Thread: I'm tired...

I wish I had advice! One of my kids sleeps like a champ (the baby!). The other one never sleeps and never has. I have tried everything that you can imagine and nothing has ever helped. When Clayton was a baby, he never took long naps. I think the longest nap he ever took was around 30 minutes. He never slept any longer than 6 hours at a time during the night. At almost 6 years old, he's still like that. I'm lucky if he sleeps longer than 6 hours any night. He's not a cranky child and he's full of energy. I don't get it. I've mentioned it to the dr. time and time again and they don't have any advice other than to put him on a sleep aide. I'm not willing to do that right now.

The fact that Hayden has done it before is a sign that there is hope for you though. I know how exhausting it can be. I hope someone can give you some words that will help.

Is nay-nay boobs? B/c if so, we have the same problem. I'm not ready to give up nursing, but I can't function. I'm mean and irritable and annoyed ALL. THE. TIME.

What time do you put him down for bed at night?

Jack stop nursing at 11 months, and started sleeping. He was def waking up just for a little milky. Shea is the same way. I know that she just won't sleep until she stop nursing. I plan on nursing for atleast a year....so it looks like I just won't be sleeping until the.

I can only suggest what helps for us. Andrew's sleep has been a nightmare since the day we came home from the hospital. I was very close to a nervous breakdown a few times, and he was no good at cry it out, either. We would have hours of waiting for him to stop.

Again, this is just what I did at the suggestion of a friend who has studied natural health extensively.

I started giving him some Melatonin for a few nights. In his case we just give him a tablet which he crunches up in his mouth (ewww!) but you can also get it in a liquid form. You can get it at any pharmacy, and it's natural, so you're not giving him "drugs". I usually give it to him for a few days to a week, a half an hour or so before we want him to go to sleep. It just seems to reset his sleep patterns. Every once in a while we have to do it again, but it is SO nice to have those nights of sleep!

He usually goes to bed between 7 and 8. Then he's up again at midnight, between 2 and 3 and then usually again at 7.


Thanks Cyn. I'll look into the melatonin

Maybe that is what Jack needs - melatonin...good lord he is a terrible sleeper. He was up 3 to 5 times a night for the first 10 months - then he did okay for a stretch - but at 16 months he figured out how to get out of his bed - there was no containing that child or forcing sleep on him after that. He would wake up at random times in the night, playing with toys or getting into the fridge and carrying a gallon of milk around or getting out cheese slices and slapping me in the face with them. Yes, my child requires very little sleep. He is now 3, and we put him down between 7:30 and 8 every night - and he is up between 4:30 and 5:30 am for the day - but may take a one hour nap (which he screams and throws a tantrum when he wakes up from it)...he mostly sleeps through the night, but at least a couple times a week gets up at midnight or two am...sometimes he has bad nights where he'll get up a few times...ugh...the Pedi is of ZERO help as she just says "Some kids are sleepers, some aren't. Yours just doesn't require as much sleep"...ugh. I'm hoping some day he will sleep. If not, he better be a freaking doctor or emergency surgeon that works the night shift or in the military on missions which require sleep deprivation. Oh, and for those middle of the night wakings, we do the supper nanny technique - Back to bed kid, its night time, and shut the door...but its still exhausting trying to get back to sleep and then woken up again so early in the day...

lol..I think I could write forever on sleep deprivation

I totally feel your pain, but I'm not going to lie, I cracked up at him carrying milk and hitting you with cheese!

I wish I knew the secret! Carter has probably slept through the night a total of 5-7 days his whole 23 months. Not days in a row, either! He pretty consistently wakes up now at 1ish and I generally give up and bring him into bed with us. He falls back asleep and so do I. When I am ready to move or turn over, I put him back in his bed and he is usually there until a morning.

I've tried letting him cry it out without success. He screams and gets himself so worked up he pukes all over or he tosses himself out of his crib. Neither is a situation I want to deal with. So, I cave and let him sleep with me. It isn't my ideal situation, but at least we both are sleeping instead of him screaming and me laying listening (thank God Art and Abby are heavy sleepers...they never hear him, but I hear EVERYTHING!)

Good luck! I'm curious about the melatonin. I'm going to ask our doc. He often recommends herbal remedies, I'll see what his thoughts are on this.

Jeanette- Please share when you talk to your doctor. I'm going to call in the morning and make an appointment for his 18m, so I'll ask then. My doctor seems ok with my backwards, semi crunchy crazy ways, so I can't wait to hear when he has to say about this

I will! My mom is actually a nurse at the office, so I'll call her on the way to the office in the morning!

I am so thankful for our doc, he is wonderful. He is a DO (instead of an MD) and is at least willing to entertain some more alternative theories/treatments. We really are so lucky. Abby was home last week with a fever (of course, the week after Christmas break!) and we went in to get checked. He said everything was clear, just a virus. 2 days later, everything still the same, except she got a rash all over her torso. He said we were more than welcome to come in, but I could also email a pic of the rash for him to check out. Turns out it was just a viral thing and it was gone in the next day or so. Anyways...love our doc!

Ethan has stopped sleeping through the night lately. He goes to bed between 7 and 8, gets up at 12, then again at 3 and 5. I don't get it. He usually wants milk, so I give him a cup of milk and let him have it in his crib, which isn't good, but I've got Avery in bed with me and just want some sleep.

About the melatonin... I worked at GNC so I know they have it there as well. It comes in liquid form, tablets you swallow, and tablets that dissolve. They also come in 1mg, 3mg, and 5mg. I wouldn't be giving kids more than 1mg as studies have shown that even small doses of 0.3mg are just as effective. Just be careful and ask your doctor about it first.

I did give it to Aiden when he was 2. I would just scrape a little of the tablet off and put it into his milk or juice and let it do its magic. Haha. It never kept him asleep though, just helped to knock him out faster. I think they need the time-released version to keep them sleeping.

Hayden has no trouble falling asleep, it's the staying asleep part that he has issues with! They need to make an ambien for babies! At least they couldn't sleepwalk, still being in the crib and all!

Have you tried giving him a sippy of water? Gideon, even after weaning, was a horrific sleeper. Finally the doc said to just give him a sippy (with a valve) of WATER at night. Since then, he only wakes up for night terrors. My mom then told me that my oldest sister was the same way and she kept a bottle of water in the crib for that reason. Even now, Gideon will drink his cup in the middle of the night from his bedside table. He sleeps with his mouth open so it dries out, he wakes up miserable and needs the moisture I guess. I do it too.

Melatonin is a GREAT option too. When Anna was having night terrors every. Single. Night. that's what we used to soothe her. It's good stuff without the negative side effects of benadryl.

He slept from 730pm to 7am when I woke Kayleigh up!! He's done this before though.

He is so much more pleasant in the mornings (and all day really), he doesn't need to take a nap 20 minutes after he gets up. It's better for everyone when he sleeps, he should do it more often.

I'll try the sippy of water if he wakes up tonight, which I'm sure he will. That's really funny b/c Kayleigh asked just the other day, why Hayden doesn't get any water and she doesn, lol.

I feel for you. My middle DS, Miles, who is 4 1/2 is still a horrible sleeper and has been since birth. My oldest and youngest are just fine with sleep, but not Miles. He usually wakes up 1-2 times a night. Doesn't scream, just walks into our room and says, "Mom/Dad I'm awake". I kind of feel bad for him, because I know he doesn't do it on purpose. Our Dr seems to think he might just be a very light sleeper (I am also a very light sleeper and typically wake up in the middle of the night, even before kids). And the cycle of him waking fits perfectly with a typical sleep cycle. So we think his body wakes him up instead of just being in that very light sleep before going back to REM. We have been teaching him ways to just go back to sleep on his own, but he is an intense boy and we think he wakes up and starts worrying, etc...

Good luck with whatever works, we have tried it ALL and have yet to find something.