You hear parents of newborns complaining about sleepless nights but that stage went by quite blissfully for us minus a small 2 month stretch of quick ten minute feeds. Fast forward to the 2.5 year mark and Little Monkey started waking up asking for milk. She’s 3.5 now and that pattern still continues. With me back at work these middle of the night wake up pokes are definitely not something I was ready to deal with!
I was fed up of the daily early morning wake up demanding milk ( she isn’t polite at 4 a.m. that’s for sure!!) and the crying that usually accompanied the wake up call was equally annoying. Baby Boy also shares a room with her and I needed her to be as quiet as possible during these milk guzzling sessions. Each day I’d wake up and have her peering down on me grumpily demanding “ MILK. I WANT MILK” in my face. Needless to say, this is not how (or the time!) I wanted my day to start.
Initially it only happened once or twice a week but it soon became a daily habit and after we both marched into the kitchen to grab the pre-filled bottle (I was smart and filled it before I went to bed to reduce any additional movements required while I was still semi-asleep!), she would head back into their room and sleep until the morning. I knew she wasn’t really thirsty or hungry and that this was all out of habit.
This got me thinking (out of desperation because I found it hard to go back to bed after being woken up) and I came up with a few ideas to solve our problem.
- Place a mini fridge in their room and have it stocked with pre-filled milk bottles
- Drop a 12 hour insulated cup with milk in bed with her (but she would drink it before she even fell asleep)
- Tell her to get her own from our main fridge (we live in a condo and I’m a light sleeper so I’d still be aware of her movements)
So one fine day I told her “It’s in the fridge can you get it please?” and sure enough, she went, grabbed it and went back to bed! So there you go…. For the most part she wakes up and grabs it on her own however, once a week she still NEEDS me to do this for her and refuses to get it herself.
If you are thinking of enlisting the mini fridge idea, ensure it’s a tiny one, that it’s secure and doesn’t tip over easily. I’m glad Baby Boy at a year and a half is still a good sleeper who doesn’t need demand milk during his twelve hour sleep session. Though I fear it’s only a matter of time before he develops the same habit (probably at the same time Little Monkey grows out of it, knowing my luck). I still hear her open her door and then bang it again on her way to bed but it’s easier for me to fall back asleep when I haven’t had to move my bones! Oh and yes! Of course there have been some nights when I’ve woken up to realize I slept through it all …oopps!
Do you have a night waker? How are you handling these sleep disturbances?
