Sahail AshrafTrying to resolve sleep deprivation
November 1st 2006 09:55
Well, thanks to the brilliant advice from K.L I had one more sleep deprived night and went straight out and bought the Gina Ford book on babies and toddlers and sleep.
We are now on night four of her sleep training program (which is basically controlled crying). It's early days yet, and I don't want to jinx the situation, but things are looking pretty damned good.
To recap my situation. My daughter of 18 months has recently become a shocking sleeper and with hubby doing shift work I was going slowly insane with a lack of sleep. She was waking several times a night and more often than not was up from 5am and sometimes, even earlier.
So, back to the book. I followed the few simple ideas first to ensure a good sleep environment - blacked out the room completely, put her to sleep in just a bodysuit inside a sleeping bag, monitored eating and nap times. These strategies helped a bit. I actually got to sleep in until the late, late time of 6am a couple of times, but it was by no means the only solution.
That meant only one thing. I had to go through with controlled crying. I put it off at first. And put it off. I never thought I'd be resorting to this method but after being up for an hour at 3.30am it was all systems go.
So, what had to go? The beloved and oft retrieved from the bedroom floor and put back in mouth - DUMMY! I can't believe it but according to the book the dummy was causing major sleep problems for my sweet babe. Unable to settle herself to sleep with this 'sleep aid' I was the necessary bringer of evil who had to go in and put the dummy back in night after night after night ...
We had to go cold turkey on the dummy because of her age and I followed the timed visits for controlled crying to the letter. I was shocked at how quickly it's worked. The first night wasn't even as bad as I expected and tonight, night four, she was off in the land of nod in less than 20 minutes with barely a whimper.
Thank you, thank you, thank you K.L. If it doesn't turn out to be the total solution, at least things are a hell of a lot better on the sleep front than they were.
We are now on night four of her sleep training program (which is basically controlled crying). It's early days yet, and I don't want to jinx the situation, but things are looking pretty damned good.
To recap my situation. My daughter of 18 months has recently become a shocking sleeper and with hubby doing shift work I was going slowly insane with a lack of sleep. She was waking several times a night and more often than not was up from 5am and sometimes, even earlier.
So, back to the book. I followed the few simple ideas first to ensure a good sleep environment - blacked out the room completely, put her to sleep in just a bodysuit inside a sleeping bag, monitored eating and nap times. These strategies helped a bit. I actually got to sleep in until the late, late time of 6am a couple of times, but it was by no means the only solution.
That meant only one thing. I had to go through with controlled crying. I put it off at first. And put it off. I never thought I'd be resorting to this method but after being up for an hour at 3.30am it was all systems go.
So, what had to go? The beloved and oft retrieved from the bedroom floor and put back in mouth - DUMMY! I can't believe it but according to the book the dummy was causing major sleep problems for my sweet babe. Unable to settle herself to sleep with this 'sleep aid' I was the necessary bringer of evil who had to go in and put the dummy back in night after night after night ...
We had to go cold turkey on the dummy because of her age and I followed the timed visits for controlled crying to the letter. I was shocked at how quickly it's worked. The first night wasn't even as bad as I expected and tonight, night four, she was off in the land of nod in less than 20 minutes with barely a whimper.
Thank you, thank you, thank you K.L. If it doesn't turn out to be the total solution, at least things are a hell of a lot better on the sleep front than they were.
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Comment by Andrea
V8 Supercar Pitstop
Congratulations on your successes so far. I hope it all works out for you.
My three year old son loved his dummy when he was younger, wouldn't sleep without it. He had one of those shaped ones that look a bit flat when viewed from a certain angle. Anyway, one day he lost it and I had to rush out and buy an emergency replacement. The shop we went to didn't have the beloved flattened dummy so I had to get him a standard round one.
He hated it. Wouldn't sleep with it. In fact it was so bad for him that on the first night he voluntarily chose to sleep without any dummy at all. He slept really well, as well!
I just wish I'd realised I could have broken the dummy reliance that easily months ago.
Good luck with the sleep training.
A.H.
Comment by Candice
Thanks for your well wishes. I've had three full nights sleep in a row so far. It's pure bliss! Tonight took a little longer to settle her than last night but it still wasn't too bad - and she was overtired today!
Like you I really, really wish I'd known that I could have done this months and months ago.
A similar thing happened to me with her not sleeping with a replacement dummy. When she was over 6 months I bought the dummy for 6 months plus, which was just a big bigger. She wouldn't even go to sleep with the bigger dummy so she continued with the little one. Because of that, and a couple of times where I haven't been able to find her dummy straight away and she hasn't settled, I thought weaning her off it would be much harder.