Serious sleep issues! I'm at my wit's end!!!

√v^√v^√♥ - posted on 06/03/2011

Yeah you need to change what triggers him to fall asleep and help him self soothe on his own. He just has to be taught but it is hard when he is mobile and that old :( you should have started a lot sooner.....

Try looking up self soothing methods. There are a lot of different ones and you have to find one that you can resonate with. I did a safe cry it out but a lot of moms think it's evil. It worked for my MIL 20 years ago and worked in 2 days on my 6 month old. He didn't have to be rocked to sleep anymore, so I don't care what people say it is a life saver. But it is more of the 'on your own' way.

With our son, I got muscle spasms and couldn't rock him anymore so one night (he started waking in the middle of the night for like an hour it was aweful) I decided to try the crying method. He was safe, crib, bumpers, fed, warm.. all the needs taken care of.. but wanted to be up play and grumpy. I let him cry for 20 minutes until he got hystarical (I don't think that's healthy) and they say not to pick them up but he wouldn't calm down any other way so I did and cuddled him for a few. He never quieted completely but he'd get to a point where he'd be quite for a second and then start to cry again.. I figured this was as calm as he was getting and me holding him wasn't helping anymore because he was starting to act back up so I put him in his crib again. It took another 15 minutes of crying (muuuuuuuch less stressful though, he wasn't really really upset anymore) then he played in his crib with a lone cry here and there for 5 minutes, then played quietly for 20 then was out. I only did this once, but followed up on leaving him on the floor when he was upset and needing a nap and letting him cry for 20 minutes and he'll put himself to sleep. They just have to get over the initial upset and quit being used to crying in order for you to help them sleep is all. Now my son gets kind of grumpy around nap times, buries his face in his blanket on the floor, rolls around for a minute and passes out. So it really has been our life saver

My MIL had to train my boyfriend when he was about your sons age and since he could walk she said she closed the door on him after she put him in bed. She said at that age you let them cry for a while and throw a tantrum but go back in the bedroom every 15 to 10 minutes to put them back in bed.. and just keep going back in until they fall asleep. She said donig this at that age took a week, about an hour eat night? But as the week continued, he would fall asleep sooner and then finally didn't need to go through the process anymore.

So, whatever works for you. Binkies, blankets, whatever you can do to re-accociate sleeping times with your little one is what works.

Also, your son shouldn't be sleeping so much. 14 hours? My gosh. That's a lot. I'd start a routine where you wake him up at 6 am and then in 4 hours go down for a nap. Make the naps shorter like 30 minutes or don't let him nap at all if it affects his night time sleep. My son is always down at 10pm and up at 6am. If I don't wake him up at 6 he doesn't nap and is horrible all day long. Grumpy and all, then he ends up passing out at 8pm at night and sleeping longer overall at night but it doesn't help his daytime attitude lol lots of fun eh

Janel - posted on 06/03/2011

I would find a nutritionist to evaluate his diet. If he's very restless I would imagine he's in need of B vitamins. But he might be alergic to something and just uncomforatble.

Becky - posted on 06/03/2011

do you have a sleep schedule for him? same time for naps and bedtime? It helps with my boys

Karli - posted on 06/03/2011

I can recommend a really good book, called healthy sleep Habits, Healthy babies by Marc Weissbluth. It solved some of the sleep issues I was having. A really really good book.