Advice on Sleeping Through the Night..

I believe when Sage wakes in the night, its your company she craves. One method is to go to her when she wakes, but don't talk. Hold her for a moment, change her diaper if she needs it, even give her some water (no milk in bed, it will rot her teeth) but don't look at her very much and don't talk. Make the encounters as brief as possible. She will stop bothering to wake you if the encounters involve less attention. I almost never had to let my 2.5 year old cry. I also recommend the book "Healthy sleep habits, happy child" It gives helpful methods for sleep problems at every age (even teenagers!)
Good Luck!

K.,

You must be a very tired mama! Toddlers and not sleeping is tough. I don't have any magic bullets here, but I just want to say that you don't have to let your daughter cry it out. One thing I did is to put a sippy cup with a straw filled with water in the corner of my daughter's bed where she could reach it. Then I started showing her where it was so she could take a sip herself if she was thirsty. It did help, but took a some training on my part.

Also, it is very normal for toddlers to wake up at night. I know that doesn't help you get more sleep, but for me, it helped realizing that even if I could be a "perfect" parent, my toddler could still be waking up at night.

You are doing a great and admirable thing parenting a toddler in a small space and going to school full time!

You sound alot like me. Slightly different. Me-Single mom one bedroom apartment at the time and neighbors I didn't want to bother with screaming. So I put my daughter to bed with her bottle everynight it was a security object and worked like a charm. I too was to tired, exhausted and frustrated to do anything else and hey it worked great she was out in flash. I did switch her to water only probaly around 15mos.She would take a bottle to bed, and wake up for a "refill" 1-2times a night, I'd half awake go to the bathroom turn on the water and give her the bottle.Talk about having mommy tied around her pinky. This continued til my daughter was 2.5-3 years old. YES didn't sleep through the night nor did I til 2.5 years old. Let me tell you, they don't outgrow this and it isn't a phase it's a bad horrible habit. The longer it goes on the harder and harder it is to break. If I ever ever have anymore children I'm taking the bottle away at age1 all together. The only thing that worked was letting her cry it out, yes it sucked for 2-3 days but that's about it, I warned my neighbors what I was doing and I did it. The first night sucked the second was easier and the third wasn't to bad and then it was a forgotten thing of the past.

Now having a milk bottle in bed for 12+mos, then having a bottle with milk, juice during the day for 2.5 years, plus sippy cups and then doing strictly water at night my daughter still ended up with screwed up teeth.

At 3 years old she had 3 cavaties, and her enamel is wearing off her teeth.Thank god for a second chance with permanent teeth later in life. They look pretty and normal it's not obvious by just looking at her but she had alot of problems with her teeth. After we took care of her teeth with the dentist and took away the sippy cups and bottle she hasn't had any other problems or cavaties and she's 6 years old now.

And my daughter being obsessed with her bottle til almost 3 years old she is 6 now and still occasionally asks for one. And I look at her like she is nuts.

My advise let her cry it out, if you can't do that atleast give her water. If she won't take water start diluting her milk each night til your down to just water.

Good luck it's hard taking something away from out kids that they love so much but is so bad for them too. It's like they love candy but you won't let them eat 5 lbs. a day you set limits.

My oldest didn't sleep through the night until we moved him out of our room. I have a friend who had her babies sleep in a Pack 'n Play in the living room until they slept through the night, since she didn't have an extra bedroom to put them in.
DEFINITELY stop giving her milk at night. It'll take some time but switching to just water is enough for a lot of babies to stop waking up. If they don't have a treat to wake up to it takes away their motivation.
It will take time but it's worth it in the long run. We switched to just water a 2 months ago and I also started letting him fuss for a little while instead of jumping up as soon as I heard him. My baby still wakes up once some nights for a water refill (usually about 3 ounces), but it's better than the 3-4 times I had to get up every night when he knew he could get milk. He improved very quickly when he saw I wouldn't give in.
As long as she's healthy, there's no reason a 17-month-old NEEDS to wake up.

The book "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Teaching You to Ask the Right Questions" worked really well for us. While you are in for a few long nights of trying to break old bad habbits and really teach your little one to sleep on her own (the book does not advocate crying it out), the work pays off for years to come.
Best of luck! :)

My doctor told us to let our kids cry it out and she has three kids and they all sleep well. She told me to put our kids down while still awake too. Kids are smarter than you think and if they know you'll rescue them they'll keep doing it. My girls share a room and my oldest (3) sleeps through her cries. We share walls too and when it comes to raising my child I don't give a rats behind if my childs cry bothers them. It may take some time but she'll get better about waking during the night and crying then going back to sleep. The neighbors will need to be understanding for a bit while she adjusts. If that's what you want to do that is. If you don't like the cry it out thing then I would lay her down later. Sometimes my 13 month old won't cry at all when I lay her down around 9 instead of 7:30. I hope you find something that you are comfortable with. Maybe it's something she'll outgrow in time too. I did do the water thing with my oldest and I'm starting it with my youngest. I always have water at night and thought they should too. The problem I create was a dependency where my oldest will not go to bed without her sippy cup to suck on until she falls asleep.

Hi K.,

You might try giving her a little water instead of milk... or try giving her the bottle the first two times she's up and then rocking or give water the third... then wean her back gradually.

My son was up every two hours to nurse until he was 13 months... I finally weaned him off night nursing by rocking him instead of nursing... it took a few weeks but eventually he was sleeping till 5:00 without waking... he didn't sleep completely through the night until I weaned him completely at 15 months.

Good luck!
J.

Giver her the bottle. Get some sleep. Don't worry about it. When she is ready to sleep thorugh the night she will. The less attenting given the better. Just have the bottle ready. Maybe water rather than milk so her teeth don't rot but she will be fine.
R.

First I'd stop doing milk during the night at all. Switch to water if she's really thirsty. Our daughter didn't sleep in her crib after 5 months. She switched into her bed. She has a mattress on the floor in her room since about June and every someone has to lie down to sleep with her. It seems a lot of nights she wakes up once or twice and we're trying to stop coming to be with her when she wakes up. Hopefully she'll put herself back to sleep or else get up and come get someone. But it does seem that a lot of the parents I know with similar aged babies or younger also have a lot of nights where the child is wakes up at least occasionally. My daughter was always a good, long sleeper so I'm chalking up what's going on to all the little changes she's going through.