2 Year Sleep Regression?

[skatured]

I had four hours of sleep last night. Not from the baby --- she’s a dream now. Goes to sleep for realz somewhere between 8-9 and stays that way except for wanting to eat a few times a night. That I can deal with. What I cannot deal with is the new Morella

Comments

[hayeswoods]

Lizzy does this every now and then. I go in, tell her no, it's time to sleep and leave.I let her cry for a bit, remind her it's time to sleep and leave again (that way she's not just crying it out for a long time without my presence---my child is stubborn). Rinse, repeat. She needs to learn the self-soothe herself to sleep. Or decide which requests you are going to fill, and ONLY do it once. Like, for Lizzy I'll get her more water if her sippy is full but I tell her that's the only time I'll do it.

Good luck!

[skatured]

We have been trying this tactic and it just doesn't seem to work and we probably give up to soon. It will work for a day or two...but then she adds on another request, or she wakes up at 4 wanting to do this all over......I think maybe we need to be more consistent from the get go. I also think that maybe the cats wake her up since the door is open and they can get in there, and when the light is on she is more easily awake.

Ugh. Consistency.

[rdrew]

Well, actually, Henry just started mixing up his routine. Just in the last week: Henry will chug down his sippy after we put him down for the night (about 7:30), then cry for more. The past two nights, I have given him a refill once each night because I hate to think of him thirsty. But then he chugs that down and cries for us to come get the empty sippy from him. Mike went in there last night to get it back (I was ignoring Henry at that point). Forty minutes later, he was still crying. Eventually, the cries turned into singing (Old MacDonald), then he fell asleep. He sleeps through, but he's been waking up way too early because of the extra fluids. He got up at 5:15 today with a giant, wet diaper. Mike vowed this morning that Henry would get no more fluids after his bath (the routine has been bath, books, bed+sippy). He thinks that if Henry doesn't have a wet diaper, he won't wake up.

It's probably some developmental thing. We're going to let him cry it out tonight. It's for everyone's sanity.

[skatured]

That was how it started with Morella...the exact same way with milk! It’s eerie! That started about 2-3 months ago. Then she was sick and we let her have the light on and door open because of fever dreams and what not...but then she is now inconsistently wanting one or the other or both, and she has to have milk, and if she drinks it up at night screwing around she wakes up at 5:30 in the morning frantically screaming for more milk. And she doesn’t just cry anymore -- she screams and cries and thrashes around in full on tantrum mode which totally sucks because we are afraid it will wake Athena up.

Yeah I have to save my anger for tonight to help us get through what is sure to be an epic tantrum...and then again when she gets up and realizes she isn’t going to get her way. It’s not like we don’t check on her and calm her down. She is calm ... she just starts again after 1-2 minutes until she gets her evil way.

[ladycoreopsis]

Nights got hard for us around 2.5 with Lumi. We had to be firm about the bedtime rules and routine, and basically not give in to her every little whim, but did make sure she was comfortable. We explained things to her along the way. And sometimes we did end up closing the door and allowed her to cry for a short time, not more than like 5 mins though. Then we'd settle her again and leave without fulfilling any ridiculous requests.

This toddler stuff is tough!

[skatured]

Yeah, that is what i mean -- I mean we do go in there to remind her to go to bed, that no we aren’t going to do blah blah blah. She calms down the instant we are there, but that is the point -- we aren’t going to be there the whole effin’ night! And when Tim sometimes does decide to be there then she wants the lights on, then she wants more puppies, then she wants more milk.

What did you do when the crying was more than crying but frantic banging the door, hopping up and down screaming and throwing stuff? If we go in there then she wins. And we are afraid to let her do that in the middle of the night and wake up Athena (though she did). How long did it last? Did she eventually go back to sleep?

[hayeswoods]

Close the door and let her scream. We had to with Lizzy. She would even bang on the door, but it never lasted too long. She'd get sick of banging and go throw her fit in her bed instead. I know it's awful but I only had to do it for a couple of nights and then she just stopped.

[skatured]

Its the banging on the door that I needed to hear. Thank you!

[judecorp]

Punk wakes up during the night and asks for things like hugs, extra blankets, more stuffed animals, more hugs, to rock in the rocking chair, to sleep in my bed, because there is a monster, etc. etc.

But she has always been the world's crappiest sleeper so I have no comparison.

[skatured]

Morella has never asked for a hug... I think that would make it so much harder to be hard ass. We have tried so many times to get her to sleep in our bed but she just won't do it. It has to be her room or the highway. Lol.

But no, nap time she banged and screamed for 8 minutes. We were bracing for the worst for tonight and again it lasted 8 minutes. I feel like we are on edge for tonight. I made it through today just fine, but what would another day of 4 hours of sleep do to me? I shouldn't think of it. I should be in bed!

[jadesymb]

Landon regresses whenever he gets sick, and then it takes about a week or two after he's well to go back to sleeping through the night.

Also, he regressed major at the end of my pregnancy and the first month or two of Ollie's life, but seems to mostly be back to sleeping through the night again.

Landon's was normally only 1-2 times a night, the worst was three or four, but mostly 1 or 2, and we just sort of rolled with it until it went away...

We tend to get frustrated if its more than 2 times a night though, thats when he'd get told NO. We'd still get up and check on him and put him to bed, but we didn't preform any tasks for him after the 2nd time

Good Luck!

[skatured]

I think it's just harder to ignore when her room is right next to ours and I am afraid she'll wake the baby. I can't imagine them ever sharing a room right now, and yet I know it will be happening a year from now. I am sort of hoping that maybe when they do share a bedroom that Athena won't go through this bularky.

That is part of the reason why it got so bad -- because she was sick and we allowed extra privileges. Sigh. These kids, they really know how to manipulate. It's also so much harder to be ignore the crying when they are screaming Mommy! Momma! Mommy!