A History:
Of the three kids, Julia has always been the "worst" sleeper. In regard to many of the horror stories I hear regarding kids and sleep, by comparison, she isn't that bad. As an infant she slept "appropriately (waking and sleeping at normal intervals for her age, would go to bed in her crib awake, without crying and manage to fall asleep etc)." At about a year and a half to two years or so she went through this thing where she was waking at night, screaming and inconsolable until she finally worked herself in to such a frenzy that she would just drop. That lasted until about 2 and a half or so I think. At about 3 and a few months, she suddenly refused to go to bed in her own room. She ended up falling asleep on the couch and one of us would bring her up to her bed (which she was now in as opposed to a crib) where she would spend an uneventful night and sleep right through. It wasn't an ideal situation but it worked. Also during this time we started the nighttime potty training. She caught on immediately and had barely any accidents, maybe two or three if that. About two or three months ago, she started waking up at night, sometime between 12-2, screaming in sheer terror and was only consoled by being brought downstairs to spend the night with us, in our bed. This meant that both she and I (mostly me) would get a crappy night's sleep (Ryun sleeps like the dead). This (not only the poor night's sleep but also the going upstairs to get her every single night without fail) has been so wearing that we have recently (last week) succumbed and have started letting her sleep in our room from the start of the night, only on the rug with a bunch of pillows and blankets for a bed, as opposed to in our bed. She has been sleeping soundly through the night since we started this so at least that's good but now? She's started wetting the bed , maybe 3-4 nights.
It's obvious she has some sort of night time sleeping insecurity thing going on between the waking up every night, refusing to sleep in her own room, and now the bed wetting. I have no idea what to make of all this really.
Thoughts? Anyone? I am open to any and all suggestions, as long as they don't ridicule me for letting her sleep with us, not that I think any one here would do that.
I don't know what your sleeping situation is for her but would suggested letting her sleep with the light on.
ReplyDeleteIt worked for us.
When Val wakes up screaming as you describe it usually seems to be thirst and/or a headache, for what it's worth. A drink and/or Tylenol tends to resolve it. Hanging out with her until she's asleep might not even be needed in those cases. Obviously it's terrors/dreams sometimes, and then usually hanging out with her does it.
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