BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Sleeping For Toddlers => Topic started by: Lucysmom on April 24, 2006, 13:53:23 pm
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Hi -
I am posting this for my sister. Her ds is 20 months old and recently started nursery in the mornings only. Before he started nursery, he would typically wake around 5:30 :o and then would have a nap at 10. He would take what my sister called a "decent" nap - like over an hour. So now that he is at nursery, there is no morning nap and he is just taking one nap right after lunch once my sister gets him home. I know that ideally the nursery should give him a nap if he needs it, but my sister seems ok with this arrangement. Anyway, he is obviously overtired by the afternoon and falls asleep for his nap only to wake up 30 minutes later SCREAMING. Then my sister picks him up and lays him on the guest bed and he falls asleep there for 2 hours. During that time she has to stay in the room with him while she works on her laptop. She realizes this is creating a bad habit but feels badly for him and does not know how to help him go back to sleep otherwise. I was thinking she could try being there BEFORE he wakes up at 30 minutes to do some kind of wake to sleep but I don't know how you would do this with a toddler (my dd is almost 11 months). She does not do BW with him but he does fall asleep on his own. She did CC with him and that is how he learned to go to sleep on his own (at 6 months). She feels her only option is to leave him to cry when he wakes up screaming after 30 minutes. She has not done this yet and does not want to so I am hoping someone has some advice so that she can avoid this. He is an intelligent, fun, and sweet little boy with an amazing mommy so any advice anyone has to help him get through this would be MOST appreciated! :D
Melissa ~ Sister to Jennie, Aunt and Godmother to Patrick!
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What time does he go to bed at night? If he's waking at 5:30 the option might be to try wake to sleep to extend his night sleep so that he is not overtired at his afternoon napso that he won't wake and need your sister.
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Hi - He has had a 7 pm bedtime for as long as I can remember. And his early mornings have been going on for ages as well. My sister has tried just everything to get him to sleep longer in the am (including putting him to bed earlier than 7 and later than 7) but nothing works. She is just resigned to the fact that his body clock is set at 5:30. When he was having an AM nap he was doing fine, but now things are totally messed up. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!
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I would suggest doing an earlier bedtime consistently for a while to see if it will help with the early wakings. Even if it doesn't push his waking to later, he'll be getting more sleep on the front end which will help with his overall sleep.
I would also suggest she talk to the nursery and stress that he really needs that am nap - see if they can't work something out.
Otherwise, she might try toddler pd or walk out/walk in to get him past that 30 minute wake mark during his nap.
Oh - what time does she put him down for his nap? Can she get him down any earlier? That might help as well.
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I AGREE...AM A NURSERY TEACHER MYSELF AND WE WORK OUT SCHEDULES FOR 'SLEEPERS'! ALSO...MAYBE HE DO AFTERNOONS ONLY AT SCHOOL?
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Hi Everyone -
Sorry it has taken me ages to get back here to thank you for your advice and insight! I talked to my sister about having the nursery let him sleep and she said that he can nap if he wants to but that he does not want to. I get the impression that she is wanting him to take one nap and that is it so talking to her about having the nursery adapt to suit him is not going anywhere.
She told me that when she goes in he is laying down with his eyes closed crying. Would she just do regular toddler wi/wo in this case? It is like he is not even really awake. Sometimes he is awake and frantically gesturing that he has pooed and he has not. And she said her pediatrician told her to just leave him to cry and she did that once. :'( Anyway, I have advised her to just do the sniff test for the poo if he is awake and to try to comfort him in the crib and not leave him for long stretches of time if he is crying. But her saying today that he is often still laying down with eyes closed confused me a bit. Any ideas about this and how to deal with it? I have given her the whole "speech" about being consistent but so far things have not been consistent. To add to the confusion, they are moving in a month and he will be in a new nursery and a brand new home. :o
Thanks for reading this and offering any advice you might have. I really appreciate it as does my sister
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Oops - Forgot to address what you said Sarah!
I did recommend that she put him to bed earlier so that he is getting more night time sleep at least. I think she has put him to bed a half hour earlier once or twice but again not consistently.
I will ask her if she is putting him down for the nap as soon as humanly possible!
Thanks for your thoughts!
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Its hard to recommend anything if she's not going to be consistent about it. I believe that no matter what you do, the most important thing is to be consistent.
It also doesn't help that he's moving into a new home and a new nursery so soon. Its almost not worth the effort to fix things right now since they'll be all out of whack again so soon - but then again, if they're fixed now, it will take that much less time to fix them after the move.
If he's laying there crying with his eyes closed, I would briefly rub his forehead or however she would comfort him in his crib then leave the room again but only for brief periods - no controlled crying and no crying it out! I agree with the sniff test for poo - that's about all she can do short of physically checking.
Other than that, I don't know what to recommend.
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When Margot would do that I would go in and put my hand on her chest, no eye contact or talking. She would drfit off and 20 minutes and would usually only sleep another .5 hours but it helped! I really think your sister has to put him into nap ASAP and give him a super early bedtime to address the root of the problem--overtiredness.