MamaLlama
08-08-2008, 04:36
We had a nightmare in the first year, DC woke every 2 hours without fail, sometimes more often. Actually between until about midnight he could be counted on as the 40 min alarm clock. We tried cot sleeping, co-sleeping and everything in between.
Then finally on his 1st birthday no less he suddenly got the hang of it and started sleeping through in his cot! Oh happy day!
OK so for the last year and a half we have slowly recovered from the extreme sleep deprivation. He has been very very good.
Routine went like this:
1. change into fresh nappy, pjs
2. clean teeth
3. read books (used to be heaps, got down to just 3 or so)
4. drink of water
5. rock on glider for about 5 mins
6. put to bed in cot, awake but drowsy.
7. sleep
All went well until he suddenly learned to climb out of the cot. He actually was very clever at it and never fell, used to swing his leg over and drop himself down using his arms, then jump the 30cm or so to the ground. He would trot out to us and say "feet hurt!".
But I worried he would fall, or that he would start wandering when we were alseep to less childproofed parts of the house... so we got him a bed.
Trouble is he then stopped accepting being put to bed. We did the same routine but he would simply not lie down and put himself to sleep anymore. So we got desperate and would lie down beside him until he dropped off. It was originally only 10 mins or so but now is more like 30 mins.
Add to that the fact that he used to be put into the cot around 8pm and with daylight saving it is suddenly much lighter and really hard to get him to bed before 9pm! So its 9:30 before we can have any time to ourselves now.
AND if he wakes now he'll just come out and order us back to bed. He's not confined by the cot anymore so there's no effort involved. Its just so easy for him to get us.
How on earth can we get our evenings back???
Add to that the fact that after this pattern emerged we had visitors and had to sleep in the same room (we would creep in late, usually didn't wake him but he'd wake up with us). So we want to move into our own room again AND get a decent bedtime AND get him to stop needing us to lie down.
CC wouldn't be an option even if we believed in it because he isn't confined anymore now he's not in the cot.
I wonder if we need to put him back in the portacot (harder to climb out of) for a while to get him re-used to going to sleep. Don't really want to do CC though at 2.5 years I'm less against it than I am for little babies under 1 year.
Advice?
Then finally on his 1st birthday no less he suddenly got the hang of it and started sleeping through in his cot! Oh happy day!
OK so for the last year and a half we have slowly recovered from the extreme sleep deprivation. He has been very very good.
Routine went like this:
1. change into fresh nappy, pjs
2. clean teeth
3. read books (used to be heaps, got down to just 3 or so)
4. drink of water
5. rock on glider for about 5 mins
6. put to bed in cot, awake but drowsy.
7. sleep
All went well until he suddenly learned to climb out of the cot. He actually was very clever at it and never fell, used to swing his leg over and drop himself down using his arms, then jump the 30cm or so to the ground. He would trot out to us and say "feet hurt!".
But I worried he would fall, or that he would start wandering when we were alseep to less childproofed parts of the house... so we got him a bed.
Trouble is he then stopped accepting being put to bed. We did the same routine but he would simply not lie down and put himself to sleep anymore. So we got desperate and would lie down beside him until he dropped off. It was originally only 10 mins or so but now is more like 30 mins.
Add to that the fact that he used to be put into the cot around 8pm and with daylight saving it is suddenly much lighter and really hard to get him to bed before 9pm! So its 9:30 before we can have any time to ourselves now.
AND if he wakes now he'll just come out and order us back to bed. He's not confined by the cot anymore so there's no effort involved. Its just so easy for him to get us.
How on earth can we get our evenings back???
Add to that the fact that after this pattern emerged we had visitors and had to sleep in the same room (we would creep in late, usually didn't wake him but he'd wake up with us). So we want to move into our own room again AND get a decent bedtime AND get him to stop needing us to lie down.
CC wouldn't be an option even if we believed in it because he isn't confined anymore now he's not in the cot.
I wonder if we need to put him back in the portacot (harder to climb out of) for a while to get him re-used to going to sleep. Don't really want to do CC though at 2.5 years I'm less against it than I am for little babies under 1 year.
Advice?