BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Sleeping For Toddlers => Topic started by: GG on March 29, 2006, 14:25:15 pm
-
I am SO so so tired! Just had to start this off with that because I felt like crying this morning. I know I'm not getting enough sleep and today was too much - it doesn't help that I'm in my 3rd trimester. But enough about me... ;)
DS dropped his second nap at 12 mo. Normally he would sleep very well but he just decided to not sleep in the afternoon. With an early first nap, he ends up going an average of 6 hours w/o a nap before bedtime and I can tell he's very tired. I've moved his bedtime to 6:30 pm to accomodate but I don't want to put him down earlier than that. Even though he doesn't take the nap, I continue to put him in his dark room at the same time for about 45 min. I figured it may be a phase and he may want to take a nap anyway. No such luck.
He has been waking earlier and earlier - used to sleep until 7-7:30 am, lately it's gotten to 6:30 am average. Today was the first time ever he woke up at 5:15 am and I want to make sure I nip this now before he makes it a habit. I kept him in his crib and even tried to get him back to sleep but he was definitely (still) ready to start his day by the time 6 am rolled about. (It doesn't help that it gets lighter earlier, so it's harder to convince him that it's nighttime.)
What do I do today? Do I try to get him to nap earlier in the morning so that he's willing to take an afternoon nap? If I let him sleep earlier tonight (as I read in some of the other posts), what if he wakes up early again tomorrow? I don't want his sleep schedule to shift.
I know many of you have been through this and any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
-
Hi Georgia,
I really feel for you - I've had a LOT of experience with the early wakings. Carys was doing the same thing for a while - waking up around 5:15am or so. She had already gone down to one nap at that point too, and was taking it too early in the day (around 10:30am).
When she started waking that early to start the day, I had her take 2 naps again. The first one was usually pretty early - 8:30 or 9am, and the second one in early afternoon. However, doing the 2 naps didn't really help the early wakings. So we decided to go back to 1 nap - but at midday - and put her to bed earlier. She is now back to waking up between 6 and 7am (her usual wake time) and taking a long nap finally (1 hr, 40 min to 2 hrs). I'm not sure if it was because of what we did, or because she just was passing through a phase. I think she may have been waking early because her body knew that she'd get to sleep again in the morning, but then she would get overtired by bedtime. Her naptime is now around 12pm, and her bedtime is at 7pm.
Good luck!
-
You poor thing! It's so tough not getting much sleep especially when you are that far along. What time is your lo's nap? Usually you want no more than 4.5 hours between nap w/u and bedtime. My dd routinely wakes up at 5-5:30 but I always put her down for her nap around 12:30--any earlier she is so overtired by bedtime she's awake half the night.
One of the sleep books I read suggested that the optimal naptime is at the midpoint in night sleep ie. if lo sleeps 12 hours at night from 7 to 7 the midpoint is after 6 hours or at 1 o'clock so that should be the time during the day lo should start the nap.
-
From what I'm reading, this is his approximate schedule -
6:30am - wake
am - nap
pm - no nap but quiet time?
6:30pm - bedtime
How long is his am nap? If you want to try to fit in two naps, his am nap may need to be shortened to make time in the pm for another nap. You may also try moving his nap back in one leap to 12:00pm or so - but that may backfire and lead to an overtired lo who then won't nap well. You may also try moving his nap back in 15 minute increments to make it later in the day so he has less time between nap and bedtime - that would help with the overtired lo problems in moving the nap in one leap.
Also, an earlier bedtime may help. I know you wrote that you don't want to put him down before 6:30pm but if you do, even 15-30 minutes earlier, it may help with the early wakings, which then will allow you to work on rescheduling his nap, which would then eventually lead back to a later bedtime. Make sense?
Good luck - hopefully something in this will help!
-
Thanks for your replies! Like Melanie mentioned about Carys, Foti took his first nap today around 8:45 am. He was a grouch up until that time and fell fast asleep. He woke up at 10 am, though, so he's definitely ready for another nap. He's been grouchy for over an hour but the kid just wants to play!
His normal schedule is:
6:45 am (average) : wake up
10-11:30 am : nap (I know I need to move this to 12-2 pm; I figured I would try it slower rather than faster)
4-5 pm : wind down and 'quiet' time (though he's fussing and crying to get out of the crib)
6:30-7 pm : bedtime
He used to sleep 12 hour at night, with maybe 1 short wake period anytime between 2:30-4:30 am, at which point I would give him some milk and he'd fall back asleep (considering he eats dinner around 5:30 am, I figured it was fair enough to give him something to fill his tummy and it would satisfy him til after 7 am).
I know he still has teeth coming out and he is going through milestones galore, so I can sympathize. I just want to make sure he doesn't make pre-6 am wakings the norm. I know that we "Spring Ahead" this weekend, so that would help with *that* problem, but I was really looking forward to getting up after 7:30 am until the Fall (I know... selfish but that was his norm before so I figure it's not a crazy thing to look forward to).
Anyway, I'm reading more of the threads on here and have gotten some ideas. I'm also looking through the BWSAYP and BW Toddler books but I need more time to read them, so this forum will help more in the short term. I'll just see how tomorrow goes. In the meantime, I need to make sure I'm asleep by 10 pm tonight, just in case. :P