BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Sleeping For Toddlers => Topic started by: Raquelita1 on October 02, 2006, 19:08:49 pm
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Hello
I'm at a loss to know what to do to try to get dd (13 months) to sleep till 8am in the mornings.... Currently she's waking up at 7am and will not go back to sleep. I really don't want her to be getting up any earlier than 8am for various reasons including 1) she's at daycare 9-12.30 and is overtired and grouchy by the time I pick her up if she's awake since 7am, and yet still needs to have lunch before nap; 2) we live in Spain and having her on an earlier routine means she'd have to miss out on all afternoon activities as they don't start till late afternoon and not see daddy till weekends; 3) it's a nightmare having to get myself showered and ready in the mornings when she's already up and about! ;)
This is her routine:
7am wake-up (ideal 8am...)
8.15 breakfast of beaker of milk, plus large bowl of cereal with milk and fruit
9-12.30 daycare with piece of fruit for snack around 11am
1pm lunch at home
1.30 down for nap (sleeps 2-2.5 hours, sometimes even 3 hours and then i have to wake her up)
4/4.30pm snack of fruit/yogurt
6/6.30 dinner
7.30 bath followed by large beaker of milk
normally asleep by 8.30pm
A couple of weeks ago she was habitually waking at 7.20 in the mornings, occasionally 6.40 :(, so I decided to try wake to sleep. We've never had much success with it when I've tried to tackle the early wakings in the past, but now that she's in daycare I decided I have to do something so that she's not getting too tired by lunchtime. Anyway, after a couple of nights of going in at 6.20 i got her to sleep till about 8am - yippee - but after a night or two of that she started waking at 7am instead. This has been going on for days now. It's really difficult to get a movement out of her at 6.20 as she's in such a deep sleep, but we have managed it - just! Anyway, last night i couldn't be bothered to do it and she still woke at 7am, so i figure it's not that my wake-to-sleep technique is rousing her too much so that she only goes one more cycle of 40 minutes.... I just don't know what to do now. I know this 'problem' might seem like nothing to others, but we've been through all sorts of sleep issues over the months and right now this is upsetting and frustrating me. Please help!
Rachel
(Sorry for long post but I wanted to get as much background info down as possible.)
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if you don't mind, i'm going to move you to the sleeping for toddlers board. they give great advice for sleeping issues with LOs over a year.
melissa
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Her schedule actually looks really good. She's on one nap and doing well, which is a hard transition for a lot of lo's, especially at her age.
About the only thing I can suggest is that you put her to bed earlier. Believe it or not, an earlier bedtime can really help push am wake time later. I wouldn't try much earlier - maybe 30 minutes or so.
Other than that, considering you've tried W2S, I don't have any other suggestions. Good luck!
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Sarah (and Raquelita1),
I've read a suggestion on some of the boards that it might work to look at how much sleep LO needs for each 24 hours to be happy and try to tweak it that way. Maybe a slightly shorter nap (like keeping it at 2.5) would lead to a little more sleep time at night? It's scary for me to think about losing that great nap, but I've read that suggestion in a couple of places with others who are working on 2-1 nap transition and wondered if it might apply here.
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Thanks everyone. I've wondered about shortening her afternoon nap slightly in the hope she'll go to bed earlier and maybe sleep longer at night, but it's scary to think about waking her up when i so enjoy that peace and quiet! I think i'll have to give it a go. Yesterday i woke her up after 2.5 hours, though she hadn't gone to sleep till 2pm and therefore didn't drop off last night till 8.45.... I did wake to sleep last night at 6am (given that her new wake up time is 7am), and she slept to 7.30am - an improvement, but still not quite where i'd like it! I think my strategy today will be to aim to get her down for her nap by 1.15 so she's asleep by 1.30, wake her up after 2 1/4 hours, then bath at 7.15 to have her in bed by 7.45 for sleep by 8pm..... Sounds great but goodness knows how it'll work out! Depending on what time she drops off tonight, i'll then make a decision on whether to do wake to sleep again in the morning, or just wait and see what happens.... Wish me luck girls! ;)
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Quick update as i'm feeling quite good right now. I managed to get dd down for her nap about 1.20 today and she was asleep within 10 minutes. She then woke up by herself just short of 2 hours later - not as long as normal, but hopefully sufficient if she'll sleep longer at night, and I was glad that she woke up by herself rather than me going in to wake her. She got quite tired by late afternoon, but after dinner she got a bit more energy, played with dh when he got home, had her bath at 7.15 and was in bed just before 8, asleep by 8.10. I'm going to skip any wake to sleep efforts tonight and just see what happens. Fingers crossed! I'll report back tomorrow....
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Crossing my fingers! :)
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:'( It didn't work, but hey i should know by now that there's no such thing as overnight miracles ha ha! She still woke at 7am today. I'll stick to the same strategy of slightly shorter nap today (maybe she'll wake up of her own accord again anyway), and bed before 8pm, but what do you reckon I should do in the morning? Should I try wake to sleep at 6am, or give it another night with no intervention to see what happens? Cheers.
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Yesterday dd didn't have a great nap - just 1hr 35 mins - and then last night took a while to drop off so it was 8.30 before she was asleep. I decided to w2s this morning and went in at 6.20 (40 mins before usual wake up time as i'd read in another post that 35-40 mins before wake up is often more effective than 1 hr at this age). For the next 25 mins she was unsettled - still asleep but moaning a lot - but i finally managed to get her into another sound sleep by placing my hand on her and shushing for half a minute. She then slept one cycle till 7.30 when she woke up properly. Better than 7am, so perhaps i'm making some progress. I guess i should just stick at it for a few more days - hard work with dh out of the country on business this week as i'm feeling knackered with #2 on the way.... In others' experience, how long might it take for my new shorter nap, earlier to bed, w2s strategy to work? :)
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I've read a lot of success stories at 3 days (being very consistent), and earlier to bed had made a difference in a single day for us, but it may take a little while for the whole schedule to become habitual. I've read on the boards to commit to stick with any approach for a few weeks in case it takes longer. This time is full of rapid change for them (walking --> running, talking, teething, etc.) so don't get discouraged. It sounds like you're on the right track.
I'm so impressed with your ability to w2s. I think I'll have to do it with mine soon to extend naps and/or get a later waking time in the am. His schedule still varies by as much as an hour, so it's hard for me to predict the right time to try it.
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Thanks lucmom. Well last night didn't go so well. She was asleep about 8pm - excellent - but then woke up at 2.30am although went back to sleep straight away after i'd been in to reposition her in the cot. (I must try to stop going in on the rare occasions that she wakes in the night, but one thing at a time!) I did w2s at 6.20am again and it didn't work at all as she still woke up at 7am. I know 11 hours is pretty good but she only slept 1hr 30m again yesterday afternoon - so we've gone from 10.5 hours at night and up to 3 hours nap, to 11 hours at night and 1.5 hour nap..... Not so great. I will persevere over the next few days to see if anything starts to click into place (thank goodness dh is home tonight) but i think i'll give w2s a miss tomorrow as i just can't get myself back to sleep after i've got up at 6.20 and i'm soooooo tired. Have a nice weekend everyone!
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Things aren't going too great over the last few days. Friday she was up at 7am, Saturday at 7am though we left her (no nursery to get her to on the weekend!) and she fell back to sleep after about an hour for 45 mins (when she wakes up she doesn't cry just chatters and sings to herself), only slept 30 min nap that day, bed on time at 8pm Sat night and slept till 7.50am on Sunday - woohoo! Nice nap yesterday, but nightmare to get to sleep last night - took an hour. Then up at 7am today..... I haven't done w2s for a few days, but it just doesn't seem to do much good and I end up never getting back to sleep myself after I've done it so I miss out on much-needed sleep too. I'm sticking to slightly shorter daytime nap (2 1/4 hrs max instead of letting her go up to 3 hrs), and bed on time at 8pm. But as I'm not really seeing much success does anyone think i need to do something a bit different still? Do I need to consider getting her to bed at night even earlier? I love the thought of having her tucked up earlier, but if she wakes even earlier in the morning I'll cry! The problem is that she's just so tired and cranky by the time I pick her up from daycare at 12.30pm - she clearly needs to sleep till 8am just to get her through the morning till i pick her up. Cheers.
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Even with a 2.25 hr nap, with 11 hours of night time sleep, she's sleeping 13.25 hours per 24 hour period, which is really pretty good. She may just not need any more sleep, so she wakes up. I'm always hesitant to reduce nap time just because Henry was such a bad napper for so long but that may help.
An earlier bedtime may help as well - but only like 15 minutes earlier. If you try it and she wakes earlier, go back to the old bedtime. It can't hurt to try and may actually help.
Other than that, I always say you can't make her sleep, you can only provide her with the opportunity to sleep. I know you'd like her to sleep in later and she probably needs to, but you can't make it happen.
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I'm persevering with the slightly shorter naps - some days she wakes up just before 2 hours is up by herself anyway, and i'm trying my hardest to get her in bed 'on time' at 8pm. I haven't bothered with w2s for the last few mornings as it's so disheartening and tiring for me. She slept till 7.10am Monday, 7.30 yesterday and then 7.40 today. She's moving in the right direction, but this must be too good to be true! Tomorrow's a holiday here so what's the betting she decides to be up at 7am and give me an extra long day especially as there's no daycare tomorrow and dh is away on business.....
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Hang in there -- at least with the days of moving in the right direction you know that what you're doing isn't a bad thing even if there are setback days!