HOLY HECK! SLEEP REGRESSION IS ALL TO REAL
Finally 2 years old...yayyyy! My LO is potty trained,sleep trained and super chilled.
I was ready to celebrate, Diaper bill gone ✔ Mini chilled coffee buddy with ability to have convo✔ Sleep filled nights ✔✔all this excitement, then I came across a post about toddler sleep regression and thought, "Thank goodness I am not going through that." As the title of this post suggest, boy was I WRONG.
It was a normal night, my LO was home from daycare, had dinner, a bath, a book and all relaxed by 8 p.m. I did the usual, put the night light on, kissed my LO goodnight and left the room. About 15 mins after, a small shadowy figure appeared in the doorway of my daughter's room, followed by a small voice..."mommy!" I was all too sympathetic looking at that cute little face, plus, this is the first time it happened. So back to bed we went, a little more cuddles and kiss goodnight. This, then happened every 15 mins until I realized she was having a real problem sleeping. Eventually, putting her back to bed proved more and more difficult. She didn't want me to leave the room. She seemed genuinely afraid I was going to leave (she actually said "mommy don't leave me please"). That night was ridiculously long, but sleep finally won at 11:30 pm. I was now beat and went to bed as well. To my surprise, my LO woke at 3 a.m, refused to sleep until 5 a.m, then she fully woke at 7 a.m. Now I was tired and a little concerned... what had her so restless?
This happened a Thursday night, and by the following weekend, I found that she had HFM Hand Foot and Mouth Disease there by explaining why she was so restless. After letting the HFM run it's course, I decided that I would pull her from daycare. I mean financially it made sense, seeing I was working from home anyway, I was sure I could balance the two. The balance act worked but the sleeping issues became worst.
My daughter went from taking a 1 hour afternoon nap, followed by bedtime at 8:30 p.m (all independently), to refusing to nap and being a nightmare at night. I tried keeping the routine, but it ended with her seriously only having 4 hours rest day/night combined, on her worst day. By the end of the week I was frazzled and puffy eyed and my LO was fussy and whinny, all not making for a happy mommy or toddler. So I followed her lead. She kept gesturing for me to pat her back, which was all new, so I did and that worked. But I wasn't too keen on patting on the back for 2 hours, for her to then fully wake 4 hours after seeking the same soothing method. I however, gave in for a while, however this did not weaken the importance of re-establishing a healthy sleeping pattern.
After tons of google searches and realizing that I was not alone, I splashed cold water on my face, rolled my sleeves up, sipped my coffee and took a breath, this momma was on a mission and I had the love, the patience, the energy and google to do it. With these tools I shortened her afternoon nap, which helped tremendously with the night time sleep. Although this wasn't the total fix.
After midnight searches, and coming across loads of information, these two sites in particular helped me a lot, Psycology Today and Baby Sleep Site. Then I got it done! My comforting became less and less and I slowly began leaving her room before she fell asleep. This worked wonders, now in 1 month she is sleeping independently again, her fears of me leaving are basically non-existent, her demeanor is drastically changed and mommy is rested and functioning.
All in all raising kids is a journey, and just when you think you got it figured out, you realize that you are still learning and that there are resources to help you along the way. You are not alone.
I was ready to celebrate, Diaper bill gone ✔ Mini chilled coffee buddy with ability to have convo✔ Sleep filled nights ✔✔all this excitement, then I came across a post about toddler sleep regression and thought, "Thank goodness I am not going through that." As the title of this post suggest, boy was I WRONG.
It was a normal night, my LO was home from daycare, had dinner, a bath, a book and all relaxed by 8 p.m. I did the usual, put the night light on, kissed my LO goodnight and left the room. About 15 mins after, a small shadowy figure appeared in the doorway of my daughter's room, followed by a small voice..."mommy!" I was all too sympathetic looking at that cute little face, plus, this is the first time it happened. So back to bed we went, a little more cuddles and kiss goodnight. This, then happened every 15 mins until I realized she was having a real problem sleeping. Eventually, putting her back to bed proved more and more difficult. She didn't want me to leave the room. She seemed genuinely afraid I was going to leave (she actually said "mommy don't leave me please"). That night was ridiculously long, but sleep finally won at 11:30 pm. I was now beat and went to bed as well. To my surprise, my LO woke at 3 a.m, refused to sleep until 5 a.m, then she fully woke at 7 a.m. Now I was tired and a little concerned... what had her so restless?
This happened a Thursday night, and by the following weekend, I found that she had HFM Hand Foot and Mouth Disease there by explaining why she was so restless. After letting the HFM run it's course, I decided that I would pull her from daycare. I mean financially it made sense, seeing I was working from home anyway, I was sure I could balance the two. The balance act worked but the sleeping issues became worst.
My daughter went from taking a 1 hour afternoon nap, followed by bedtime at 8:30 p.m (all independently), to refusing to nap and being a nightmare at night. I tried keeping the routine, but it ended with her seriously only having 4 hours rest day/night combined, on her worst day. By the end of the week I was frazzled and puffy eyed and my LO was fussy and whinny, all not making for a happy mommy or toddler. So I followed her lead. She kept gesturing for me to pat her back, which was all new, so I did and that worked. But I wasn't too keen on patting on the back for 2 hours, for her to then fully wake 4 hours after seeking the same soothing method. I however, gave in for a while, however this did not weaken the importance of re-establishing a healthy sleeping pattern.
After tons of google searches and realizing that I was not alone, I splashed cold water on my face, rolled my sleeves up, sipped my coffee and took a breath, this momma was on a mission and I had the love, the patience, the energy and google to do it. With these tools I shortened her afternoon nap, which helped tremendously with the night time sleep. Although this wasn't the total fix.
After midnight searches, and coming across loads of information, these two sites in particular helped me a lot, Psycology Today and Baby Sleep Site. Then I got it done! My comforting became less and less and I slowly began leaving her room before she fell asleep. This worked wonders, now in 1 month she is sleeping independently again, her fears of me leaving are basically non-existent, her demeanor is drastically changed and mommy is rested and functioning.
All in all raising kids is a journey, and just when you think you got it figured out, you realize that you are still learning and that there are resources to help you along the way. You are not alone.
Comments
Post a Comment