Okay, back to the story. I've mentioned before that Eva was 9 months old before she started sleeping through the night. That was way longer than what people told me it would be before she'd sleep all night. Even since then, she has slept great, with the occasional mishap. The only problem is that she wakes up at the crack of dawn every day. If she sleeps til 6:45 that's really great. More frequently she is up around 6:15ish. I am so not a morning person. It takes me until at least 7:00 before I start to feel like I can interact with Eva.
Well, for the last week or two, she has been waking up in the night, having a hard time going to sleep, and waking up at 5am. I don't know what's going on with her. She is teething right now... all four "I" teeth are coming in at the same time. Could that be the problem? I don't know. She has also told me "Eba so scared," when I go in during the night. Sometimes she acts scared, but sometimes she doesn't. Is she having bad dreams? I can't tell. She only can tell me that she is scared, but can't tell what she is afraid of.
Does anyone have any clues what to do? Last night she was up from 11:00 until around 12:30 and then woke up again at 4:55 this morning and only went back to sleep when Ryan rocked her in the living room at 6:30 this morning. We had the same kind of night on Friday and she is wearing us out. I tried sleeping with her, but that was completely useless. Neither of us got any sleep. She has never slept with us... even as a baby, she just wouldn't. I tried a few times out of desperation. The moment I get in bed with her she turns into chatty Kathy... no matter what time of the night it is. We've also tried sleeping in the big girl bed and in the baby bed. She has a lovey and we even got her a new animal that we let her pick out. I'll tell more about that on another day. We have also tried a night light and we covered up the tiny light on the monitor that casts shadows on the wall.
Please help!
Suggestions will be taken starting now... Thanks!
6 comments:
Poor baby. It probably is the teeth. Here's a suggestion from someone with no experience but will probably be calling you in the next year regarding the same issue: 1)Have you tried a reward system for sleeping through the night?? (Like she gets to put a sticker on a fun little picture or something) and when she has like 3 stickes, she and daddy can go get donuts while mommy sleeps a little more.
I have no clue, but I'm sure if everyone that reads this post starts saying a quick little prayer each night, that she'll snap out of it!!! I'll remember to do that for you tonight since tomorrow is Saturday!!! :)
Been through the same thing Haley, with all three of the girls. It is completely normal for a two year old to begin having fears about things, their little imaginations are really beginning to roll. Teething could be what is initially waking her up and then she can't go back to sleep. The only advice I can give you is DO NOT stick her in bed with you if you have never done it before because if she gets used to it you will never get her out (Madison was almost 4 before I got her completely out of our bed). With my girls I just kept reassuring them that they were okay and kept their bedtime routine the same and consistent. It will eventually pass and if it doesn't have a chat with the pediatrician.
I hadn't thought about a reward system, Jill. It's worth a shot. I'll keep everyone posted on how she's doing. The last two nights she has slept all night, but has still woken up a little before 5 and doesn't really go back to sleep. She'll be either asleep or just quiet for 10-30 minutes... just long enough for us to fall back asleep, and then she wakes up again.
We've given her Motrin the last 2 nights as well, I'm thinking that has helped a little.
Hey Haley! I have been there with both of my boys and both of them around age 2!! I do agree it is probably teeth! Those 2 year molars are terrible! Jaxson had a huge problem with fear and bad dreams. We would just quote scripture and we would pray like crazy with him, and it always seemed to help calm his fears. To this day he will still have a bad dream every once in a while and he will scream for us to come into his room and pray with him.
I also had an issue with Jax around 2 years with him getting up at 6 in the morning. I know some mommy's are morning people, but I don't do so well in the mornings! We put a clock in his room, and taught him what the numbers were. Then I made a pretty picture and drew the clock with the numbers, 07:00. We told him that he had to wait to get out of his room till the numbers matched up. I would put lots of books for him to read by his bed, so that if he woke up early he could entertain himself until the clock read 07:00.
We also did a reward system, that if he could play nicely in his room and read books till 7:00, he could get a treat!!
Here are some verses we memorized and said a lot!
"The one who watches over you will not sleep." Ps. 121:3 NLT
We tell our boys that God never sleeps because He is always watching over us and always protecting us. We tell them that we can go to sleep and get rest to play for the next day, because our God is watching over us!
"I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me." Ps 23:4 NLT
You guys are doing such a great job with precious Eva! We will be praying for you guys and sweet Eva! This too will pass! Love you guys!!!!
Those are all good ideas. I'm sure we will be dealing with the same thing shortly because we are always a couple months behind y'all in all the issues! I'll be praying for rest for your family (and Eva not to be scared).
Just stick her out in the backyard one night, and then you can tell her how lucky she is the next night that she gets to stay inside.
Should work.
Let me know how that turns out!
At least I married someone w/ a Child Dev degree.
Seriously, though, we've been through it too... I'll give Ryan a call to chat about it all.
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