Toddler Sleeping; a Rant?

'I miss you Mummy when I'm in my bed.' - Moo, 2013


The above statement was said by my two-year-old when I was putting her to bed. You see, the previous night she had slept 6:15pm-7am without waking and calling for me once. Very occasionally we have these evenings, but they are rare and to be honest, right now, it's starting to take its affect on me...

Let me start from the beginning. Once upon a time, I gave birth and was the smuggest mare going. I had heard horror stories all through my life about how bad babies were for sleeping. I am one of those disgusting people that needs a LOT of sleep (unfortunately so is my husband so you can only imagine how much gets done in our house first thing), were talking optimum nine hours. Throughout my pregnancy I would often sleep ten or eleven hours in the night and have a nap in the day also. But I was smug because at five weeks my angel of a daughter who hardly ever cried started sleeping through the night. People told me how perfect she was, how lucky I was and I just nodded along and said 'thank you, I know'.

It was not to last.

At nine months separation anxiety hit. Big time. I had just started a new job in retail management and was out of the house a lot on week days, not just at work but the travel was around forty minutes each way. This is when problems started to hit. Moo is now two years and nine months and her sleep problems seem to go from one thing to another.

Her most recent thing? Getting up in the middle of the night and popping up in our bed. She has never co-sleeped, it is not something we've ever practised or encouraged except when she has been horrifically poorly and she has slept in our bed with just me.

I am an incredibly heavy sleeper and so often don't notice when she's appeared until I've awoken for whatever reason (usually to pee) and discovered her hogging my pillow with her blonde curls and dribble. I'd be so much more inclined to do something about it upon discovery if I wasn't pregnant. Unfortunately it's teamed with her reverting back to not settling herself, also so some evenings I won't get any down time until nine, go to bed around ten and then she's in my bed by one!

This week my SPD has ramped up about ten notches on the pain scale (just in time for our holiday to Paris, yay) and I'm struggling to move around, roll over in bed even. Please somebody tell me that it gets better/easier/that there's something I can do!!

I know that toddler sleep problems are common and that I'm not alone...I personally think that this might be karma getting me back for being a snobby cow when she was born...damn it.

Clare

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Little Pink Teacup: Toddler Sleeping; a Rant?

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Toddler Sleeping; a Rant?

'I miss you Mummy when I'm in my bed.' - Moo, 2013


The above statement was said by my two-year-old when I was putting her to bed. You see, the previous night she had slept 6:15pm-7am without waking and calling for me once. Very occasionally we have these evenings, but they are rare and to be honest, right now, it's starting to take its affect on me...

Let me start from the beginning. Once upon a time, I gave birth and was the smuggest mare going. I had heard horror stories all through my life about how bad babies were for sleeping. I am one of those disgusting people that needs a LOT of sleep (unfortunately so is my husband so you can only imagine how much gets done in our house first thing), were talking optimum nine hours. Throughout my pregnancy I would often sleep ten or eleven hours in the night and have a nap in the day also. But I was smug because at five weeks my angel of a daughter who hardly ever cried started sleeping through the night. People told me how perfect she was, how lucky I was and I just nodded along and said 'thank you, I know'.

It was not to last.

At nine months separation anxiety hit. Big time. I had just started a new job in retail management and was out of the house a lot on week days, not just at work but the travel was around forty minutes each way. This is when problems started to hit. Moo is now two years and nine months and her sleep problems seem to go from one thing to another.

Her most recent thing? Getting up in the middle of the night and popping up in our bed. She has never co-sleeped, it is not something we've ever practised or encouraged except when she has been horrifically poorly and she has slept in our bed with just me.

I am an incredibly heavy sleeper and so often don't notice when she's appeared until I've awoken for whatever reason (usually to pee) and discovered her hogging my pillow with her blonde curls and dribble. I'd be so much more inclined to do something about it upon discovery if I wasn't pregnant. Unfortunately it's teamed with her reverting back to not settling herself, also so some evenings I won't get any down time until nine, go to bed around ten and then she's in my bed by one!

This week my SPD has ramped up about ten notches on the pain scale (just in time for our holiday to Paris, yay) and I'm struggling to move around, roll over in bed even. Please somebody tell me that it gets better/easier/that there's something I can do!!

I know that toddler sleep problems are common and that I'm not alone...I personally think that this might be karma getting me back for being a snobby cow when she was born...damn it.

Clare

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3 Comments:

At 26 June 2013 at 22:14 , Blogger Lauren - Scrapbook Blog said...

I cant tell you with any great aplomb that it will get better, as I am right at the start of the journey but I hope that it does! Perhaps when little-man arrives she will relish being the 'big sister' that has to sleep the 'big girls bed' or similar... a bit of mind trickey perhaps?
I hope my little one takes after yours and is sleeping through at 5 weeks! we had two nights in a row of unbroken 6 hours, but now it's more like 4 hours... ce la vie!

Hope you are enjoying Paris!

 
At 26 June 2013 at 22:17 , Blogger Lauren - Scrapbook Blog said...

OH and i've read about the 'grow clock' as a method of teaching tiddlywinks to stay in bed till the right time! maybe investigate?

 
At 29 June 2013 at 12:33 , Blogger Unknown said...

She was a very lazy baby, she hardly cried, you'd barely know she was there, and just really loved sleep. We still sleeps around thirteen hours at night now though as mentioned above not without waking usually.
Yes, I've heard great things about the gro clock although this week on holiday her sleeping was fantastic and last night she slept through without waking me so husband and I have agreed that we'll see how this week goes and if it goes to the dogs we'll invest.

 

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