I am exhausted! I could fall asleep standing up today. You see my youngest, Emma is 2 and a half and thinks she doesn't need to sleep much at all!
When she was born we brought her home from hospital and she was a great sleeper and we thought we had the gift of a child who loved to sleep. Jacob my eldest was never a good sleeper to begin with. Now he is great at night(thank the Lord, not two poor sleepers, ugh!). I have vivid memories of walking about with Jacob in a tartan (don't ask me why I chose tartan) sling to get him to sleep. Then when he did it was only for 40 minutes and we had to do this 3 times a day!
Now Emma will nap during the day but nighttime is a different ball game altogether. Take last night, she hadn't napped all day so was in bed for 6.30pm, slept till 9.30pm and woke wanting a drink and a "cudd", (cuddle), and then slept till about 3am. She woke up all bouncy and thinking "yay! I have had enough sleep and surely you should be up now mum!". Umm I don't think so little Miss and her daddy got up with her and sat downstairs so I could get some shut eye.
Then I had my little early bird, Jacob waking at 6am bright as a button so I had not a hope of anymore sleep!
Honestly I can count on all my fingers and toes how many times my lovely daughter has slept through the night. I have literally tried every technique there is out there, you know the ones: Controlled crying(hated this), sharing a bed(works sometimes), comforters and so on and on and on.
When all is said and done I have just resolved myself to the fact that I have one great sleeper and one terrible sleeper! She has certainly got a lot better over the last month or so, only waking once at night now and very briefly. It is still so tiring though as it is broken sleep.
God has given me this unique little girl for a reason, I have yet to discover what that is, maybe a test of stamina or something? Of course I wouldn't change her for all the tea in China. She is a little ray of sunshine on a cloudy day when she sings and cuddles, and it is such a short time in her life that this will be happening. I need to look at the bigger picture and be thankful I have her!
We had the opposite...our older son, Sam, was (and still is) the best sleeper. He would take long naps and sleep through the night. When he woke up in the morning, I always knew I had a 1/2 hour before I had to get him out of his crib. He would play in there while I showered. Then we had Cooper! He is almost 12 years old and will STILL come into our room some nights and sleep on our floor. When he was about 3, we began just putting a sleeping bag on the floor in case he woke up in the night. He wouldn't even need to wake us up. He could just get in the sleeping bag. We don't do the sleeping bag thing any more. Now he drags his blankets into our room. It irritates my hubby, but I figure as long as he stops before high school, who cares?! At least we're getting a full night's sleep! Our older son (14) will sleep on our floor if he's sick. I just think it's a comforting thing for them and they'll grow out of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I discovered I was pregnant last August, one of the things I was thinking was, "There goes my sleep!" (Sadly, I miscarried at 8 weeks.) Remember, it's only for a season!
Hey, it's so nice to meet you! You mean you daughter will nap during the day and still wake up during the night? Wow.
ReplyDeleteI can understand her waking up at night if she doesn't take her nap and then sleeps for a few hours. But if she naps, wow, she must not need a lot of sleep.
I remember trying everything (including a nice bath) in order to keep my kids awake until at least seven. But sometimes it is just to hard and they were falling asleep while eating, lol!
But if they fell asleep that early and even if they woke up around 9, they were only awake for an hour or two and went back down again. You poor thing, no wonder you're tired!
My friend's son constantly woke up in the middle of the night. But I think that's because she played with him. So he liked the playtime and kept waking up, as she didn't keep it a quiet time instead of a playtime.
She also took all four of her kids into their room. By the time her oldest was 12 she was ready to have their room back but the kids were afraid to sleep by themselves. They evntually got 'em in their own rooms though, lol!
Hi! Stopping in from SITS! I feel for you in the sleep department! We chose Baby Wise and our little one has been sleeping through the night since he was 8 weeks old. Then, his top teeth came in and we had a couple of nights of no sleep. It sure reminded me what a great gift we have in a great sleeper. He doesn't nap so well during the day, but what a blessing to have a full nights sleep.
ReplyDeleteOh girl I feel your pain. My 2 1/2 year old is STILL awake and midnight!!! UGH!
ReplyDeleteMy little one is 3 and thankfully a good sleeper but getting her to sleep is the hard part!I'm sure its just a stage and soon they'll be Zzzzing away to glory.
ReplyDeleteI've come over from SITS and would love for you to bunny hop over to my blog and enter 4 great giveaways...never know...you may win one :>
http://energizerbunnysmommyreports.blogspot.com/