My Little Girl Won't Sleep!!!

I agree with the white noise, or fan idea, just make sure it and the cords are not where they are reachable to little hands.

Dark curtains, we have a night light that slowly changes colors, and he is able to watch that till he falls asleep (we added that a few months ago).

We start his sleep time with a cd, and it turns off when it is done and he does fine, but you may need the white noise to cover sounds of the house if she is a lighter sleeper.

S.
mother to Kai
www.HomeWithKai.com

I feel for you and your husband. I went through this with my second, the idea of his sister being up and him not was the end of the world. Here is a crazy idea, 99.9% of parents would never do this, but with my husband's traveling, I had to do something I needed sleep. I noticed that if he fell asleep on the couch with the t.v. going, you could scream, and he wouldnt wake up to a thing. So I moved the t.v. from my room into his room. And now, every night for 2 years, he watches a movie, he ends up falling asleep during the movie, but he sleeps all night until about 6 or 7 am. My older child also has a t.v. in her room, and she does the same thing, but she has cable. But its nice to get some sleep at night, becuase now I have a 3 month old baby. I know my kids are very spoiled, and I hate that. But thats the only way I got sleep, and still get sleep. I wish you all the luck in the world.

Find a good white noise machine. Even a fan can do wonders, run it on high when you lay her down. She will get used to that sound and it will drown out any other household noise. Both of my kids were great sleepers with noise until toddlerhood.
They don't want to miss a thing and are full of energy. If she knows her brothers are up she just is wired out to be awake! :) Teething can play a huge factor too, make sure you see if she is teething, try teething tablets or motrin to settle her in.

The big things for me were, make sure she has a full belly before bed, clean diaper, cool and dark room, (black out shades are great), lay her down, turn on a music box/fan that winds down over a period of time or fan. Then walk out.
If she is playing you cannot force her to lay down, at least she isn't screaming her head off.

Make sure she isn't getting a nap too close to bedtime or for two long. If she is taking two naps narrow it down to one.

Try sleepytime lotion after a warm bath before bedtime too.

Shut the door and walk away. I never did cry it out until after the year mark but if you have a baby monitor you can gauge how she is doing and shut the door to her room and walk out.

To this day my four and seven year old love falling asleep with the fan in their rooms. It is relaxing, they cannot hear the phone or TV if they are loud.

Good luck! My kids went back and forth being sound or light sleepers...hugs!!!

Hhhhmmm. That is perplexing because it really does sound like you've tried everything. They say it can take a month for sleep habits to change, but it sounds like you have given each thing time. White noise does help our son, but I'm not sure it would be the silver bullet. If nothing else, maybe as a last resort (which it sounds like you might be getting close to!), most cities have sleep clinics/labs at their children's hospital. I'm not sure where you live, but for example, here in Salt Lake City, Primary Children's has a sleep lab. If you've really tried everything, there might be some other underlying cause for the wakefulness that a sleep lab might be able to detect? I don't know, I'm just trying to grasp at straws here! Good luck and let us know what happens!

Have you ever read the book "How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Ferber? It has saved me & several moms I know. Ferber is a sleep scientist - so everything is based in research - which I really like. The way he explains things makes a lot of sense & really helps you see what could be off with your child learning to sleep well. I highly recommend it!

T.,

Hope this is not a problem like mine. My son was like that and he was diagnosed at 7 by several doctors as hyperactive - attention deficit. Don't panic, their brain is just wired to run, run, run, run. They need a regular routine and structure to help them. My son at 27 was a Marine, and that is discipline! He is doing terrific these days on his own.

You may want to look at some safe natural products that help her to calm down and set a schedule that you follow closely. You may want to soundproof your daughter's room, too. Egg cartons work well and gave birth to the current soundproofing technologies by the way (its in my line of business).

I use to make my son lay quiet on my lap (in a soothing manner) for as much as 60 minutes and he would then go to sleep. I've also used fennel tea, or camomille tea with varying success to help him calm down. Avoid any red-dyes in food. Really stimulates them.

Who in your family is like this by the way? It can be your family or your husband's. This is an inherited condition. How do they deal with their restlessness? Someone may not admit it, so watch to see if you can spot the family member.

Some people self-medicate. Sadly many hyperactive people become alcoholics because alcohol helped to calm them down. I hope you can help your daughter so that this does not happen to her.

My little girl is 2 and a half as still doesn't sleep. She frequently won't go down until 10 pm, and is still up at 6 am. Sometimes she takes an hour nap, sometimes she doesn't. I've resigned myself to the fact that she is one of those people who just don't need much sleep. I've had to work out other ways for me to get the sleep I need, as well as time for myself.

The only thing that I've found that helps at all is filling her day with lots of physical activity. If we go swimming, and to the park, and on a bike ride, and on a walk, and to the store, then I can get her to go down at 9 pm. Of course, I'm whipped to at that point so I'm also in bed at 9:30, but some days it's worth it.

As you can see, I don't have much advice to offer, but I just wanted you to know that you're not alone.

T.,
Melatonin!!! I used to give our daughter a sleeping aid with melatonin in it. You may want to ask your doctor about it, but I didn't. I gave her Sleep Now, by Herbalife. I am a distributor and could sell you some, or you could ask around and I'm sure there is one in your neighborhood, or even in your family. Go to www.herbalife.com and take a look at some of their stuff. I would cut a pill in half, then try in half again and have her chew it up and chug milk or water with it. It has a cinnamony smell and a strange taste, but if it will help her (and you!) sleep at night... Our daughter still asks for it about once a month. She says her dreams are nicer when she has it. Truth or not, I'm okay with her having it. It helps your body to naturally produce melatonin.

V.

Remove sugar from her diet. You might be surprised. One more thing I forgot to mention. Take out all food colorings. This worked like magic for my daughter when she was four. She had diffulty sleeping since she was a toddler and in less than two weeks, she was sleeping through the night! This is her story> http://www.babybites.info/2008/04/10/a-sad-diet/

My 11 month old still wakes up at around 3AM for some milk -- we've tried to let him cry it out, but I can't stand it, so we give in and give him milk. He's usually out in 15 minutes until 6/7AM after he drinks his bottle. I'm not sure if we need to continue his "midnight munchie habbit" or what to do??? I'll be reading everyone's advice with you. Good luck and hopefully we all can sleep all night long soon.

I guess I am confused as to the issue. She doesn't fall asleep or she doesn't stay asleep? The white noise is great to mask some of the noise that might wake her up, and could help her fall asleep too, but if she is just playing in her crib on her own until she falls asleep, I would let her be. My son (also 1) sometimes falls right asleep, and sometimes will talk to himself for a good hour or so after going down. As long as he is down and resting (yes, sometimes it is crying), I'm okay. He used to wake up in the middle of the night and talk for a bit too. We would let him be and he would eventually go back to sleep. It does wake us up, but it seems to be a phase, and will change in a few days or a week - at least to a different pattern. :)