone to bed on her own before! Just brutal.
I am in 4 month sleep regression HELL! and my 3yr old started getting up at 5:30am- help!
My son has slept like a champ (minus sickness or a leg cramp or other fluke) since I did CIO with him at 8 months. My daughter started sleeping through the night on her own at 2 months. Shocked me, but cool. Then at 4 months she & I both caught a cold from her older brother and bye-bye all night. She’s slept through the night maybe 10 times since. I meant to CIO again, but got lazy and now she’s literally hours from 1 year old and up typically 2x per night (11pm-ish and 2am-ish). I’m sort of “whatever” about it since I stay at home, but I could use at least one full night again every so often. 😉
Two-and-a-half year old who used to be great at falling asleep on his own… Now throws a full-on fit when we leave (even with the light on). Started when I was gone for work for a few nights and now it’s not clear how much is real and how much is playing for sympathy now that he has both mom and dad to play off of each other… (Currently writing this while accompanied by his hiccuping cries)
i swear someone has already put my 16mo on daylight savings… & we live in qld! she keeps waking up at 4/5am which is so not cool. & then there's the random bursting into tears throughout the night (thanks teething! at least, i assume it's teething… tell me it's teething??)… just enough to wake me up, not her! yarr…
I feel like we did something "right" (GOT LUCKY) with our five year old. (Yeah, he may not have slept through the night 'til 18-months but we've been drama-free ever since. KNOCK WOOD. #longgame)
But now? We have twin boys approaching three years old … And one climbed out of his crib today so he could boycott the nap. Help meeeeeeeee!
Because of the csleep hallenges after our daughter was born, my husband and I just don't have the guts to have another child.
he likes me to lay with him and cries out in the middle of the night.
My daughter is 16 months old and slept great till I went back to work. Then since I was always so tired I decided to co-sleep which I thought made my life easier and was true for a bit. She only woke once a night to feed and went back to sleep. Now I have created a monster who wakes a couple times a night and can not sleep if you are not there with her. HELP!!
My 4month old, who used to sleep 5 hour stretches at night, has been up every 45min the past few weeks and it's killing me. And he HATES naps, always has- it's the biggest struggle of our days. It takes 20 min to get him down, and then he sleeps for less than that. 🙁 I feel like I've tried everything and totally out of control….
My 11 month old won't stay asleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch at night . And her naps won't last more than 20 min, twice a day.. I'm a huge mess right now!
My 9 month old wakes every 50 minutes … Sometimes more frequently. After selling a home, moving cross country, and unpacking, I missed a lot of time to introduce good habits and instituted bad ones in the name of survival! I'm often up all night with the baby and then Daddy rocks for 2 hours at dawn for me to take a nap. I'm not sure when the last time I got more than 3/4 hours a night was. May? In May we had one glorious night where I got 5 hours straight. It's been months of every hour wakes and naps require movement (bAbywearing, rocking, driving). I might disintegrate any day now.
Our little one appears to be too excited about all the things she's learning and all the activities she could be doing if not couped in bed. We are trying to course correct and looking for advice any place we can find it!
I have a very hard time with naps and no matter when I put her to bed she wakes up at 5:30. She won't go back to sleep and it's killing me. I hope this book can help!
You’re a winner! Please let me know your email address via the Contact page.
We have a 3 year old who's an excellent sleeper, so naturally, we thought the same type of sleep tricks would work again for the 7 month old. He was great at soothing himself to sleep for a while and then got sick for a month and required lots of help getting back to sleep. So now we're back to square one .
Sleep issues. I don't think I have ever not had sleep issues in my son's 9m of life. Well, wait… there were those 2 days that I bragged about when he was about 2 weeks old that he slept 4h. Yep. That was it, my one big break. Currently working on the chronic 30m naps and trying to get rid of the 6 night wakes. Thankful for spell checker as I type this with blurry eyes seraching for ways to get my baby more sleep as I don't sleep!
You're a winner!. Could you please use my contact form and let me know your email? http://www.mannlymama.com/holla-at-me/
Just did it. Hopefully it worked. It was giving me trouble on my phone. Thanks so much!!