Thursday, October 2, 2008

I Need HELP!!!

Ok, so I need some help with Brantley.  He has always been such a great sleeper.  He normally goes to bed around 8 and wakes up between 8-9 in the morning and has done this since he was 6 months old with the occasional waking up in the middle of the night, but when he did wake up, all that I would have to do is go in there, rock him for about 2min or so to comfort him and put him back in bed awake.  Great!  Well, 4 nights ago, he woke up at 5am, and was still tired, but did not want to go back to bed without me with him so after fighting this tell 6:30am, I finally did what I told myself that I would never do and put him in bed with me.  Well after that, the last 3 nights, he has been waking up at 10:30pm and and wanting me to rock him or sleep on the floor in his room!  We have tried everything to try and break him of this.  I tried talking to him (which is normally what works best for Brantley), letting him "cry it out" (He is very persistent and does not stop!  We let him cry for 20min and he was still going strong!!), getting him out of bed, rocking for a couple of min and then putting him back in bed, letting him walk around the house for a couple of min and then put him back in bed, having Justin go in there instead of me (he just continues to cry and asks for mommy), etc.  NOTHING WORKS!  He  also has been very clingy to me during the day.  When I am with him, he will not leave me my side.  He has been my little shadow.  So, does anyone have any suggestions?  I am up for anything at this point.  I don't want to bring him into my bed, but I also do not want to sleep on the floor in his room either (and I tried leaving his room after he fell asleep, and about a half hour later he would wake up and see that I was not there and start crying again)!  It is like he is afraid that I am going to leave him.  What do I do?  Has anyone else had this issue and if so what worked for you?   I NEED HELP!

5 comments:

Stephanie said...

Oh Rach I am so sorry! I wish I could give you some advise but you have already done what I do with Benjamin. The on;y thing different that I have done is that I never ever get him out of his bed because I swear the kid remembers and if I even get him out one night he with out a doubt will wake up the next night expecting me to get him out. I do the 5 min thing. I let him dry for 5 mins, go in give him water, kisses and say night night. Then lay him down he usually popps up and I leave. Then I wait 10 mins. and so the same thing then 15 and do on adding 5 mins. He hasn't made it past the 20 min one so crying a total of about an hour. I usually have to do that for about 3 nights in a row then he stops. Now that we are in our own place it is nice because about once a week when he tries to test me out I just let him cry. You can try it but I know that every kid is different and what works for Benjamin might not work for Brantley. I hope you can figure it out. Keep me updated. I am so so so sorry, I really do feel for you.

Amy said...

This happened with Alex. He would wake up in the middle of the night and would scream for us. I hate to say it but the way we got him to stop was to let him cry it out. He would scream for an hour and after about the 3rd night he realized we weren't coming. It's so hard laying in your bed listening to that but it works. Hang in there and good luck! Call me or email me about getting together!

Amanda said...

Good luck! I wish I had advice! Addi finally was out of our bed just a couple months ago (she is 4 1/2).

Lucky for us our other 2 have yet to have the desire to sleep in our bed (I'm knocking on wood right now).

Belnap Family said...

This probably isn't the advise you want to hear, but here goes. Both of my kids still go through sleeping and non-sleeping stages. They are at different ages, and last for different amounts of times, but they have both done similar things. The best thing to do is stay strong and consistent in what you are doing and just ride it out until the phase passes-and it will!! It's hard to say "just let your kid cry", because we have a VERY stubborn little girl that would cry for 4 hours and make herself throw up. So that doesn't work for us. You have to read your child and figure out what is best for his personality. Hope it gets better for you fast. Especially being pregnant, that's gotta be hard!!! good Luck

Aundrea said...

my best advice is just pick something and keep doing it don't try different things every night. most of the time it only takes the three days but every kid is so different braxton got really clingy to me when i was prago with baily i think they kinda know something big is going to change in there lives. good luck!