17 Month Old That Does Not Sleep Well and Mom with Fatigue??

you could be suffering from adrenal fatigue. Look it up online.

Helps for it:

b complex liquid drops under the tounge every morning.
b-5 caps
vit c
liquid Licorice in some milk 2-3 times a day
Lugols iodine 3-4 drops in a cup of water daily.
No man made oils, only use olive oil.
Stop all coffee, soda and tea (the caffiene will deplete adrenals even more)
TRY TO GET TO BED BY 10- THE BEST SLEEP TIME IS BETWEEN 10PM-AND 1AM

I think that you need to make a commited effort to get your child in his own room. This may be hard at first but the payoff will be huge.

CIO for your child. It's way past time.

Ferberize him pronto and get some sleep.

I agree with the other two about getting the child to sleep in his own room. He is in control now and recognizes that if cries enough that you will come get him. It is difficult especially since you have recently stopped breastfeeding too, so I'm sure your hormones are all over the place. I would also recommend a good multi-vitamin that will help you too.

My daughter is a horrible sleeper but some things that work for us: Vicks makes a nighttime vapor insert that is lavender and vanilla that promotes sleep, quiet time before bed with a book or two, warm milk a half hour before bed, white noise (we run a small fan at night), and a teddy bear backpack that I put a travel alarm clock in to tick at night so she can hear a "heart beat".

For the fatigue I would suggest plenty of water and B12 vitamins. Try to stay away from a lot of caffeine, it can make it worse.

Good luck!

Wow, hearing your story is like hearing my own. We were able to get out guy to sleep through the night at 9 weeks, but he was a horrible napper, and so I was not getting the rest I needed to recover from the PPD which was ultimately sleep related. We eventually hired a sleep consultant who put us on the road to awesome naps too. She did wonders with our little guy, and we were able to do it all through e-mail. It did require a few sessions of hearing our little guy cry, but now he goes down quickly and quietly without a fight and did I mention that he's an awesome sleeper? Feel free to check out her website: www.familysleep.com

# 1 is he has to go to his crib in his own room . You are waking to stirrings and noises ..He will cry even loudly for awhile but will settle down if you don`t go in to pick him up.His naps are to be taken there also as this will reinforce that this is his room ..set times for bed time . bath and play with you should be all finnished by this time ..the consitant time will also signal his body that it is time for bed ... even in the middle of the night .he should be checked if he wakes and resettled in his bed..sounds harsh but you may not think so when at 10 he is still in your bed

i use a sound machine which helps but every kid is different. for me, i have one daughter that will sleep the whole night if she slept with us, otherwise she wakes up a few times a night. the other one, sleeps great, but thrashes around. i think all kids are different, but maybe your son is in between my two.

maybe try a toddler bed right next to yours. that way he will still feel the security from you being right there, but hopefully wont wake up as much from thrashing into you, as my younger daughter does. and hopefully you, who probaly are a light sleeper, wont get woken up as much either. just remember to give it a few days. the breastfeeding is probaly still a challenge for him, esp in the night when he is half asleep and maybe has forgotten he no longer nurses.

just make sure to sleep whenever he sleeps, even if you have something to do. if he naps in the day, nap too!

My older son cried about an hour the first night in his crib. I knew I could never do that again. He was nearly 2 years old. Ended up lying on the floor of his room on a mat until he fell asleep for a couple weeks. For his younger brother, he told me I should sleep on the floor so he wouldn't be scared like I did for him. I was shocked he remembered. My younger son I decided I would let him cry for 10 minutes and then get him. I would call out to comfort him (started this around 6-9 months). He almost never cried more than 10 minutes (usually 2)and he is a very happy little guy. Don't get me wrong, I really can't bear to hear them cry, but I wasn't sleeping which made me a danger to everyone so we had to do it. You have to do it.

You might try having your husband stay with him all night, or respond to the night wakings, while you sleep elsewhere. This is how we transitioned my daughter away from me even while she was still nursing. Dad handled night time so that she didn't have to be with me, and I got some much needed sleep. It also helped to have my husband take her into her own room to sleep and then leave once she fell asleep, vs. trying to just force her.

He might be old enough to pick out his own sheets or something to make him want to be in his own bed. He might like those IKEA tent beds or something exciting like that. Probably too big and late for a crib. We use a mattress on the floor for our daughter.

Hope this helps!

I know this may not sound nice. But for your own sanity please let him cry... My older daugher at up to 12 months old used to wake up at least 3 times a night. I remember how horrible I felt and I happen to mention it to another mother. This was her advice to me. By 12 months old they should be sleeping off by themselves after all you need to be well to take care of them. When I received this gentle nudge I decided that night to put her down and leave the room. The first night she screamed for 30 minutes but guess what she slept through. The second night she screamed for 15 minutes by the third night all she did was to whimper. She never again woke up constantly through the night. In my opinion you've sort of become his crutch it is habit forming for him to wake up like that at that age. Unless he's not having enought to eat but think of it like this his nearly two he should be okay at night. Please keep well to keep your family well.

First of all, I would think part of your feeling bad would be your hormones readjusting. Because you just stopped breastfeeding, they're still wonky.

As far as your son sleeping, you need to get him on a sleep routine. It may take a few nights, but it will work.
1. Make sure he's resting enough during the day and that bedtime is at a reasonable hour. Babies who are overtired are harder to get to sleep.
2. Get a routine. We do bathtime, put on pjs, brush teeth, read a book, and go to bed (my son is 19 months).
3. Put him in his crib. I wouldn't leave too much light on. I don't use any with my son other than the light from the clock/sound machine. I also use a sound machine and have every night since my son started sleeping in his own room at 7 weeks.
4. If he will not settle down, don't rush back in immediately. Give it 10 minutes or so. Never let him cry more than 20 minutes before checking on him, though.
5. When you go in to soothe him, don't pick him up. Just pat his back or stroke his hair and say "It's time to go night-night/sleep/bed."

The only time I pick my son up if he cries at night(which is rare) is if he suddenly wakes up screaming, which is usually a sign he's had a nightmare or is sick.

Stick with your routine. You will have some long nights to start with, but I think you'll be rewarded with more sleep if you stay the course.

I've been there! Not only was my son waking me when he would wake but he'd also wake me up just rolling around in the bed. I decided that he was going to sleep in his crib and I was just going to have to endure the awfulness that it involved. I'm not a 'cry it out' mommy but I'm also not a weenie! My heart doesn't melt when he cries because he got a shot but I could cry along with him if a kid on the playground took his toy. When we started putting him in his crib he did cry of course. The first night I let him cry for 15 minutes before I realized that he just wasn't going to stop. I went in and rocked him just until he stopped crying and put him right back in bed. We did this a few times the first night but after about a week he'd cry when I'd put him in bed but only for a couple of minutes and he didn't sound too serious about it. What I did that I think worked was that once I decided to put him in his bed I never looked back. He didn't come back to our bed and I never took him out of his room. Once bed time came he didn't come out of his room until morning. I also didn't give him a bottle. My thought was if he realizes that he can't have anything until morning he'll put 2 and 2 together and stop crying because it's not helpful. Like I said I did go into the room to comfort him. Sometimes he'd go right back to sleep without being rocked but by being soothed in his crib. Now at 3.5 he still has a fit and says 'I don't want to go to bed!!' Usually he's asleep before I get back downstairs. On some occasions I realize the crying is different like when he had an awful ear infection and I am a little more sensitive and will rock him longer but I still don't let him in my bed. He's like an octopus with elbows instead of tentacles!!
As far as the fatigue goes depression can be sneaky I wasn't depressed either until i got back on my anti-depressants and realized I'd been a zombie. I've taken medication for over 10 years to manage my depression and if you've had no history of depression drugs might help but aren't likely to. Exorcize....even if it's just 5 minutes in the morning. Turn on the music and dance or do a few yoga positions. The other thing is your diet. When we sleep poorly we eat poorly. Add more spinach, blueberries, oats and increase your fiber intake. I stopped drinking anything sweet like soda, sweet tea, sugar in coffee. This cut out a huge amount of sugar from my diet and i began to feel better. People told me that one day my son would sleep thru the night in his own bed. At the time I really couldn't imagine that. It will stop though. Unless he's sick my son doesn't wake in the night and if he does wake he entertains himself for a few minutes and nods off again. If you start taking care of your body you'll feel MUCH better and even if he keeps waking in the night you'll have a healthy body that can deal with the stress of getting up a zillion times a night.

K.,
My now 12 yr old used to be a difficult sleeper when he was a little guy. He slept with us, too. Or should I say with me on the sofa so Dad could get some sleep and function at work. We took his crib down when he was 16 months old and moved him to a low twin bed. It helped, a little. He stayed in bed but still cried. It was easier for me to sit next to the bed (with my head on the pillow, sometimes) and he would sleep in his bed. We started with naptime and progressed to bedtime after a few weeks.

Naptime was a huge relief for me because both of us were able to get much needed sleep. With sleep I could focus on my little guy's needs. His personality was very needy as a little one but he is an independent young man now.

Good luck.
~K.

Hello K.,
My heart goes out to you. I suffered from sleep deprivation after the birth of my first child and know personally how draining it can be. Everything did change for me once I did get some rest and I became a very happy and content Mom and Wife. My relationship with my husband was also suffering due to my lack of sleep - we were fighting all the time. I hired a sleep consultant to help me give my son the precious gift and skill of sleep. Once he started sleeping well, I did too. It made such a profound impact on me that I hired her again when my second was a newborn. By 10 weeks, Maddy was sleeping for a 10 hour stretch at night and napping well in the day.
I now help other families in need as I don't want anyone to go through what I did with Max. If you would like some professional help and guidance on helping your son to sleep better, I would love to help.
I subscribe to Mamapedia to reach out to Moms like you to let you know that there is help out there.
Sleep Well,
P.
www.sleepsense.net/kelowna
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