[Sazzy86]

Hi Everyone
Im posting to see if anybody could offer some advice. I have a 10 month old baby who wakes a great deal in the night and has done since she was born. I’ve always had a slight predisposition to insomnia but it never lasted very long before it went away again. However since my little girl has come along it has been horrendous.
Currently she is going through an awful patch with waking a great deal and I’m now finding it impossible to get back to sleep between wakes. This did not happen with my first baby so it’s come as a shock and huge stress trigger for me.
I’m returning to work soon as Im so anxious that this is going to still be going on. I don’t know what to tackle first; my sleep or hers as I’m so exhausted it’s very hard to know where to start.
Has anybody experienced similar or can offer any insight?
Thanks

[Martin Reed]

That sounds really difficult.

Our daughter’s sleep got progressively worse from about six months of age. By this time, it was taking at least two or three hours for her to fall asleep at night, and she woke frequently during the night.

My wife and I found the book The Happy Sleeper by Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright to be extremely helpful.

One method suggested by the authors is to allow your baby five minutes of crying time before you enter the room. When you enter the room, you do so for only a few seconds so your baby knows he or she isn’t alone. You are told not to physically comfort your baby, but instead, to say something like, “It’s time for sleep. Mommy and daddy are just outside. We love you. Goodnight!” The idea is to allow your baby time to self-soothe (something frequent interruptions can prevent).

For us, the first night of “sleep training” was the hardest. It took over two hours for our daughter to finally fall asleep (with one of us going into the room to reassure her every five minutes). She then woke shortly after midnight and took about two hours to fall back to sleep (again, with one of us entering the room for reassurance every five minutes).

The second night was much easier. Our daughter fell asleep in half the time and was awake for only a couple of hours during the night. By the third night, she was falling asleep by herself within about an hour and spent about the same amount of time awake during the night. The improvements continued at a rapid pace.

By the end of the first week, she was falling asleep within about half an hour and was spending about that much time awake at night. After the first week, we only had to enter the room to verbally comfort our daughter once or twice each night.

The speed of the improvement in our daughter’s sleep was remarkable. Yes, the first night was extremely difficult — but things got better.

As for tackling your own sleep issues as a parent, you might find something useful in Cindy’s experience with postpartum insomnia.

I hope there’s something useful here and I wish you all the best.

—

If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Chee2308]

Parents are an extremely easy target for insomnia. If you have a fussy baby in your house, of course everyone in that household will have trouble sleeping! There’s no way around that so you need to be mentally prepared for it.

Other than that, Martin is gracious enough to share some very good suggestions on how to train your baby to sleep with minimum fuss. But ultimately, parenting is one in a lifetime joyful experience and I’m sure years from now when you reminisce on this, you would be far more grateful to have had that parenting experience than to catch just a couple more hours of ZZZ each night. Congratulations on being a new parent and good luck!

[chicca001]

Hi Sazzy,

i don’t really have any advice but you are not alone, I am going through the same thing, I have a 12 months old and I had a predisposition to insomnia already but it never was a big deal in the past. Now since my son was 5-6 months old it had become an issue, started from his wakings and now perpetuating with my anxiety.

[Author]

Posts