Saturday, February 11, 2012

Thoughts on Sleep

I started reading the book, "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Pre-schoolers." Something I really liked about the book is that the author starts out the book by saying that if the only "problem" that you and your child are having with sleep is that other people are telling you the way you do it is wrong, then you don't actually have a problem! I thought that was cool, and I definitely agree!

One of my daughter's struggles is that she seems overly sleepy some days at school, which her dad and I think might be more of a behavioral issue, as in, "Eliza it's time to clean up your toys," and Eliza's response is, "I'm sooo sleepy!"

The main thing I'm concerned about is that Eliza wakes up in the middle of the night crying in her sleep. This is REALLY sad to witness. I ask her what's wrong, and she cries that she doesn't know. I rub her back or stroke her legs, and she seems to calm down but wakes back up crying again after five minutes.

People keep telling me it's because she can't comfort herself at these times and that's why it's happening, but the wake-ups almost seem like a version of night terrors to me? Because she does not seem to be fully awake when it happens.

I think lots of times instead of crying like that she will get up and climb into bed with me, which I recently realized I'm okay with. Our issue, though, is that she lives at her dad's house too and doesn't climb into bed with him, so people tell me that I'm not being consistent and it's MY issue since apparently she doesn't do it at her dad's house... (and honestly I've told myself that too).

I'm going to try to continue to educate myself on the information that's out there, but I'm starting to feel like I will listen to other's opinions on children's sleep "must-do's," but continue to allow Eliza to come climb into bed with me if that's where she finds comfort.

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