Sleep? What is that?

*Warning: Long Post*

My baby little girl is almost 2 (YIKES) and still not sleeping through the night. As we have been preparing for Benjamin's arrival we have been working on this little task.

We first have to wean her off of milk in the middle of the night. Now there is a good reason that she has been used to getting milk for so long. She wasn't a good eater and we had to continue to supplement her lack of food during the day by milk when she would wake up for it. This lasted until she began eating better around 15 months. The other part is that she doesn't do this when she stays over night with our parents. She will either sleep through the night or wake and quickly go back to sleep. To be honest she isn't to bad for me when Daddy isn't home either and for the most part will sleep through the night. Daddy just wants his little angel to be happy and can't stand for her to be upset for any reason. (She knows how to play the game, I have to give her that)

So we thought this would be easy and started giving her less and less. After we got down to almost nothing we began to get discouraged because she was still waking up asking for it. Then we thought we got the answer to everything when she got sick about 3 weeks ago. We had to stop milk all together before bed and at night because it was aiding to her coughing (which led to us having to change the sheets every night). In the beginning it wasn't so hard she seemed to understand why we were doing this and would only ask for water. Once she began feeling better she slept through the night a few times and we thought we had done it!

Nope, no time to celebrate yet, she has begun waking up again and not just asking for milk but screaming for it and crying even asking for orange juice (now who gives a child OJ in the middle of the night?). At first it lasted about an hour and I kept my patience for the most part telling her no and offering water. She refused and continued crying. Poor Ben was ready to give in and I just kept telling him that we have to do this for our sake and hers. Some nights she does well and others we are ready to pull our hair out.

Lately I have been reading up on this topic and chatting with friends of children who sleep like a dream. It almost discourages me more, but I know that all children are different and that we are not the only ones who have a child who will not sleep through the night. Yet, I feel like I am failing at this part of parenting because I can't get her to follow the guidelines of society. I can only control so much of this. I can't force her to sleep all night! For now we will continue down this route of getting her to forget the milk at night and see where that leads us. I must for the sanity of having to be up with one child and not two. At least I am used to being up throughout the night and should be ready to go when Benjamin arrives. I also know what I will be doing differently on this second one. I understand why they say you learn from the first child!