https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:35:36 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2147157 Fri, 17 Apr 2015 04:19:34 +0000 miramira 2147157@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: That is a tough situation! Do you think you might go ahead and try weaning? Let us know how it goes &amp; hopefully she'll be sleeping more soon! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2146295 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 13:29:18 +0000 PinkElephant 2146295@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks everyone for the feedback! I think the trickiest part is as @anagram: said - there's no good reason for the wakes - she shouldn't be hungry, she's plenty big enough size-wise to manage sleeping through....I'm considering that maybe we disrupt her when we come to bed (she sleeps in an alcove/pass through room between our bedroom and DD1's, with a door on DD's side but not ours) - I might try her in DD1's room, since DD1 is a sound sleeper.</p> <p>@mamaof2: He does - no luck! She'll often settle in his arms (easier for him than for me), but he's rarely able to successfully transfer her back to her crib. And if he settles her in our bed and she figures out I'm there, she's after milk, and if she gets milk, then she wants to sleep on my arm (it's like a bad version of "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie")</p> <p>@anagram: Thank you so much for posting this - it doesn't give me a very positive outlook (nor does my mother-in-law reassuring me that "it's okay, your brother in law didn't sleep well at night till he was 7!", haha)...but misery loves company, right?! :) It's nice to know that other families have sleep issues and my kids aren't on a personal mission to terrorize me! </p> <p>I hear you on the lovey game - it's part of my nearly 3-year-old's bedtime routine to cry and insist that she wants me to take her lovey/blanket/doll away, put it upstairs...then as soon as I leave the room she giggles and starts crying and asks me to bring it back. I need to get that girl an agent, she's a phenomenal actress...but honestly since she sleeps fabulously otherwise, I'm willing to play into the antics.</p> <p>@miramira: Thank you! I know it's important to remember that she is still small (although this her raging temper makes me feel like I've got a 14 year old in the house, haha!) Neither of us would mind it if she just wanted to sleep in our bed, but she wants to be either in my arm or on DH's chest. It is very sweet, and for awhile we tried to just enjoy it, but as she's gotten bigger she's a more restless sleeper, so at this point we get more sleep when she's in with us, but it isn't good sleep. I also have a nearly three year old, and I'm a little concerned about her feelings if she notices that her sister is allowed to sleep with mommy &amp; daddy but she isn't....and though we've managed it on a few really awful nights of teething and night terrors, the bed is NOT big enough for 4! :)</p> <p>@trailmix: This is what I suspect we will have to do - wean her completely. That I'm working on daytime weaning right now, and that is going easier than expected - she's a total boob monster so I expected more tears. It helps that she's just sprouted 4 teeth at once over the last week or two and isn't afraid to use them on me, so I'm less emotional about cutting her off than I thought I'd be. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2146040 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 10:32:12 +0000 Trailmix 2146040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The only thing that worked for us was when I weaned completely at one year. The MOTN wake-ups got significantly better and easier after that. But I will say that my 22-month-old son is still 50/50 whether he STTN or not and on nights when he doesn't, the only thing I can do to get him to go back to sleep is give him a bottle. It's so frustrating. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2146033 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 10:28:18 +0000 miramira 2146033@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't have a solution but just wanted to say please don't think you've done something wrong. It sounds like she is just going through a phase where she wants to be close to you at night. She's still very little and as far as I'm aware, this is normal for her age. Do you mind her sleeping in your bed for part of the night, if it results in everyone getting more sleep? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2145810 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 08:19:50 +0000 Anagram 2145810@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a similar problem, except our LO is 21 months old!! =( And we don't breastfeed. But sometimes (often), she will wake up and just not go back to sleep. We have also let her cry up to an hour with checks.</p> <p>It's happened the past two nights in a row. She woke up around 4 am and would not go back to sleep till after 5. It was an HOUR of pure screaming and shouting in between. The quickest thing to do is to give her a bottle of milk (yes, a bottle...she also won't accept a sippy), and when we don't do that, she just screams and screams until she passes back out.</p> <p>She eats well, so I can't imagine she is actually hungry at 21 months--plus, she *does* sttn sometimes. She also falls asleep totally on her own and has for a long, long time, but that has never helped her MOTN wakings.</p> <p>She's just a bad sleeper and always has been. Every month or so, her bad sleep takes a new turn and finds a new way of being bad--right now, she throws her lovies out of the crib and then screams that she doesn't have them, and shouts, "Blankie! Owl! Paci! Milky!" intersperced with "Mama! Daddddaa!".</p> <p>I'm sure our neighbors hate us. We have also tried EVERYTHING. Earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, CIO with and without checks, co-sleeping....nothing "sticks" for long. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2145787 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 07:57:08 +0000 Mamaof2 2145787@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: When she wakes have you tried sending in DH to get her back to sleep? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/great-sleep-habits-except-after-middle-of-the-night-wakings#post-2145785 Thu, 16 Apr 2015 07:55:25 +0000 PinkElephant 2145785@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My nearly one year old is a great napper, and is great at going to bed. I still breastfeed her before bed, but we then read/sing , and she goes into her crib very much awake, and falls asleep without much trouble. Great, right?</p> <p>however, she regularly wakes 3.5-4.5 hours later, needing a dream feed. If she doesn't get it, she goes into a screaming rage. CIO/controlled crying hasn't worked, nor will she take a straw cup/bottle of milk, formula, breastmilk, or Pediasure. </p> <p>She wants to be breastfed, and/or held for the rest of the night. It is absolutely impossible to transfer her back to her bed. Any attempt results in rage-y screaming (up to an hour before we've given up) - she does NOT wear herself out . I often end up sleeping with her in the crook of my arm and wake up with a breast out!</p> <p>Any thoughts? I'm at the end of my rope and am considering hiring a sleep consultant, a concept I used to think was ridiculous. But to be honest I have no idea what such a person would do that we haven't tried already. Baby girl is stubborn!</p> <p>Has anyone overcome a similar situation? Her sleep habits, other than the middle of the night ones, are good, so I'm stumped at what we've done wrong. I originally was willing to wait it out, but no one in our house has slept well for months now, and it's starting to impact our daytime lives in a very negative way. </p>