Almost 20 Months Old And You Still Don’t Sleep

I’ve been putting off writing a post about Bears sleep (or lack of) in the hope that maybe, just maybe, he might start sleeping, and I’d feel a bit of a plonker complaining he doesn’t sleep in a blog post.

But alas, he is 2 days away from turning 20 months and still waking at least once a night, but usually 2 or 3 times.

I’M TIRED.

I get through each day surviving on coffee, sometimes adrenaline, sometimes chucking Bear into soft play while I sway back and forth in the ball pit.

But those days are fading away and I’m run down. Like, really run down.

I’m currently suffering with my 4th cold in about 2 months. Each one has lasted about a week. Which means I’ve had a cold for a week, got better for a week, got ill again for a week, got better for a week. And so on.

This time I’ve got a terrible cough keeping me up at night. So the little sleep I get around Bears wake ups I’m sat coughing. Joy.

Never in my life have I had so many colds in such a short space of time. My body is tired. My brain is tired. I’m so fed up of feeling like this.

And there’s one reason I think my body is giving up. And that’s my 20 months of broken sleep.

Actually, if we are going to look at this long term I’ve had about 4 1/2 years of broken sleep. Lamb stopped sleeping through the night when he turned 1. He didn’t sleep through again until he turned 3. At which point I was 7 months pregnant and well, not sleeping through myself!

Throw in a newborn turned 20 month old who has never slept through the night and I give you someone who can count on one hand how many nights she’s slept through undisturbed, in 4 1/2 years.

*takes a moment to cough and yawn*

So when will you sleep through the night little cub?

I wish, with all of this experience with bad sleepers, I could offer you all tips and advice on how to get your kids to sleep through the night. Surely I’d be an expert by now?

But no. I have no idea.

We do a few things each night to give Bear some sort of routine and familiarity that may help with his sleep, but nothing has been totally successful.

Pillow/no pillow. Gro-bag/no gro-bag.

I’ve even resorted to trying his old Sleepyhead again.

But at this stage there is absolutely nothing that makes a difference. Nothing has jumped out at us as something that helps him sleep better.

At 20 months old Bear still needs a bottle to get back to sleep. I do my best to leave him to self settle, and he does every now and then.

But when it’s 2am, you’ve had a couple of hours sleep and all you can hear is your 1 year old crying over the baby monitor, you instinctively do the one thing that will allow you both to get a little more sleep. And for us that’s milk.

I can’t say it bothers me that much. I’m certainly used to it. His brother was exactly the same. Lamb only gave up his baby bottles when Bear arrived. We told him he would need to ‘give’ his bottles to the baby as he would be using the. And much to our surprise it worked.

But yes I know, then more I give in to his milk demands, the less likely he will sleep through the night.

I’ve often wondered if he still suffers with silent reflux. He’s no longer on ranitidine and we switched him onto soya milk a long time ago. He doesn’t really get the bubble sounds at night, so we assumed he’s grown out of it.

Now, it’s most likely habit. We all know kids are creatures of habit right?

He’s so diddy for his and age and can barely speak; he’s still my little baby in so many ways. So for that reason I’ll forgive him for a little bit longer.

If anyone has any magic tips on getting a 1 year old to sleep through the night, please feel free to share them with me.

This mummy is tired, run down and consuming way too much coffee.

~A~