Sleep

A few weeks ago, after a stretch of a few hard nights with Boy A and his night terrors, we broke down and bought the Lully to help him sleep better.

At first, I was a little skeptical, because in theory, I should be able to continue to reduce the number of night terrors by adjusting his sleep schedule. But for a stretch that wasn’t the case. I was sticking with our normal nighttime routine and nothing was working.  My wife was in a Mom’s group on Facebook and another parent posted about the Lully and how it had reduced the night terrors down to 1 a week. I figured what the heck, it was not cheap, but if it helped him sleep and me too, then it was worth it.

So the first night that we got the device, I immediately charged it and got it setup but I somehow misread/misunderstood that the device had to be charged up. My bad. So, yeah, I took the Lully device and put it back downstairs and wouldn’t you know it, he had a night terror that night. The next time and since then, I was able to use the device and so far it seems to be working.

Last night, I knew before putting the boys down that Boy A was going to have a night terror. All of the typical patterns of behavior of being over exhausted were there, so last night was going to be the first true test of Lully. It took him a few minutes to get settled and 50 minutes later, I was back up ready to use the device and try to wake him slowly out of his sleep. Within 5 seconds of turning on the device, he moved his legs, 5 seconds later he was stirring around.

Well, it worked! No night terror. He was able to sleep through the night and I was able to have a good night sleep. Thanks Lully!

Read more

I am asked all the time, so when the kids do not sleep, what do you do? Luckily for us, this has been a few and far between problem. Usually, one boy will wake up and the other will sleep. Last night, was an odd night. They both woke up at 12:45am and neither wanted to go back to sleep. So what do I do when the kids do not sleep? I took them downstairs, we all had some milk, we had some soft classical music playing and we played. This last for 2 hours, but at the end of the day, even though I had less sleep than I wanted, I got to spend 2 hours with the boys.  We played, we laughed, we rocked, we laughed more, we played more and we had fun. Was it the ideal time? No, but I am grateful that I had 2 hours of uninterrupted time with them. Even if it was at 2am.

So what do you do when the do not sleep?

Read more

When your children are not sleeping through the night, it can really have a major affect on you. Recently, I even slept downstairs in the play area with one of our sons because he woke up at 11:30 again. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night.  I have noticed too, that when he does not sleep, my wife and I are usually shorter with others and do not have the patience with the other. But we are trying really hard, to instead of getting short with each other, stop, think, then respond. When you are both tired, especially when your kids are not sleeping, you have to remember that you are working together to raise your children.

I really believe that once when you think that you have figured out your children, like them not sleeping, they change it up on you and throw you off your game.

So tonight, skip the not sleeping and try something new, like actually sleeping through the night again.

 

Read more

My wife and I have been very blessed when it comes to our boys sleep patterns. For the first 3 months, they slept for 2 hours at a time, had a bottle, would sleep for 2 more hours and so forth. At our 3 month Doctor visit, I asked the Doctor how long before they would sleep through the night. He laughed and told me that we had a while. I guess a week was a while, because the following week, both boys on the same night, started sleeping 6 – 8 hours at a time. Oh, what a beautiful thing.

Then it happened.  At 10 months old, Baby A started waking up at 11:30pm on the dot every night, screaming. So what changed? Was he teething? Was he growing? He wasn’t talking and telling us what was wrong, so we were left to guess. Everyone told us to let him cry it out. Normally, that would be ok. But we live in a townhouse and the next door neighbor likes to beat on the wall when he starts crying. So, that really didn’t help the situation at all. We called our Pediatrician and asked for advice, they too said to let him cry it out, but they also suggested to give him extra food before he goes to bed. That night, we moved Baby A downstairs into our living room, setup the pack and play, put on some classical music, feed him, gave him extra food, kissed him on the head and off we went. 7:00am the next morning, I go downstairs, there he is, sitting up smiling. This goes on for 2 more weeks. A full night sleep.

Then it happened again. Now, we are at 11 months old and he started waking up at 11:30 pm. So for almost a week, every night he would wake up. What changed? He was still downstairs. He was still listening to classical music. He now had 2 more teeth to come through. So what was it? What changed? Well, before calling the Pediatrician, I did some Google searches to see if this was a common issue or not and it was – Read about it here on Baby Center . Was he hitting a milestone? He did just start to walk. There might be a few more teeth coming in. It does look like he is growing. Wait, that might be it. If he is growing, could that mean that he is waking up at 11:30pm, which is 4 hours after he last ate, which is about the time in between his bottles during the day, was he hungry? That night, I gave him 4 oz. of formula and what do you know, he slept through the night.

I am not saying that this will work for you if your child is crying. I’m not a Pediatrician, so always ask them first, which is what we did. But, so far so good. We have given him the extra formula and we are all able to sleep through the night again. Let’s just hope that this continues.

Sleep, it is a wonderful thing.

Read more