# Horrible nights with 19 month old



## htovjm (Nov 9, 2011)

A little history: I have 3 boys, ages 5, 3, & 1. So, I haven't really slept for 6+ years. Every time my child gets to be about 15 months old, I night wean them and have had them sleep very well with an occasional assurance from me in the night (we cosleep). I've promptly been pregnant with another and started waking up for bathroom visits etc.

For the first time, I am not expecting a new child and I blissfully anticipated the beautiful sleep I was going to get after night weaning DS3. I guess that's where I made a mistake...having an expectation.

I tried to nightwean DS3 at 15 months and it was a disaster. He would have nothing of it. He was very accustomed to waking me up many, many times a night. So he just screamed...all night. I can not get any rest whatsoever during the day with my other children around, so I gave up and decided to wait. Nursing was better than screaming. 

At 18 months, I revisited the idea because his night nursing was really starting to take a toll on me. No more nursing until morning light. Well, the screaming started up again. Starting at 1AM and going until 6AM when I would allow him to nurse. This went on for several weeks, with a few "good" nights, but mostly no sleep for me. On a few nights, I tried going back to nursing. But he would nurse constantly starting at about 3AM until we got up for the morning.

I concluded that maybe for this child, it's very confusing to be allowed to nurse at some time during the night (in the morning) and not other times. So 3 days ago, I put on a sports bra. By the way, this whole time I've been explaining every to him. Talking very clearly in language he can understand. So I told him, when "nummies" is in bed, nummies is sleeping. Something magical happened. He just slept without bothering me at all, until 4:30AM on the dot (it's still dark outside!). But then he just screamed every 10 minutes (going in and out of sleep) until I got out of bed. I've just finished the third night of this exact same thing happening all three nights.

This is not working. It's taking it's toll on me significantly during the day. I am not a good mom with this little sleep. And I can barely cope during the day.

Also, I find it strange that he seems to function with what seems to be very little sleep. He takes maybe a 2 hour nap during the day. But he doesn't want to go to bed until about 9 or 9:30 at night. I rarely get an evening with my husband because I end up going to sleep with DS3. 

He also nurses a lot during the day (anytime he sees me sitting down) and eats every meal with us.

I don't know what I'm asking for. Doesn't anyone have the magic wand to change this child into a child who SLEEPS!?


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## ModernTomSawyersMom (Jun 29, 2017)

This probably won't help in your situation, but who knows, maybe? Have you tried having him sleep in his older brother's room. I moved my 18-month-old to a bed right next to his older brother's and he loved it. He felt like such a big boy. For a while, I would lay on the floor next to him until I knew for sure he was asleep before leaving. I don't have to do that anymore now. 

Just an idea. Good luck.


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## katelove (Apr 28, 2009)

I have not tried this personally but all my friends who have nightweaned young toddlers have done it by dad taking over the nighttime parenting. If they think it's likely to be hard then they would often wait until dad was on holidays so he could have a sleep during the day if he was up a lot at night. 


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## KarenLove (Nov 14, 2017)

I don't usually post much, but tonight I went to town! I nurse my baby and had her in bed at night with me, but we started needing her to sleep in her crib. Mostly to keep me and my husbands sanity! It's been really tough, we would give in everytime. But then I found this app and have used it only 3 times, the progress is amazing. Each time we put her to bed it get's easier for her to fall asleep, it's WORKING LIKE A CHARM! The app is called "Sleep in You Own Bed, Baby" in the Google Store. I just wish I new of this 3 months ago!


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