This has been an ongoing debate in my head. Our daughter only sleeps through the night a couple times a week, but once she turned 15 months old, I really wanted her to leave our bedroom and share with her brother. For the past four years I have been either pregnant, nursing, and/or had a baby in our room with us. And, for the past four years I have not had a single decent night of sleep. It was time. I also feel it would be beneficial to our marriage to have our room to ourselves again.
We have had some ups and downs, but one month in, I believe Operation Shared Room for the kids warrants a grade of C+. Which is technically above average. She wakes up screaming a lot for no reason I can figure out. I am thinking it is those wicked molars coming in. Just the other night I sat up at 3 am holding her in my lap for two hours while she screamed bloody murder. She isn’t thirsty or hungry. Doesn’t need a diaper change. I am not sure what is going on. It has been like this since her birth. I always say, she emerged from me screaming and never stopped. Luckily her brother sleeps like a brick and doesn’t wake up usually, but we have had some complaints from the neighbors upstairs.
We are house hunting right now, (recently made an offer and have an inspector coming!) and I am debating if they should separate into their own rooms or share for a few years. Would it make the night time screaming better or worse?
Do 16 month old children get night terrors?
Yes they do. But what you’re describing doesn’t sound like night terrors to me because you said she’s waking up. Night terrors are when the child stays asleep and doesn’t remember the next day. If she’s verbal enough, try asking her in the morning if she remembers crying at night and if she knows why she’s crying.
Hmmm. Thanks for commenting. She is not verbal enough enough to discuss it. There are times she is not even awake and tossing her head all around howling though.
My daughter is in daycare while I’m at work 5 days a week. It is a professional accredited establishment with great staff. They tell me she plays well and once I live she is fine. She has separation issues when she was 3 months old I had to stop working and stay home with her until she was 7 months old. I would leave her with my mother and she would cry from the time I left (7:30am) until a few minutes before (5:15pm) I got home. Only stopping to nap and have a bottle. She began sleeping on her own in her crib when she was about 8 months old. She didn;t like being in a room by her self so we got a portable smaller crib and put it in the rrom with us. She was sleeping through night fine until about 2 months ago. She started by tossing and turning alot. We would just pick up and soothe her and then put her back after about 30minutes- an hour. But now she just will not stop screaming. It’s weird.
I have a 2 year old girl who has trouble waking up at night screaming. When she goes to bed she refuses to get in her bed. After I get her to sleep she sleeps about 2 hours then wakes up screams every couple of hours the rest of the night. I don’t know how to help her sleep. Before this started I would tell her to get in the bed and she would. I would stay in her room til she fell asleep and she would wake up no more than once and sometimes not at all. When she would wake up I would go to her room and stay with her a few minutes until she went back to sleep. Now I have no choice but to get her out of the bed because she screams so. I have a small house and her older sisters sleep in the room too. They are 11 and 12 years and need there sleep for school. Can anyone help me? I’m at my wits end with no sleep, tired, and stressed.
Hang in there mama! It may be teething, my daughter would wake up sort of like that when she was teething except she didn’t scream for 2 hours in my lap. I hope whatever it is it gets sorted out soon! Us mamas deserve some sleep 🙂
I was bedsharing with my daughter until nearly 3. Now with my son I was like “okay eh can stay in our room but I am going to need some space.” As parents we learn from each situation and I think that we have to listen to our instincts about taking care of ourselves, too.