Alright so I am glad to find out in my research that not only is it my child that has sleeping problems but 7 out of 10 children are not getting enough sleep at night. I also found out that my son not getting enough sleep even by an hour can cause him to have temper tantrums and be crabby throughout the day says Meg Lundstorm in a WebMD feature from Redbook Magazine. She also says that giving you child just one caffeinated drink a day, weather at night or during the day, can give them half an hour less of sleep at night.
In the article "Helping Your Toddler Put Himself To Sleep", by Dr Laura Markham on AhaParenting.com, she says that some kids seem to be born naturally good sleepers and some aren't. This is totally the opposite of what Lundstorm said because she said you can change any child's sleeping habits. They both see eye to eye that children do need sleep to function mentally and emotionally throughout the day. Dr Markham says that children need a couple of hours to unwind at night because they do not just have an off switch, but who has time for a couple of hours. I am luck if I can get 30-45 of unwind time after the day is all done. All of my sources including Helping Your Toddler Put Himself To Sleep say that you should follow the exact same routine as the nights before. I am working really hard on making sure that I give him his sippy, give him a calming bath, rub with lotion, read a book, and off to bed. Some nights that gets interrupted with other things, is that bad? I also recently put up some darkening shades in his room which have seemed to help with nap time a lot. In this article it says that it is okay to give your child a little snack before bedtime to hold them through the night especially when they are growing, which for boys seems to be always!
We are working together on this whole experience of sleeping all night in his own room. It is teaching us both that we are stronger and can do it. I thought that it would be much easier but its not. I miss him sleeping in my bed with me and I know he misses it too. I just have to stick to my guns and use all of the advice and knowledge I am learning about.
Hello Alexandria,
ReplyDeleteYour comment, “We are working together on this whole experience of sleeping all night in his own room” caused me to think of when my daughter was a newborn. She had her own room and crib but many nights the only way to get her to sleep was for me to go lay on the couch with her on my chest. I think it was the sound of my heartbeat, but she would fall right asleep. I would be so tired I would do the same and before I knew it morning arrived and we both got a relatively good nights sleep. Like you it concerned me that she was not sleeping by herself.
I do not remember my son being so fussy at such a young age. However things changed when he became a toddler. We would put him in his bed and by morning he was in ours. This never caused a problem except one night when for that split second I woke up to the thought that I had wet the bed. Just a second though, and I quickly realized my son had climbed into bed with us while I was sleeping. I don’t remember them exactly but as I recall I think I came up with about three excuses to explain to my wife why I had wet the bed In that moment before I realized my son was next to me.
Fifteen years later and I take my first college anthropology class and find out that it is a cultural difference that in the western world we have infants sleep apart from parents. The western idea is to teach children to be independent from a young age. Should you choose to let your kids sleep with you don’t feel bad. I found an article on healthychild.co explaining some of the benefits of co-sleeping.
http://healthychild.com/the-benefits-of-co-sleeping
Hi Alex!
ReplyDeleteWebMD has become a favorite of mine. It always has so much stuff to look through! That's good your son is doing better at nap time, my neice had the hardest time sleeping if it wasn't pitch black. I think it is really interesting that your child can get temper tantrums by losing even 30 minutes of sleep!! It seems that the resources you are finding have a bunch of insightful information. I hope all goes well for you and your son :)