# 19 month old has NEVER slept through the night



## PreciousTreasures (Dec 18, 2007)

I'm not sure whether to be worried or not but I NEED some sleep!
My 19 month old DD (who co-sleeps and still night BFs) wakes every. single. night. at 2 and again at 5.
I woh and am pg. I MUST have some sleep. I can't take it. I'm so tired. My older dd was definitely sleeping through the night long before 19 months. But the LO has never, ever, not once, slept all night long.
My mother says it's cuz she can smell me and wakes even though she's not hungry. I don't know if that's true but I don't know why she's doing this.
Should I put her in her own bed? How can I get her to sleep all night?
She has never slept really well. Takes short naps too.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
TIA


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## _betsy_ (Jun 29, 2004)

My sleep-fighting DD didn't sleep through the night until about a month after she night weaned herself around 16.5 months. So 19 months isn't that far outside of the realm of normal to me.

I too WOH, but DD was in her own room in a crib since 6 months old. We all sleep better when she's not in the bed with us. She's a light sleeper, so everything we do wakes her, and she's twitchy, which means I can't fall asleep.

Anyways, it seems normal to me. I've heard that cruddy sleepers suddenly get better either around 18 months, or it takes until age 3.


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## mamadelbosque (Feb 6, 2007)

I'm pregnant and nursing my 23 month old DS... and he's yet to sleep through the night too. I really want to get him a twin bed so that him and DH can sleep in another room and cuddle for a few nights and he can have a 'big boy bed'... but it hasn't happend yet.


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## Biscuits & Gravy (Jul 17, 2008)

I think some kids are just wired to wake up. DS didn't STTN at all until around 16 months. He did it at grandma's when DH and I went on a vacation. He didn't do it consistently for months after that. To this day, a few weeks shy of 3, he still has nights when he wakes up. I'd say 2-3 a week. We still ask each other in the morning if he woke up or if he slept all night.


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## Peony (Nov 27, 2003)

I haven't had a child STTN at that young of an age yet. DD1 was 3 before she did, she also night nursed until then. DD2 stopped night nursing last Oct (at age 2) when my milk dried up with this pg, but she has never STTN still. I consider a good night to be when she only wakes up twice to be patted or held back to sleep. Since #3 will be here soon, we are working on DH being able to put her back to sleep instead of me. And hopefully she will snuggle with him all night instead of me as well.

Here is a great article on why many children don't sleep through the night until they are older. http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html


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## PatchChild (Sep 1, 2006)

DS finally slept through the night at 19 or 20 months,but I had to nightwean and move him to his crib for it to happen. Apparently he was totally ready for it because the transition was a piece of cake! I was shocked (and a little sad too) but the sleep is totally worth it.


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## Mommy2Haley (Oct 25, 2007)

Wow, only twice a night? That sounds heavenly to me ... but I'm not pregnant too.

DD is 22.5 months and for the FIRST TIME slept from 8pm-4:30am last night. Twas magical but she did it on her own time. She has NOT nightweaned yet.


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## greenmagick (Jun 6, 2006)

dd didnt sttn around 22 or 23 months, and it was pretty sporadic at first. DS is 17 months and is waking around 4 times a night, sometimes a lot more


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## laneysprout (Aug 5, 2006)

DD is 20 months and nightweaned and still waking up once or twice a night and needs to parented back to sleep - which can take anywhere from ten seconds to an hour, depending.

I would try night-weaning and see if that makes a difference. DD was definitely ready when we did it, it only took a night or two before she stopped asking to nurse.


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## Holiztic (Oct 10, 2005)

22 months here and still waiting!


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## Sharlla (Jul 14, 2005)

DS2 is almost 4 and he rarely sleeps through the night.


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## rzberrymom (Feb 10, 2005)

Have you tried taking her to pee when she wakes up at 2am? At around that age, my DD started becoming more reluctant to pee in her diaper (maybe just more awareness as they get older?) If I took her to the toilet at night to give her a chance to pee, she sometimes would (especially if I had the sink water running) and would then sleep much more soundly.

Only thing is, it's much more exhausting to get a child up to use the toilet than it is to nurse...

My DD kept waking once or twice even after she nightweaned--only thing that stopped the nightwaking all together is when she could get through the night with a dry diaper.


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## lurve (May 5, 2006)

26 months and waiting. though i must say at 24.5 months she definitely has started to sleep deeper


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## Yuba_River (Sep 4, 2006)

18 months here and still waking to nurse 2 or more times every night. Recently he has started sleeping for a 5 hour chunk though, which feels great.

Good luck!


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## dogmom327 (Apr 19, 2007)

DS is just now 20 months and only in the last week or so has he started sleeping through the night (more or less). He still wakes up and fusses for a few seconds but I can easily pat him back to sleep quickly. After a year and a half of waking up many times a night to nurse, comfort, etc.--I'll take this any day.


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## Mamafreya (May 13, 2004)

My youngest is 22 months and still wakes up at least twice a night. Most of the time she wakes up around 4 times but the last two nights she only woke up once.







:

Good Luck mama!


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## lexmas (Jan 9, 2007)

Yeah, 27 months and still not sleeping through the night. We stopped nursing due to some pregnancy issues I was having, so nightweaning probably isn't a solution. Sorry mama, maybe you can have someone watch your LO so you can nap?


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## Vancouver Mommy (Aug 15, 2007)

I'm 40 and still get up for a drink and a pee every night.


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## CarricksMom (Feb 15, 2007)

DS is 29 months and wakes at least 4 times. I don't mind, because it's a 5 min "drink" and he rolls over and goes back to sleep (unless he is teething), but if i were pregnant, I might feel differently!


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## riomidwife (Sep 1, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Mommy2Haley* 
Wow, only twice a night? That sounds heavenly to me ... but I'm not pregnant too.

YEP--heavenly! I can't remember what it's like to sleep for 4 hours at a time!

19 month old DS is up every 1/2-3 hours all night, averaging about 2 hour stretches till 4, then up every hour. He has not slept for longer stretches since he was 6 weeks old. He nurses 3-6 times a night, and sometimes will go back to sleep without, depending on the time, what he ate the day before, etc..


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## ani'smommy (Nov 29, 2005)

DS doesn't SSTN at 18 months -- and I am sorry to say it, but DD didn't until she was FOUR.


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## gwynthfair (Mar 17, 2006)

DD didn't sleep through the night until she learned go to sleep by herself. We finally started working on this around 18 months, and that's when she started sleeping through the night. I wish I would have worked on it sooner.


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## alpenglow (Oct 29, 2007)

I nightweaned dd at 22 months. She was sleeping in her room in a crib and would end up with me half way through the night. Nightweaning basically made her stretch of sleep a bit longer but didn't stop her waking up - she wanted my company. So, I just started bringing her into bed with me all night...and enjoyed my first ever stretches of solid 8 hours of sleep in over 2 years. Not always that way - but definitely an improvement over when she still nightnursed.


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## liliaceae (May 31, 2007)

Waking up twice a night doesn't seem so bad to me....does she take a long time to get back to sleep?

My son is 29 months and still wakes up a few times a night, but he does go right back to sleep with a cuddle. I nightweaned him at 19 months, which did help some, but he still didn't STTN.


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## brightonwoman (Mar 27, 2007)

ds is 25 months, and i think he's slept through the night twice--and not in a row!!
we've been working on night weaning and it's going pretty well (he usually makes it a 6-7hr stretch in the night, which is all i'm asking right now--i still like those morning nursing cuddles before we really wake up/get up!)
Anyway, as he's nursed less, he's waking less...as he's waking/nursing less, I've been transitioning him into his own bed(in our room) and it's working reletively well. he spends about half the night in his bed most nights...i think (sometimes i'm kinda bleary since i'm sleepy myself!)


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## crittersmum (Feb 26, 2008)

Not much help to an exhausted mama, I know, but I just read -- I think it was in _Sleepless in America_ -- that children sleeping through the night is a North American obsession. Parents in West Africa, for instance, just naturally assume their child will wake during the night until they're about 3. Sorrysorrysorry!


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## MovingMomma (Apr 28, 2004)

DD1 didn't sleep through the whole night until 3 (years, not months!). DD2 is still not at 28 months.

Remember the technical definition of STTN is 5 consecutive hrs including midnight.


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## Crystal Pegasus (Jan 24, 2008)

My son woke several times a night until about 4 years old... then a couple of times a night for the next few. Tell me about sleep deprivation!! Even now at 14 he doesn't always sleep through the night.

He also stopped having daytime naps at about 4 months old!! So, time to nap for me, or have any time to myself was very limited!

Sorry you are struggling... it's a kind of torture isn't it? I often wondered why nature ever created such a seemingly mama detrimental characteristic in babies!


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## pinksprklybarefoot (Jan 18, 2007)

DS didn't sleep through the night until a month or so ago (He'll be 2 in a week). And he still wakes up some nights.

I had to nightwean him in order to get him to sleep through the night. Being pregnant, I just couldn't get up every 2 hours to nurse him any longer without losing my mind. He was pretty upset with me at first, and it has taken almost 2 months to really get into a routine. He shares a room with his sister around 20 nights out of each month, so when he woke up I'd have to remove him from their room and hold him (but not nurse him) until he was ready to get back in his crib. It has been a long process, but I am glad that we are about done. I need to save up some sleep before the next one arrives!


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## BeingMe (Oct 25, 2006)

My dd 2.5 had terrible sleeping habits, especially while we nursed. Later to find she and I had a leaky gut / yeast issues. They of course got better when we stopped nursing (at 2, and before I realized fully her tummy troubles) because she wasn't getting foods that bothered her through my breastmilk. The major improvement was when really addressed the gut with probiotics, enzymes, diet restrictions, etc. Then recently I realized she and I are calcium deficient, and have been making a eggshell calcium supplement and we both are sleeping much better. We have been on a mag supplement for a while but it wasn't until we added the calcium that we fall asleep easier and sleep deeper.
This may not even apply but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it. You can always google calcium deficiency and toddler symptoms to see if it fits, and look at your daily intake with a food chart and see if you're getting enough.


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## sunnygir1 (Oct 8, 2007)

I, too, have heard of calcium helping sleep in adults and children.

My dd is 2 years old and we were up for a 3 hour stretch last night.

Her sleeping habits have had their ups and downs (from my perspective







) since birth. She did start sleeping frightening long nights around 5 months, 10-12 hours, but it only lasted for a matter of weeks and she has never done it again.

I moved her to her own bed around 17 months and night weaned her around 18 or 19 months. Her room is adjacent to ours, and her bed is a full mattress on the floor so I can lie with her at bedtime and sleep with her in the night if I am too tired to make it back to my own bed after her waking. I can usually just cuddle her back to sleep in a matter of minutes now that she isn't expecting to nurse. It can be difficult to fall back asleep when I move from bed to bed some nights.

Since these transitions we have definitely had some longer stretches of sleep, but she still has plenty of nights when she is up. Oh, but the handful of times she has slept through have been heavenly!







: And there have definitely been more nights with fewer wakings.

I think it is worth a try to night wean and try a separate bed/room for your lo. You can always go back if it isn't working.

For what it's worth, I think I am pregnant and I am having a lot of anxiety at the moment about having a breastfeeding, night-waking toddler on my hands at the same time. :yawning:


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## happy2bamama (Apr 29, 2006)

My DS recently turned two and JUST started sleeping through the night, so I feel your pain (although I'm not pregnant - I can't even imagine!)

We night weaned DS around 14 months and it made life a lot more bearable and night. He didn't sleep straight, but when he did wake up, I would snuggle him (we co-slept) and he'd fall back to sleep instantly. I don't know if you're interested in night weaning, but I believe that's step one for you to get some sleep.

Step two (for us), was moving DS to his own bed. We just did this recently and it was seamless. He has a twin bed that's low to the ground and he's slept in there for most of his naps, so the bed was familiar to him. I don't know that it would've gone so well had it been a brand new bed and room. But what was amazing is at the beginning of him sleeping in his own room, he still woke up a bit and I would go in there and sleep by him and I noticed how truly differently he slept in his "own" space (even though I was there). I don't know what to attribute it to - not being in bed with both DH and I, knowing that this was HIS space, the fact that he weaned fully around that same time, coincidence with development, who knows. All I know is that it is the best thing that ever happened to us. I can't believe I went two years without long stretches of sleep. At the beginning, I did miss DS's little body next to mine, but that wore off quickly when I embraced the awesomeness that is actually sleeping and having our room available!

As I look back, I really do think that weaning played a significant role in him sleeping longer. Maybe a maturity or independence thing? I don't know really.

Good luck to you


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## mamadelbosque (Feb 6, 2007)

Well. My DS didn't sleep all night last night... BUT the previous two nights he did. First time ever, and it was TWO nights in a row!! It was AWESOME!! but umm.. yeah. Last night, definetly not. :grumble:


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## mizznicole (Feb 13, 2007)

I would suggest DH offering your LO a sippy of water at either wakeup time. You need rest! I'm totally against AP done in a way that destroys the mommy. You're a vital part of that relationship.


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## shanniesue2 (Jul 4, 2007)

I'm 27 and the only time I've ever sttn is if I've been on some kind of pain killer due to major illness or surgery.


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## mommyofemma (Feb 22, 2009)

My DD is 15 months, and we co-sleep and BF. She still wakes up several times during the night, just to BF it seems.I guess this is her "pacifier" to go back to sleep. I hate it!!! I wish she would just sleep all through the night.We have tried putting her in her own bed, but it will only last about a hour or so before she wakes up. Maybe it is just a BF thing.I know my niece wasn't BF and she started sleeping through the night way before 15 months.


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