How to get your 19-month-old to sleep through the night
Awright, everybody knows that Isaac is pretty much the suckiest nighttime sleeper in the history of babies. Believe it or not, this week has taken the cake. Our young man has awakened in the middle of each night with the intent to PAR-TAY, and stayed awake in that vein for anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Tuesday night he was even so bold as to shake the wall of his crib and, completely without fussing, holler "OUT! OUT! OUT!" When that didn't get anyone's attention, he stopped for a moment to think, then changed his refrain to "MILKY? MILKY?" (because he knows if he asks for milky that I will think he's hungry and take him out of the crib for a big bottle of warm milk). When he was done with his "milky", he had the audacity to exclaim "All done!" while handing his empty bottle to me, who was doing her best to hold him and rock him so soothingly. What-EVER.
In related news, we have been wrestling with the notion of getting Isaac a toddler bed since we moved. Clearly we have another tenant lined up for a crib before too long, and we knew he should move on up to a big boy bed eventually. But Isaac is still too shrimpy, or just too dazed in the middle of the night, to escape his crib -- hence the wrestling. Should we stick with him sleeping in his crib, since he's safe there, or should we go ahead and give him the upgrade?
Two days ago I noticed another blogger pondering the same issue. Most commenters agreed that switching the soon-to-be-older-sib to a toddler bed could be put off for a long time, since their newbie baby brothers and sisters are not too particular about where they sleep (in a bassinet, in a cosleeper, in a mommy & daddy bed). It was noted in several instances that the commenters' toddlers would be staying put in their cribs, as "he sleeps so well there", and "why mess with a good thing?"
Oh, did that strike a nerve with this mama. Our "thing" is totally not "good". Does "he sleep so well" in his crib? For three hours at a time, yes. For the whole night? Very, very, VERY rarely. So let's DO mess it all up, shall we?
Completely neglecting our responsibilities as baby-scientists to conduct simple, controlled experiments, Dada and I decided after Tuesday night's debacle that we would do two things at the same time.
1) Cut back on Isaac's daytime nap. While a highly troubled night-sleeper, Isaac is a proficient napper. Most days of the week, he takes these indulgent three-hour naps that are complete heaven for his pregnant mommy. When Dadaw was here to observe Isaac's deviant night-sleeping, he recalled that, when Dada was Isaac's age, the naps had to be done away with altogether in order for Dada to sleep at night. Wanting to preserve a teeny nap for my tired, preggo self, Dada and I decided the magic number for Isaac is between 1.5 and 2 hours. If Isaac was still sleeping after this mark had passed then he would be gently but firmly awakened. I must say that this is simply a horror for me -- as the famous Emerson quote goes, "There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep." Who in their right mind wants to disturb a sleeping angel? And then there is Isaac's extreme hostility towards waking up, which I hate to say he inherited from me. But in the name of Almighty Night Sleep, I have done it for the past two days anyway.
2) Buy Isaac a toddler bed. Dada disassembled the crib and put it in U.B.'s room, and Isaac watched as Dada put the new bed together. It was all mildly entertaining until I put the mattress on the bed, and suddenly a light went off in Isaac's little noggin. You could literally see the realization written all over his face: "This...is...MY...BED!!!! Righteous!" My darling child instantly hopped up (on his old mattress) in his new bed, laid down, and said "Night-night". Then, when I whipped out my camera to take a picture, my camera-shy guy, who has never professed any interest in smiling on cue, wiggles to the side of the bed and screams "CHEESE!" Here he is:
Whether it was #1 or #2 or both, something worked, and Isaac slept from 9:15 to 5:45 last night, a marked improvement over what has happened for the past month solid. Let's hope that I'm not cursing his sleep as I blog, and that our haphazard combo of sleep deprivation and newfound toddler independence works again. And again.
In related news, we have been wrestling with the notion of getting Isaac a toddler bed since we moved. Clearly we have another tenant lined up for a crib before too long, and we knew he should move on up to a big boy bed eventually. But Isaac is still too shrimpy, or just too dazed in the middle of the night, to escape his crib -- hence the wrestling. Should we stick with him sleeping in his crib, since he's safe there, or should we go ahead and give him the upgrade?
Two days ago I noticed another blogger pondering the same issue. Most commenters agreed that switching the soon-to-be-older-sib to a toddler bed could be put off for a long time, since their newbie baby brothers and sisters are not too particular about where they sleep (in a bassinet, in a cosleeper, in a mommy & daddy bed). It was noted in several instances that the commenters' toddlers would be staying put in their cribs, as "he sleeps so well there", and "why mess with a good thing?"
Oh, did that strike a nerve with this mama. Our "thing" is totally not "good". Does "he sleep so well" in his crib? For three hours at a time, yes. For the whole night? Very, very, VERY rarely. So let's DO mess it all up, shall we?
Completely neglecting our responsibilities as baby-scientists to conduct simple, controlled experiments, Dada and I decided after Tuesday night's debacle that we would do two things at the same time.
1) Cut back on Isaac's daytime nap. While a highly troubled night-sleeper, Isaac is a proficient napper. Most days of the week, he takes these indulgent three-hour naps that are complete heaven for his pregnant mommy. When Dadaw was here to observe Isaac's deviant night-sleeping, he recalled that, when Dada was Isaac's age, the naps had to be done away with altogether in order for Dada to sleep at night. Wanting to preserve a teeny nap for my tired, preggo self, Dada and I decided the magic number for Isaac is between 1.5 and 2 hours. If Isaac was still sleeping after this mark had passed then he would be gently but firmly awakened. I must say that this is simply a horror for me -- as the famous Emerson quote goes, "There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep." Who in their right mind wants to disturb a sleeping angel? And then there is Isaac's extreme hostility towards waking up, which I hate to say he inherited from me. But in the name of Almighty Night Sleep, I have done it for the past two days anyway.
2) Buy Isaac a toddler bed. Dada disassembled the crib and put it in U.B.'s room, and Isaac watched as Dada put the new bed together. It was all mildly entertaining until I put the mattress on the bed, and suddenly a light went off in Isaac's little noggin. You could literally see the realization written all over his face: "This...is...MY...BED!!!! Righteous!" My darling child instantly hopped up (on his old mattress) in his new bed, laid down, and said "Night-night". Then, when I whipped out my camera to take a picture, my camera-shy guy, who has never professed any interest in smiling on cue, wiggles to the side of the bed and screams "CHEESE!" Here he is:
Whether it was #1 or #2 or both, something worked, and Isaac slept from 9:15 to 5:45 last night, a marked improvement over what has happened for the past month solid. Let's hope that I'm not cursing his sleep as I blog, and that our haphazard combo of sleep deprivation and newfound toddler independence works again. And again.
posted by Claire at 5:30 PM
5 Comments:
hooray for a better night's sleep for ALL. . .
We are experiencing the same thing with Clayton!! This is new territory for me because Clayton was such a great sleeper from 6 mos on. Last night he decided it would be fun to get up at 1 and play and laugh for an hour!!! He only takes at the most a 2 hour nap, so I don't think he is getting too much sleep there. I'm so glad the big boy bed worked so well, perhaps I should give that a try.
Isaac looks so cute on his new bed! I have been grappling with the issue of a new toddler bed for Jack also. I am still up in the air as to what I want to do yet. Jack is a good sleeper at night and I am sooo scared to interupt that.
Good Luck with the new bed and let us know how it goes.
I'm so impressed Isaac stayed in bed all night! And what a nice bed!
Holy Smokes!!! I can't believe you made the transition. Please do keep us updated.
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