Ava is still not sleeping through the night. Since the end of December until now she has been waking up 2 or more times a night. During some of this time she was sick and teething, so we thought that was the problem. Now we are in March and her sleep has not improved. It has been rough because I'm exhausted and I don't know what to do to help her. We've tried several techniques, but nothing seemed to be working. This week we are trying a new approach...Soy Milk.
I was reading in a book last weekend and it addressed the issue of toddlers having a difficult time sleeping. I read about cow milk intolerance and then it dawned on me that the time she started having a difficult time sleeping did coincide with the time she started drinking milk...HMMMM?? We then decided to switch Ava to soy milk for a month and see what happens.
We started the experiment on Monday. We were nervous about her not liking soy milk, but we have no problem there. We think she might even prefer it. Rich also brought home some soy and rice yogurt and we are going to get some soy cheese this weekend. Ava tried the soy yogurt today and loved it! We will see about the cheese...it sounds kind of funky to me.
So, far her sleeping has improved. Out of the last 4 nights she slept through 2 of them...YEAH!!! However, one of the non-sleeping nights turned into my nightmare because she was awake from 1-4am and then woke back up around 6am. I pretty much didn't sleep that entire night. I don't won't to complain too much because Ava sleeping through 2 nights in one week is AWESOME and feels like a little bit of a miracle. We will see how the rest of the month goes, but I'm hoping we figured out the problem and will all soon be enjoying a full nights sleep.
4 comments:
Oh, the joys of getting our kids to sleep!! You may have already read this book, but it really helped me with Claire. It's called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth.
Good luck. I really hope you start to get more sleep. Ezra isn't even that bad of a sleeper, but I feel tired most of the time. I can't even imagine how you are functioning.
Oh, the joys of Soy! Soy cheese is pretty gross. I just give Parker (and Zoie) tofu to snack on. She might do better with goat cheese. Parker won't eat it anymore but she does better with it than cheese from cow milk. With Parker my biggest soy milk concerns were finding a variety that had the highest fat possible and the lowest sugar. We buy the plain Silk and if we can find it the one for brain and bone enhancement. If you are not worried about nut allergies you could also try almond milk. I hope that is helpful.
Good luck. Enjoy what sleep you can get.
Matthew has a milk allergy. It's not bad though because there are so many good soy options. I hope it helps with her sleeping woes!
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