BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Sleeping For Toddlers => Topic started by: Nicole-Momtomegan on April 01, 2006, 18:31:35 pm
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so you may have read about megs nap problem...in short, we've been on 1 nap for 2 1/2 mo's and it is still 1hr 15min 90% of the time. i did W2Sleep and it helped about 60% of the time...but when i stopped her nap went back to 1hr 15 min. i've been putting her to bed at 6 or 6:30pm for about 2wks to compensate so she gets 12hr sleep. last 2 night her night sleep has been shorter.....last night only 11hrs and only a 1hr nap yesterday......SO....she was soooooooooo cranky this morning by 8:45am (up at 6am ) that i decided to put her down for a nap.....
well, its 10:30am and she's still asleeep!!(1.5hr--i'm sure she'll wake up any minute-i think i hear her now)....but what the heck?
how come she is taking a descent nap now and can't any other day at her regular time?
i'm getting annoyed when i read people's posts saying "in a few weeks their one nap will lengthen..."(no offence) but....it has NOT been the case with us. WILL it EVER get longer? or am i training her that a 1hr 15min is okay? what other options do i have to teach her to nap longer?
Please send your words of wisdom and encouragment!! thank you! You are a wonderful group of mothers, and I appreciate you!
Nicole
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What time do you normally put her down for her nap? She might be overtired by the time you put her down, which might be leading to the short naps. You might try putting her down early for a while and then increasing the time by 15 minutes every couple of days. It will take some time to get it moved to a decent time but in the meantime, maybe she'll nap better.
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Hey Sarah,
funny i was thinking the same thing today....BUT then she'd be in bed by like 5pm??? hmmmm....i'll have to think this one out..
she usually is up by 6 or 6:30am (b/c i've been putting her down at 6 or 6:30pm for bed due to short nap....and iput her down for her nap at the 6hr mark...so 12 or 12:30pm.....BUT i had tried the nap after about 5hrs...and it was still short.....
i wonder if she'd nap better if i cut her night sleep a bit...BUT...i dont' want to be up at 5:30am..i[m just not sure how to get there, perhaps the new time change will help. ie. i'm putt ing her down at 7pm tonight....which means she'll wake at 8am tomorrow ...but i could wake her at 7 or 7:30?.....
thanks for your thoughts....
Nicole
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I have no idea, Nicole. Henry was the king, and I do mean KING, of 30 minute naps until he went to one nap. Now it's unusual for his nap to be less than 2 hrs (knock on wood). It's wonderful! Maybe with the time change, if she's up by 7 or 7:30am, then naps at 12:30pm, maybe she'll nap longer which means still a 7pm bedtime. Even at that point if she naps 1 hr 15 minutes, a 7pm bedtime isn't out of the question - although I'd probably do 6:45pm rather than 7pm. I guess we'll see tomorrow.
Good luck!
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well, maybe you can help me out...here's what i'm afraid of....
lets say i get her up or she wakes at 7:30 tomorrow. and i put her down at 5hr instead of 6. ....that would be 12:30 like you said. but if she only naps until 1:45pm...she would be in bed again at 6:15pm...(4.5hrs works best for us from time of short nap)...THEN i'm back to a 6-6 schedule.....
BUT if i put her down at 1:00 or 1:30pm.....and she sleeps until 2:15-2:45pm then i can put her down at 7...and stick to a 7 to 7 schedule......
BUT (yes, there are alot of BUT"S in this:))....if i dont' try the 12:30 time i won't know if she may take a longer nap...BUT if i do and she doesn't ...then i'm forever stuck at 6-6 schedule b/c i can't move it up....here's why...... if i push it one day to 7 after a short nap....she most likely will be overtired adn only sleep until 5:30 or 6....
sigh...
i'm so confused.
OH and did i mention we leave to go home to Canada for a week tomorrow? so its all gonna be shot to hell anyway!
Nicole
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Nicole, I have been reading your posts with interest, it supported everything I had read etc for the nap transition. Harrison has benn transitioning for the last couple of months and has gradually extended the length of his nap, but he has much shorter overnight sleep(10.5 hours) than Meg.
I kind of got stuck in the early to bed, early to rise cycle and used the time change to shift his patterns. I think Meg is perhaps getting as much sleep as she needs overnight and in a shorter nap. I actually found no real correlation with overtiredness and length of nap (unless your lo won't nap when she is overtired!)
I would go with pushing betime later (marginally) and pushing the nap as late as you can. I always work backwards from bedtime, against the minimum nap length. I gradually have brought nap earlier, to preserve bedtime.
We have gone from 5.30am wake-up, nap 12.50 - 2.30, bedtime 7pm
to 6.00am wakeup (my choice to shift to 6am) nap 12.30 - 2.30 bedtime 7.30pm (asleep)
Maybe something here will give you food for thought! Good luck.
Justine
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well, i'm thinking perhaps the early bedtime has backfired....
she had 2naps yesterday so didn't get to bed until 7:45pm....and she was up at 7 (whcih is really 6am)..so that's only 10hrs sleep!!!! and i can't get her to go back, i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mad!!
uhg, what do i do now???
N.
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Maybe if she's sleeping 12 hrs at night (which I realize she didn't do last night), she doesn't need that long of a nap. Henry has always slept less than average so maybe she's the same way.
Since she transitioned to 1 nap, have you been consistent about the time you put her down? And what time is that? I always put Henry down for his nap within about 15 minutes of 12:00pm. It's rarely earlier but some days it is a little later. It doesn't matter what time he gets up, he always goes down at the same time. I also only vary his bedtime by about 15 minutes unless his nap was really bad - almost nonexistent. I've found that the constistency really helps.
I would stick with one nap at a fairly set time and an early bedtime - again within a fairly set time.
This is kind of an aside . . . . How long total were her naps yesterday? Keep in mind that you have to look at total sleep in a 24 hour period, not just overnight and not just naps. I used to calculate Henry's total daily sleep on night sleep + the next day's naps BUT that's not how he works. He does that day's nap + total night sleep. On days when he naps a lot, he's awake longer that night and tends to wake earlier the next day. On days when he doesn't nap well, he's out early and sleeps later. If she had 3 hrs of nap yesterday + 10 hrs of night sleep = 13 hrs within the last 24, which is really very reasonable.
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thanks Sarah,
see that is the problem....megan has laways slept MORE than average. until we transitioned to one nap she was taking 2 1.5hr naps and 13-14hrs at night. .....and as soon as we wen tto one nap it all went crazy. i think sh eneeds atleast 11.5-12hrs/night plus a good 2hr nap...i just can't get her to do it ....its like her clock is stuck.
i usually put her down asame time everyday within 30min.....12-12:30pm...
her naps yesterday totalled 2.5hrs.....(but only 10 last night which equals 12.5..when she usually does atleast 13.5....so iknow she is underslept) (is that a word? lol)..
n.
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I'm stumped, too, Nicole. Other than maybe moving her nap up to 11:30 for a while to see if that helps at all, I have no more ideas.
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It took us 2 -3 months to transition to 1 nap, and this is what we had to do: if your daughter does need an early morning nap, keep it short (less than 30 minutes) and early - I tried to make sure Toby was up before 9 -9.30 am if possible. Then the afternoon nap can be around 1 pm and it's not so late that it affects bedtime. We did this until he didn't want to take that early morning nap anymore, then we just had 1 nap around 11 am.ItI's gradually got later and now it's around 2 p m -though that's 1 pm now the clocks here have gone back.
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Nicole--
Funny that you say the early to bed may have backfired--as I replied to your post about solutions to early waking, I found the early to bed thing works great to help with sleep deficits but when that has been made up you may be left with early wakings and a short nap--we were!
Not sure if this helps but Margot has shown some progress in napping/night sleep (I think, I can never be sure with this dolly, lol).
Margot was stuck on a routine of 7:30-5:30 nights and nap from 12:30 to 3. Then every 2 or 3 days she would have a long nap which would in fact make things worse because she couldn't get to sleep at her usual time go to bed late and wake in the night. We started restricting her naps to waking no later in the day than 2:30 and then doing whatever it takes to get her to sleep by 7:30 including going in and standing with my hand on her if necessary. After a couple of rough days and nights she has in fact pushed her nap back to .5 hour to 1 o'clock and is sleeping between 1.5 and 2 hours and longer at night 7:30 to 6. Having said that we're definitely off kilter with the time change so we'll see where we end up!
Hmm, just noticed that this is the opposite of what worked for Justine and Harri. I think maybe what happens is that going down to one nap we try to set the nap time in relation of bedtime because we don't want the dreaded night waking but probably the interval between morning wakeup and naptime is important too--if that is too long then they're overtired and while they'll nap it won't be for as long as otherwise...although in the past an early nap didn't help with a longer sleep It's hard because we have only the one nap to work with but really 2 problems--they probably need an earlier nap to get a longer naptime but a later nap to get a longer sleep time! So maybe do this--if you think that she needs a longer night sleep shorten the interval between nap wakeup and bed to see if that helps her sleep longer. If it doesn't maybe she's getting all the sleep she needs at night and just needs a longer naptime so try moving the nap earlier to see if that gets a longer nap for you. I think at this stage it's a matter of tweaking the schedule a bit to whatever works for our lo's on an individual basis to maximize sleep--sounds weird but regardless of how the day is split up by the nap they all seem to need a nap between 17 and 18 hours after their bedtime the night before and how much of their sleep is night and daytime just depends on their own systems
Sheesh, what a long winded message for something that doesn't say much.. sorry didn't mean for this to turn into my musings on this very confusing issue. Hope there is something in there that helps!
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Just some quick toughts:
1. 12 hours in a 24 hour period is considered a "normal" amount of sleep. I beleive it is something among 11:45 to 14 the average sleep period for a toddler up to 3 years.
2. If Megan is waking happy that means she's rested. Things like teething or stomach ache (gasses) might be causing light sleep periods, hence the waking. I have found that keeping the "desired" times for schedules (that is the going down for nap, the going down for bed and the waking at am) for a 2 week period, helps a lot to see improvements even if that means that somedays the nap will be short or there will be fights for going down or overtired baby along some days. It is a rough road.
3. A tip that helped me a lot to "reach" the nap timing i wished for was introducing a strong snack when i noticed ds was grouchy instead of putting him down for the nap. He would have some extra air to hold on till nap time. Also a 5-10 min catnap in the car but that one had to be 1 hour apart from the nap at least.
Hang in there, i know it is upsetting being stuck in a row and not seeing major improvements but each kid has his/her own timings and ways. We must work hard to find them and there are no exact receipes for that. Good luck!
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I am just pondering what Imsmum said about positioning of naps, and completely agree with am positioning. After a week of our timechange, harrison is napping pretty consistently for 2 hours, whereas he had been at 1 3/4. Not much of a difference, but enough possibly to be significant, and now I am thinking it could well be due to the fact that as he is waking 30 - 40 minutes later than he was (after time change) he is sleeping 6 1/4 hours after wake-up rather than 7 hours.
Also I am now trying to be very consistent with the times.
As has been said, it can be an almost impossible juggle, and perhaps the incremental adjusting would have worked better. I have to say I didn't really try that, more or less went cold turkey.
Just a thought.
Justine
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Have been watching this thread cos dd is doing the same thing with naps. She transitioned to 1 nap at about 13 months and we had 2 hour naps up until about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Then they started to decrease and have been stuck at between an hour and an hour and 15 minutes. Nothing seems to make her sleep longer, this morning we went to the park for over an hour and it was about 30 degrees, came home and did bath etc then lunch so she was tired but still only slept 1hr 10 mins. She usually wakes up happy so I figure she doesn't actually need any more sleep as she does between 11.5 and 12 hours per night. Maybe once a week she will sleep 1.5 hours but I wont at this stage allow her to go over that as it will effect bedtime. She has about 5 and a quarter hours wake time in the morning and a bit more before bedtime.
Now my main worry at this stage is that very soon I will lose this nap altogether :-(
Fiona
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oh Fiona let's hope you're not right about loosing the naps! crossing fingers here...
anyways, ds did the same at 17 months and he seemed rested but started taking short naps. I handled them as a night waking patting shshing and sometimes using the wake to sleep. I worked for 2 weeks on this and we then got stock at 1:45 mark but i kept working cause i knew he could do better than that. After a week he popped the 4 molars at once to my surprise cause he didn't seem upset or in pain. Then he started stirring at the 1:45 mark but didn't need my presence and then i got my 2+ hour nap back (knock on wood) . I don't know if all my interventions worked out or it was the teething thing (at the time we were also handling early morning/night waking issues and they also resolved).
I hope you find some of this helpful. I think 1.5 years is too young to quit the nap. Some lo's tough make it shorter and stick to the 1 hour thing for another year or so. Just keep trying to see if she needs some help to go back where she was.
Good luck!
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Hi Floerenxia,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortuntately I could never do wake to sleep with dd as as soon as she is awake she is ready to go except in the morning when she can stay about 20 mins playing in her cot. I have never been able to do put down with her either for the same reason. So it seems we are stuck on a 1 hour 10 min nap. The other question I have is do I continue to wake her at 7.30 to stay on schedule on the mornings she doesn't wake naturally? I have been doing this as then I get a nap at 12.40 ish with 10 mins to get to sleep, awake at 2pm and bed time of 7.30 with about 10 mins to get to sleep though she seems to find it very hard to wind down at night time and chats to herself loudly (dh doesnt help here as he winds her up before bed despite daily requests not to). My fear is that if I don't wake her then her nap will go later and it will push bedtime later too and I really need her to be in bed by 7.30 pm, she is a constant chatterbox so I really need a break in the evening :-)
Fiona
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LOL i hear you on the much needed break at nights. I sometimes find myself looking at the clock for ds's bedtime :-[ too many times... ::)
By waking her in the mornings (if that's not a problem with you) i think it will be more likely she'll get longer naps. I have found in my own experience and others' that strict schedules lead lo's to have less night wakings and sleep longer, etc. so that should do good also on the nap side.
For lengthening her nap, could you walk into her room when she wakes and tell her OOPs it's still naptime, i'll lay here next to you so you go back to sleep. She might chat sometimes but you keep shushing and pretending to be asleep till the "desired" end of naptime. If you find pd/wts wind her up even more, what about quiet time? if she's a chatty girl she'll udnerstand it well, you can either be in her room or out if she lets you. If she agrees with the quiet time, she can either go back to nap or at least don't be so overtired by bedtime. It takes long but i've seen it work for some friends.
Good luck, and keep us posted to see if we can come up with something else
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Hi Florencia,
Ok lets hope I dont lose my reply this time :-[
Thanks for your reply it's great to have another perspective on it. No I have no problem waking dd at 7.30 though she is usally awake. I have already been thinking about quiet time for when it happens and occasionally do "sshh" from outside her door, it works as she stays quiet for about 10 mins then I do it again, but didnt want to get into the habit of doing it every day as thought it might develop a habit, iykwim. The other thing is as she needs 5.5 hours before bed time, this means awake from nap by 2 pm so to get 2 hours I would have to put her down at 12.00 which is only 4.5 hours in the morning which is not enough and would never give me lunch time either so I cant really see a way out of the 1hr 15 nap???? At this stage I would be afraid to let her sleep past 2pm, I did once, 20 mins over and she took a lot longer to settle. To be honest I am learning to cope with the 1 hour nap, as long as it remains, cos if it goes, I might have to too :o As for quiet time, she is way too much of a chatter box I think, the few times I went in and lay on the bed in room and said I wanted to sleep for a few minutes, she was just up chatting demanding the lights on etc etc so I have to stay out of her room.
Anyway today she is sick, first head cold in over a year so she is not coping too well so we will see how the nap goes, she has done an hour now.
Will keep you posted, thanks again and sorry for hijackijng :-[
Fiona
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Hiya! Just been reading through your posts and replies! Is your daughter around 18/19 months, I think ive worked that out right! Did you know that at 18 months they need a total of 13.5 hours sleep? If she is sleeping 12 hours at night then a 1 hr 15 minute nap in the day is nearly exactly right! My baby doesnt sleep brilliantly at night - thou touch wood the last 4 nights have been great - but if he does have a bad nights sleep he then sleeps more in the day and vice versa! Just thought id let you know, good luck! xxxx
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Well I guess it was just a very long "blip". We have now been back on track about a week, with an almost 2 hour nap from 12.30 and 12 hours sleep at night which is just brilliant and dd is very happy these days I have to say, and of course so am I ;D
They have started a construction site under her bedroom window and she is even sleeping through that, how I don't know ::)
Thanks for all the help
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Hi leahsmom, that is GREAT!!
i wish ic ould say the same. i'm at my wits end....3mo's and stilla 1hr15min nap:(....
Nicole
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Nicole--Are you still on the 6:30-12:30-6:30 schedule?
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Nicole, Fiona - Hi!
We too are in the same boat! Megan was in the hospital last month w/ pneumonia (she is better then ever now) and immediately after getting home she cut 30min from her night sleep (was 12hr, now 11.5) and her naps to 1hr30min (was 2hrs). I have tried everything for the naps, night doesn't bother me...w2S, moving nap time earlier, later, nothing works consistently.
Maybe either, they don't need as much at 18-19 mos (our girls are all about the same age) or it is a phase for this age. I was wondering this - since they say 18mos is the average age most drop the am nap and our girls did it early, then they go through some other sort of transition instead? Just a theory, doesn't help any does it???.
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Hi Michelle,
Glad to hear Megan is feeling better. You know I think it might be an age or a phase thing, we had it going on for at least 6 weeks if not longer and I was so scared the whole nap was going to go as L had dropped both her catnap and her am nap early. And she did shorter nights too during this period. I really don't know what it was but I guess consistency paid off as we are good again, for however long it lasts ;D hope things get back on track for you soon,
Fiona
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Oh yes, i see your posts now. I am all for consistency, even though she is waking early i don't let her get out of the crib until 2hr mark ;D so lets hope it pays off soon. It has been about 4wks so maybe a few more weeks and the 2hr nap will come back.
If you get time can you please look at my post "weaning off the bottle" in this board...we have an additional sleep / nap problem. txs
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HI Imsmum....
no, meg is going to bed around 7. now:)
I hope it pays off too ladies:) glad Meg is better....that is no good!
the last two days she slept 1.5hrs....so maybe we're climbing????
Nicole
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okay....this just goes on and on...
the last week she has been off and on having shorter night sleeps of 11hrs or less! what the He**??
she was aslep about 7:15-7:30 last night and up at 6:15!! argh...
i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo FET UP!!
n.
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Nicole -
Just so you know, you are not alone. Henry has decided he doesn't need to sleep, either. His naps are short to non-existent and his night sleep has gone down from 12 hrs on average to lucky if he sleeps 11. I have no idea why or what I can do about it - it just is.
Maybe they're talking to each other?? Telling each other, "Lets drive our Mamas crazy by not sleeping!"
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Nicole--Likewise with Margot except her naps are still pretty good but she has been waking at night off and on. Maybe it's too much to hope for consistency from them at his age with so much going on... ::)
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Megan slept 11hr last night too? What is a full moon? ???
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copied from my other post:
I am in tears right now....i'm just so stressed out and at my wits end. i dont' know whats going on. after the time change we were back doing 7:30-7-7:30....and now we're back to 6am wakeups..(only 10.5-11hs at night) and STILL a 1hr nap. she is overtired. IIIIIIIII AM OVERTIRED and completely fet up. it just hit me this mornign and i'm having a complete breakdown. PLEASE don't tell me she only needs 12hrs sleep a day b/c she doesn't. i know my dd and she has always needed LOTS of sleep. before this damn 1nap transition she took 2 x 1.5-2hr naps and 13-14hrs at night. its been 3 months and i just can't take it anymore. wake to sleep hasn't helped. early bedtime isn't helping.....i dont' know what to do? I need suggestions that will work!! HELP Please..
N.
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Ohh Nicole, first big hugs! I am sorry you and Megan are having such a difficult time. We are too, if true that misery likes company.
I don't know if this will help you, but i did this for a while when Megan was overtired, coming off a cold and waking at 6am! It may help you as it is nearly impossible to get through the day w/ only a 1hr nap, 6am waking and not put her down really early. Hence repeating and encourgaging this cycle (like you talked about in your posts on page 1).
Sooo, for a couple of weeks I took Megan for a drive (on my way to run errands) about 3.0-3.5hrs after she woke up. She fell asleep almost right away (so obviously tired) and I let her sleep for 20-30mins. Never any more and not much after 10am. It seemed to be just enought to take the edge off and then we went about our day. I then did nap 2, 4hr after waking from catnap. Some days she slept for 1.15hr, others 2hrs. Bedtime 7-7.30pm. I did this for about 1 or 2 weeks. Then 6am waking came forward to 7am. When she started refusing to take a second nap, i stopped the am catnap (moved to walking in her stroller at this time so she would rest but not sleep) and brought the 1 nap forward to about 6hrs after she woke.
Does that make sense? HTH!
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Nicole... I am soo sorry you are still going through this. We need help over here too. My dd won't stop waking up at 5:45 and I honestly can't get up at that time. I am an early bird, but good grief! Then our naps have shortened as well. I do think this is b/c we aren't getting enough sleep. I wonder if it is just this age since there are several of us going through it?? :-\
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Big Hugs Nicole--I'm sorry that you're going through this. We've always struggled with sleep, so I guess the ups and downs aren't quite so hard on me anymore. We go through spurts where nights are only 10 hours or less and naps get down to the 1 hr. 15 min. a lot.
But it does seem that if I can break the cycle and she gets a lot of sleep for either a nap or night, then we might get a couple good days of it.
I didn't read all the other posts, but my suggestions:
Get her to play hard in the a.m., outside if its nice enough--really wear her out. Savannah seems to do better naps if she's been really busy, with friends, at the park, whatever, and then goes down for a nap early enough. I wouldn't worry about an early nap making bedtime early because if she sleeps longer, then she would be up at the same time, right?
And play around with the timing--try putting her down earlier for a bit--sometimes that has helped, even when it seems like she's going backwards. We were at a 1 pm nap for a long time, and then I tried 12:30 for a while and she started sleeping over 2 hours. But then she went to 1:15 all of a sudden--if she went down too early, then she would talk for hours before falling asleep. So you never know what it is going to be.
And other than that, try not to worry--you can't force her to sleep and you are doing a great job trying to give her the opportunities to sleep when she needs it. I know its hard when you can tell they need more, but if you are doing everything you can, then you have to give yourself a break.
Good luck. I hope the nap will lengthen for you. It really did take us months before she did very many 2+ hour naps. Its still only about half the time. But if she does wake after 1.25 hrs, I now wait because sometimes she goes back to sleep on her own.
~Kim
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Oh Nicole....first of all, take a break!!! Take a nice long bubble bath and just relax.
I have honestly no suggestions just wanted to send you {{{{{HUGS}}}}}
Thinking of you. haven't been on msn for sooooo long, but hope to see you around when I am! {{{{{HUGS}}}}}again!
Just take a breather and remember you are doing a great job!
Hailey :-*
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ohhhh! you can´t imagine how i undersand you. I am trough a very tough period too. (I have a post here about that) so....
I don´t know what to say, only say that i am in the same situation as you, and i am so so so tired and sad too.
I wish Tracy were here!!! :-[
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Nicole--I know how frustrating this is, and I really do think it's developmental and agree with what all the ladies have said. Our experience has been similar to Kim's where there are variations of good days and not so good days. I really do think that with everything going on there is going to be a natural variation in sleep times. But I'm sure at this point you would be happy with that--you just want to get to the stage where there are a few longer naps! I know I posted this before but we really did only get longer naps when Margot pushed her nap back (herself) to 1 from 12:30 and this is when she was waking at 5:30. I don't really have any other suggestions other than to try to go with it for now--things will gradually improve!
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Hey Nicole,
Totally get where you are. When we've had our long and rough struggles with sleep and everyone kept telling me that perhaps ds "didn't want to nap anymore" i know they were wrong cause i knew he could do better.
I tried everything i could but also set a "lower limit". That is, if in a 24 hour period he'd normaly sleep 13.5 hours, i said well our lower limit is going to be 12.5. So if he had a 10 hour night that day i'd struggle for a 2.5 hour nap or at least quiet time. I don't know if i helped him to get back on track or what but it certainly did help ME cause i knew what to expect and for how long to try. I know that anxiety that your kid is not resting and you're trying everything and don't see anything getting better. Then i realized that ds was happy most of the time he was awake and his so called "bear hours" which filled me with anguish were 30 min periods. So it wasn't that bad. Again i don't know if me being more relaxed or the consistancy of the "lower limit" or what but he went back on track after a month.
With the time change we started with the dreaded 10 hour nights. This time i wasn't that stressed and just went with the flow. If he woke up crying i'd go and lay in the floor next to his crib for 30 mins more. If he was happy i'd leave him in the crib for another hour. He's been sleeping for 11-11.5 hours this past nights again (i know for you that might sound poor but for me is heaven ;D)--- what im saying is that they go through periods as well as the hunger, when they won't eat a thing and suddenly they're eating machines. Same with sleep. As Kim said, you're doing your best with providing oportunities for her to have better sleep and doing everything on hand to help her. I know it's frustrating but i promise promise promise that if you're consistent it gets better. When? well it depends on every child.
Another thought: the air-con. A friend of mine had early mornings cause she set the air con on 19C. She didn't realize until her dad came to visit and mentioned to her: i woke up because i was very hot. So my friend turned the temp to 16C, which seemed pretty cold in the beggining but it help her dd to extend her sleeping times. THat can be a posibility with you guys. I remember checking on temperatures, air coming in from the windows, cotton blanket vs nylon ones, lots of pjs, pjs+ sweater... you name it. I found a combo that works for me and i don't know if it's out of supersticion or what but we do what we can, don't we?
Take a deep breath and you'll see things will get better!
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Hi Nicole,
Totally agree with Florencia re the ac, I find if it's too cold dd tends to wake, guess she is like me and likes it warm. I usually have it around 20/21 but might turn it down when she is napping during the day,if I hear her begin to move and I think she may wake I usually put it back to 21. This also stops the very slight noise it makes when on so that may also have something to do with it.
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hmmmm thanks ladies...i'll try turning the heat up. its hard b/c its warm when she goes tto bed......from the sun all day...and in the am its a bit colder.
GOOD NEWS....yesterday she napped 1hr 35min...today 1hr 40min:) it was a nice break.
i put her to bed last night at 6:15 (asleep at 6:30pm ) and she woke at 6:30am so atleast she got her full 12hrs. she was back in bed at 6:45pm tonight so hopefully tomorrow will be 7 again:)
thanks for all your help...i hope the naps keep getting better.....
Nicole
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okay...so my latest conclusion..
meg wakes up at 6:28am every morning regardless of what time bed was...
how do i fix this? i was hoping to keep her up later in teh summer? but i'm not putting her to bed at 8pm if she is going to wake at 6:30 regardless. its been 2 weeks straight of 6:28am wakings....
argh!!
Nicole
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I don't think there's much you can do to "fix" her wakings. As long as she's rested and happy, i think her timings will be set by her even if they don't make much sense to you. ;) You're doing your best in providing her oportunities to sleep, to keep her asleep, etc. She has responded well on extending her nap so aside from the recommedation of moving her bedtime 15 mins in 3 day periods, i think you should follow her lead cause she's being very clear about what she needs and wants.
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I dont' think she's being clear at all......I think she is just stuck in habits. last night she went to sleep at 7:15 and was still up at 6:30am. was cranky and tired by 11....so i had to put her down early and she only slept an hour again. she is cranky if she doesn't get 12hrs at night. thenher nap is usually shorter......
sorry, y'all don't need to respond, i'm being a pest. i'll figure it out on my own. i might try wake to sleep at 5:30am one of these mornings.
thanks for your help
N.
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what a stinker she is being ::) Again I have no advice....
Just letting you know I appreciate and understand your frustration. It's difficult when you know your child needs more sleep and their behaviors indicate that as well....but there doesn't seem to be anything that helps accommodate it. ::)
I think it's a great thing actually that she wakes up at the same time no matter what time she goes to bed. And although in the summer it is nice to have her awake a little later (more things to do as a family when everyone is home....and nighttime seems to be the time that happens) but I guess for now just roll with it. When she's ready for a nap, let her have a nap....when she's ready for bed, put her to bed. You might realize that as she sets her own routine over the next while, her awake times might lengthen and then bedtime at least might be able to be pushed a little bit later.
I know I love that Brooklyn's awake time is fairly consistent....it helps me plan my routine better too....and although Brooklyn's naps have always been fairly good, and she has finally started sleeping through the night ;D (and even putting herself to sleep for both now ;D ;D) it appears to me her wake time before her nap is getting longer....and since I watch my nephews and have gotten used to the idea of having her and younger dn nap at the same time - well her being up longer than him isn't my favorite thing....but I guess that's what happens eh?! Besides the difference between when they start their naps is around 1/2 an hour to 45 mins (of course Brooklyn has quiet time in her crib before she falls asleep so they are both in their rooms for the same time).
It seems things get figured out, but our kids are still growing and changing. I wouldn't fret too much....although I know how much we look forward to that time when they nap....and so her naps being shorter would be frustrating. Ahh...this too shall pass ;) You're doing great, Nicole. Let Megan take the lead on this one....and try to really roll with it. I am sure it will work itself out in time....and hopefully she'll be able to stretch out her bedtime so you can enjoy some after dinner walks as a family. If not...take some time out and go for some "Nicole" walks and relax!!!
We gotta get these girls together sometime...*sigh* wish I had a private jet 8)
Hailey
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SOrry this has been so stressful for you. I have to say, I think Florencia is probably right about the wake time. If she is so consistant with when she wakes, and you know she needs 12 hours, then I would just put her down at 6:30 p.m. so she can get her 12 hours. And with how much these kids change at this age, maybe by summer, she'll be onto something completely different anyway. And the early bedtime would work with her earlier/shorter naps for now too.
Hope you figure things out.
~Kim
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I think you're way too worried on trying to 'fix' her. She's in the midst of a transition and you just have to go with it. If she seems tired at the end of the day, take her for a walk so she grabs a catnap. I would often do an errand i the car when Emilio needed some down time just so he'd grab a few zzzzz's when he wouldn't take a second nap and was transitioning between the two.
You gotta stop beating yourself up about the number of minutes she naps and her wake-up time. QUIT COUNTING! 8) The days are getting shorter as we approach summer, lighter in the morning and my Emilio who was sleeping until seven thirty in the winter is now up at six am. Not much for me to do other than roll with it and go to bed early myself. I adjust his naptime if he's tired early. Remember, f-l-e-x-i-b-i-l-i-t-y....................
She's sleeping well at night (my son doesn't ever sleep twelve hours at night), she's sleeping one hour plus naps. If she's cranky find a way to help her snag a few extra snooze minutes and as she grows older she'll grow out of the crankiness. Is it mostly end of the day crankiness?
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I just cheered out loud when I read laura's post! I sooo agree. I too became almost obsessed with this nap transition, it takes over everything, but really - as long as you can eliminate night wakings ( which are the pits!) and give them the opportunity to sleep, and get your own sleep in - I always go to bed early to accomodate early wake-ups - it will probably sort itself out in the end!
I know Meg slept lots before, and it is hugely frustrating that she is struggling so much now, but little by little it will settle, and as long as she isn't too miserable she will get by!
Harry seems so much better, now I have relaxed more!
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A big amen to Laura's post and to Harrison's Mummy, very well said. 8)
It is so frustrating when their sleep habits change but you just have to roll with it. I was crazy for a while too, for most of Ethan's life he has woken up before 6am and he only takes an hour-hour and a half nap..not ideal but that is who he is. He is a happy little camper and those times that the crankies hit us I do exaclty what Laura said...a little catnap, early bedtime or early naptime, whatever fits the situation.
I decided that I wanted to enjoy him as a toddler rather than be a crazy obsessed person who is counting minutes. I go to bed a little earlier and I just enjoy him while he is awake rather than being upset that he didn't sleep the amount that *I* wanted him to sleep.
The amount that these kiddos sleep is going to change as they get older and as their needs change. She won't
sleep 12 hours at night forever, just as Flori said, 12-14 hours per 24 hour period is normal. Some days she might want more, some days less. Even as an adult I know there are times that I woke up early in the morning for no reason at all and I wasn't tired, and there are days that I could sleep until 11 am, it just changes.
Give yourself a break and know that you are doing the best that you can. Enjoy her where she is, she is really a fantastic little sleeper! As much as it would be helpful, controlling their sleep is not possibe. You can guide her and teach her but not control minute by minute. And just as Laura said "F-L-E-X-I-B-I-L-T-Y!!!"
Just my two cents....
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we are now in the midst of the 2-1 nap transition (for the second time around ::) ) and i know it is SO hard. on the days my dd naps only once, it is only for 1.5 hours at the longest...but mysteriously when she was taking 2 naps just a few weeks ago, both naps were over an hour usually 1.5 hours. so she is way overtired and cranky...and so am i. her nightsleep is also disruppted. she wakes up crying a few times each night on the days she only takes one nap.
i have no advice since my dd is obviously not on a good routine, but just wanted you to know you are not alone. i really do try to stop counting the minutes she sleeps and then basing my mood for the rest of the day on that, but it's hard not to. i just hope this phase ends soon.
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:o here we go again, if it's any consolation to you Nicole, exact same as last time which was about 2 weeks ago more or less, wakening earlier each day, longer to settle at night and day nap starting to shorten again( she cut 40 mins off it in one go today!)- no idea why, but I guess we will just have to roll with it.
Hope things are improving for you ;D
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Just adding my thoughts.....I did the exact same thing as Meg's mom and it worked like a charm. I gave Frankie a little cat nap in the morning by planning an activity and then letting him fall asleep in the car for 20 mintues or so on the way home. It was enough to get him through to lunch and then after eating he had a second wind and could stay up until 1:00 to go down for a nice long nap. The first week, he took shorter naps and we had to suffer through that but then the key was we stayed consisitent and pretty soon he was taking a 2.5 to 3 hour nap.
As far as Meg needing a certain amount of sleep, I am sorry to tell you this, but that is going to change. They can't always sleep for 14 or 15 hours. The amount of sleep that they need is going to change, so something has got to give, either less sleep for a nap, or less sleep at night. Frankie takes nice naps, but he only sleep 10.5 hours at night on average. He just can't sleep more then that, and I don't think many kids can. So, big deal, we get up at 6:45. That's what happens when you have kids.
Try to look on the bright side, Meg is sleeping 12 hours at night! Do you know how many people would kill for that? It will all work out! Just stay consistent, but remember that along with that, you have to be flexible. Every day is going to be different for them at this age.
Good luck,
Kim