#3

Marc Weissbluth, M.D., © 5/24/10

Night Wakings

2 years 3months

Two children

Father works from home; Mother is mostly stay-at-home who freelances

Full-time help

No Disagreements

4/23: Mother: My 2 year old son is a notorious problem sleeper. His issue is night wakings. Once he wakes up in the night he rarely, if ever, is able to put himself back to sleep. He's been this way since he was about 9 months old. He was doing pretty well at sleeping through the night (but with the 5 am wake-ups) until his baby brother was born 7 months ago. Then we had about 2 months of 3 am wakeups that finally abated. Now for seemingly no particular reason, the night wakings have started again. At this point, when we try crying it out he doesn't stop crying-he has cried steadily for an hour with no sign of letting up. And in fact the cries get louder and he gets more hysterical and upset as time goes on. Only Daddy can calm him down but even when my husband is able to get him back to sleep, he will wake up super early and does not "make up" for that lost hour or so of sleep in the night. His sleep deprivation has often affected his otherwise sunny disposition. Several of my friends have said to me "He is always smiling," but they don't typically see him at the end of the day when he is exhausted. But when he hasn't slept well or late enough, by around 4 pm he starts to get clingy, whiny and anxious to go home whether he is with me or his nanny. Also he is shyer and more fearful when he's exhausted as well as less social. I am beyond sleep deprived! For over two years I've been struggling with him not being a great sleeper, in spite of repeated Cry It Out efforts, his internal clock seems to be set somewhere between 4:30 and 5 am. He also goes through stages where night wakings are an issue. In addition to 2 year old, I have a 7 month old son, who although he is a much better sleeper already than his big brother, it still adds to the exhaustion level. There are some days where I literally do not know how I am going to make it through the day. As an individual it's impacted me in every way, I hardly ever have the time or energy to engage in activities I used to enjoy and even going out to dinner with my husband feels like it would cut into my forced early bedtime. It's extremely depressing as I feel trapped by a ridiculously early adult bedtime in order to get any rest at all.

Father: His sleep deprivation has impacted his disposition. He becomes more moody in almost a bipolar way-one minute he's happy and the next he's crying inconsolably. The more tired he is the more intense his mood swings and the more frequent and severe. Attending to him during the night and getting up earlier in the morning affects me greatly. I'm crankier, moodier and more worn out.

Weissbluth Method Infant Nap App.