W2S for EW's chaos, please help!!

[nike]

Great news   Can you post her daily schedule?? 

[bethanys mummy]

aaaah, but that would imply she had one!!

Ok so today she woke about 7.20, seemed quite happy so although only 10.5 hours this may have been due to long late nap at nursery from the night before

She was at grandparents today. She took a sneaky 10 mins in the pushchair on the way to a play group and then did a nap from 11.30 - 1.30. I swear my daughter can (a) tell the time (b) read my mind as of course I was then stuck as to what to do. Applying the idea of 5 hours max after a good nap before bed Ie 6.30 pm) I was stuck. I pick the kids up after work at 5.30 and there is no way I can do tea, homework, express milk, baths and bed earlier than about 7.15. Argggghh

So I went for the cat nap option and luckily she fell asleep at 5.20 in the car back from dd1's swimming. I let her have 20 mins and thought her 7.45 bedtime would be ok. But she did not sleep until 9pm.....not a happy bunny

So I feel awful, messed up again. I just could not decide what length catnap she would have, did not want it too close to bedtime or too long... but got it wrong again. Think she was OT again and my bad decision just made it worse. Given that I could not do the 6.30 bedtime what would you ladies have recommended

But also her cold which arrived this am seemed to suddenly get allot worse about 7pm so this has of course added to it. Just had a NW but it was cold driven, think she may have a sore throat... so of course all sleep routines and ideals are out of the window now which is really frustrating as I want to get somewhere!! also we have bank holiday this weekend so I had hoped to have 4 full days of focusing on her sleep (with bedtimes whenever needed!) but this may all go to pot - arggggh!

Thoughts appreciated. Esp re the catnap, given I feel I had to put one in to make it to bedtime

Hope you are both ok, really appreciate your support

Think I may leave w2s tonight, we may be up anyway.....

E x

[nike]

Hi Emma.  Sorry for your frustration.  Please don't beat yourself up, though.  You are doing an amazing job and it must be so hard if you're a working mother.  Fortunately I'm a SAHM so I can work around my boys routines.  Hats off to all you working mums

Ok, looking at how your day went, she had an a.m. catnap, a long sleep in the middle of the day (excellent) and then another late catnap.  Had she not had a cold do you think she might have stayed awake for these catnaps?  Of course as you say, everything goes out the window when they get sick!  If she was well, I probably would have fought long and hard to keep her awake during the trip home (food, songs, loud toys, etc) and just gone for broke and put her down as soon as you were physically able after dinner, bath, etc.  That afternoon catnap seems to be the culprit for mucking everything up!

Given she had that 10 mins in the stroller and a later wake-up in the morning (I'm assuming no NWs but I realise she had a later bedtime) I probably also would have stretched her out a little past 11.30 for her big nap.  I realise this goes against what I've previously said about giving her the one sleep earlier and then progressively making it later, but she did sneak that catnap in and you have to make the routine work for you in the afternoon on working days when you have the commute home.  So a wake-up at 7.20 a.m. and a bedtime roughly 12 hours later would have been really feasible, without that nasty p.m. catnap thrown into the melting pot!  So if you can keep her awake on the trip home, I'd say she probably would have gone down quite easily at a bedtime as early as you could manage.  Make sense?

My suggestion would have been to leave W2S too.  I have absolutely no experience with W2S but the thought scares me a little   Maybe someone with experience in this area can advise you on this.

HTH!

[bethanys mummy]

Thanks again for all your support. Yes I think that, esp without the cold, she could have waited a little longer for her middle of the day sleep and then made it through to bedtime without the catnap, but on the other hand we never know how long she is going to sleep for now!! And with the cold it meant that, even with the cat nap she was OT (IYKWIM)

Trying not to beat myself up, but its hard at at present, getting really depressed as things going downhill fast. She woke at 6 am then I resettled her but then awake just before 7. So only 10 hours sleep, less the catnap she was so miserable, falling over etc . I guess allot of it is the cold but its all such a mess. She has already had 2 x 1,15 naps at nursery and will def need a catnap to get through to bedtime

As i say, the cold is really messing things up so I should not really worry about what sleep she is actually having at present and just let her have what she needs, but I am so depressed wondering when I will ever be able to get this right! At the moment I am just going to assume she is OT and act accordingly.

Thanks again

E x

[bethanys mummy]

Just to let you both know that we are just going along with the cold at the moment, its quite a big one so she is quite knocked out. Yesterday's 1,10 naps were only one hour apart!! she had 40 mins later on and passed out at bedtime and had 11 hours (yippee!) but cant attribute to anything but the cold I am afraid!!

So she was awake at 7am today but sadly still tired. Had an appt with the school nurse for dd1, thought I could put her down afterwards but she fell asleep in the school office and has now been asleep for over 2 hours!! So will ride this out then no doubt be back.....

E x

[LisaM]

Hiya

Just wondering how everyone is getting along lately?

We are much the same, muddling through each day - no consistency at all, we just and try and fit a nap or 2 naps in depending on how early she woke and what we have on for dd1 that day.  Anyway, its been ok - couple of days she has even woke about 5.30am so very good for her.

DH has been away for 5 days on a jolly boys outing and weirdly enough I think I have stressed less about her sleeping - although it makes no sense because he is at work most of the time when the naps go wrong etc., but I think its just that I will vent my frustrations out when I talk to him and without him being around I have just got on with things and not worried so much.

Anyway, let me know how things are with you - hope there are some improvements!

[bethanys mummy]

Thanks for asking........ glad you are more chilled

We are mixed. We are continuing with w2s and had some success - 11/12 hour night which is amazing but hard to tell if this was the cold

So had a period where we were able to go onto one nap and things looking ok

But.... now she is just starting to get chicken pox (she really does make her way through the medical dictionary) so all bets will be off again!!

So will update you again if we ever get back to "normal"

E x

[LisaM]

Oh no!  Sorry to hear that she has chicken pox.  There always seems to be something that comes along when things start to improve or settle down into some sort of routine.

I shouldn't have mentioned the 5.30 starts because for the last 2 days been back to 4.40 and 4.45am!  No idea why - nothing different etc., could be teeth - no idea what excuse I will use once all her teeth come in though!

Hope she doesn't get 'the pox' too bad and you can get back to normal soon

Take care
Lisa