Sleep: Will I Ever Get Any Consistently Again?

Wow, you must be exhausted! It sounds like your little ones could really benefit from sleep training. Have you heard of The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg? Her book is awesome. She does not believe in cry it out or controlled crying. She takes a gentle child friendly approach. Once you get the basics from her books, there is a helpful forum with "experts" who get back to you in a few hours- www.babywhisperer.com - My 11 month old never slept through the night before I bought her book. Now he sleeps, I sleep, my husbands sleeps, the neighbors sleep. Life is good. Finally. Hope this helps.

exactly how I feel. Its been six months for me. My baby goes to bed at 1030, wakes up at midnight to eat, wakes up at four to eat.. and if he had a good day he will want to play at four am when he gets up, usually goes back to sleep an hour later, then i gotta wake up at 430 to get my hubby's lunch ready bc he leaves for work at 5, takes me about an hr or two to go back to sleep then the baby finally wakes up at 730 to start his day. Yeah, I totally feel you. Also, my baby naps for 30 mins every 3 hrs... sometimes even less than that. So taking advantage of sleep isn't an option for me, i take advantage of cleaning and chores. I don't think we will ever sleep again. Besides, even when we're sleeping we are consciously thinking of our kids. I'm always thinking whether or not he flipped or hope he's not playing with the blanket, is his head half stuck on the mattress, sooooo many things. Its exhausting

I was speaking with a friend earlier about getting older & feeling dumber. We're both about 30, work very focused jobs, and have little ones. (His is 9 months, mine are 1 year and 3.5 years.)

After reading this post, I am going to change my argument with him. I said it was because we focused our lives in one niche of the world, whereas in school we were taught to be well-rounded. (However, in college and before kids, though focused; we were still well rounded and expansive in our thought.)

Now, post-kids we feel drained & can't wait to go to bed @ the end of the day. Funny how that happens. Neither of us sleep a good part of the night because either our wives get up, or we get up to take care of the kids. Whoever gets up, the other person is woken.

Thanks for clarifying.

So this could have been written by me, my oldest will be 4 in July and my youngest is 2 (plus a few months). My youngest didn't sleep thru the night until he was 15 mths old, and my 4 year old gets up randomly thru the week and crawls into bed with me. Luckily I am not someone who cares if they sleep with me or not, co-sleeping is okay in my book as long as they're under 5 and it's not everynight :)
but honestly, even when they crawl in and go back to sleep, it's not the same.
Plus I swear I sleep differently now, I wake up to every noise my child makes. So I might not be getting UP and OUT of bed every 2 to 3 hours to feed someone, but I am up every couple of hours when they rustle or make a noise...so even the 5-6 hours of sleep I get a night, it is interupted often.
I just went on my first 2 night away vacation and I swear, I slept like well, not a baby because I didn't wake up every 3 hours hungry, but like a 22 year old who'd been out all night and slept till 10......I actually felt RESTED.
I will be taking more of those little get aways to recharge my engine. I never knew how burned out I was, until I got refueld.
Sleep is ESSENTIAL for a happy mommy, happy babys, and happy familys.

I know this is a somewhat unpopular method, but it has been fantastic for me. Our baby sleeps with us, and has since birth. He is 8 months old, and he naps on his own for 1-3 hours in a row each day, and he sleeps from about 8pm-6am. He does wake up once per night when I come to bed at 10 or 11, but usually sleeps the whole rest of the night. I may just be really lucky, but he doesn't kick us or wake up too early (usually!), and I have taken all the safety precautions to ensure he doesn't roll out of bed or get suffocated. Again, i do realize its not for everyone, and perhaps I'll have problems when I want to transition him to his own bed (which we're doing in about 1 month, due to a move), but at least I am getting a good solid 7 hours a night. I do hope it gets better for you - I am a monster without my sleep, so I feel a lot of empathy for what you're going through.

Being a parent has taught me that sleep is optional. I have rarely 'slept through the night' for the past 20 years or so. I raised two step-kids and then had a daughter while dealing with 2 teen-agers, then my husband developed sleep disorders, oh and then there's the cats...

There is no one solution to getting decent sleep. We all have to figure out what works for us (co-sleeping, methods from books, naps, separate bedrooms, curfews, etc.). A benefit of learning to live on less sleep has been that I am completing an online PhD, with most of my work being done at night!

Hello,
I am sleep consultant that can help your little ones sleep 10 to 12 hours each and every night and take quality naps on their own - in just a few days. Sound too good to be true? I thought so too - until I hired one when my son was 4 and 1/2 months old. It made such a profound impact one me that I left a successful career to start a new one - so that others can have the gift of a good night's sleep each and every night for LIFE.
Check out my website and I hope to hear from you.
Pam

www.sleepsense.net/kelowna

Mothers milk has melatonin in it. Cows milk warmed also make melatonin more avaible to the drinker. When the child is older can go to a health food store for melatonin tablets! Only thing though is does work our child complained of being tired in the morning from it! But it does work. And it is natural. But if buying melatonin ONLY get the synethetic ones not the ones from Cow Brains. As there are bad things in brains of cows in England that could harm anyone. Melatonin sends a signal that it is bedtime. The reason your child is waking up or not is probably the amount of melatonin in them. But too much is not good either and would use as little as possible of it. But you will get some sleep and can take it too to get into a deeper sleep. (Someday)

LOL yes eventually in a few years you will get to sleep all night . Until they are teenagers then you wont be able to sleep until they are home frome their dates. then for a few more years once they are moved out you will sleep again . until they move back in for awhile ( the revolving door) then it wont be long until you will be up once and then twice a night because you have to go potty yourself . so forget consistently and just sleep when and where you can and try not to worry over it.
The Old one , been there and done it all

SLEEP DEPRIVATION IS A FORM OF TORTURE! Unfortunately, every child is different and there's no such thing as a method that ensures a full night sleep when u have a baby and toddler. The only consolation I can give u is that it DOES PASS!! My "baby" daughter turned 14years old yesterday. She is a beautiful young lady. I was looking at her last night and thinking how tiny she was when she was born. Ironically enough some of my best memories with both my kids (my son is now 17yrs old) are of the night feeds when it was just the 2 of us, all was quiet & I could marvel at the tiny person that grew inside me and now had its own individuality. Don't think I'm romanticising .... sleep deprivation IS HELL and occasionally I'd even find myself nodding off in the loo! It's just, that in the scheme of a lifetime, the sleep deprivation part is over before you know it! My advice is, enjoy your babies ... they'll be "big" before you know it ... and u WILL get uninterrupted sleep again!! In fact, it will be YOU struggling to get THEM out of bed in the morning! :)