3YO stalling at bedtime

[maisy]

Help!!

My DD is 3YO, she has always always taken a lomg time to transition with naps. She was still on 2 naps waaaaay longer than most, she is very succeptible to OT and as a result can have EWs.

For a long time she was a super early riser. But for the last almost year she has been sleeping in to 7 and sometimes 7.30. This is great. She has been on an 11.5 hour night and 1 hour nap for ages.

her old routine

7 - 7.30 awake
11.30 - 12.30 Nap
7.30 - bedtime

But she has been stalling for up to 1.5 hours at bedtime which has resulted in her waking very early again. 5.45 was the earliest but generally it is about 6.30.

She is still totally wiped out at nap time and has tried to miss it a couple of times only to fall asleep at about 5pm, then waking super early the next day.

I have cut her nap to 45 mins in the hope that a small nap will be enough to tide her over but not enough to ruin bedtime.

We have also been putting her down early at 7pm on days where she wakes early but she is still messing around. I think she is in a bad cycle of OT

Oh we also moved house about 6 weeks ago but she was fine until about 3 weeks ago  

Sorry I know that is garbled but I tried to tell you everything

Help!!

x x x  x

[becky1969]

3 yo was a sleep change for us as well.  In our case it turned out Owen needed na earlier bedtime.  Not sure why b/c teeth were all in, etc.  But he went from doing 5 hours A time before bed to 4 hours! We're only now booting back up to 4.5 before bed (he can handle up to 6 before nap).

Since she sounds like she's always been a bit of a sleepy bub I think I'd try an earlier bedtime and see how that goes.  You might also try extending wind down to help her relax and make the transition from activity to sleep better.  Maybe add in an extra story, quiet music, or a massage.   I've also noticed with my son that he needs more transitioning right now.  His whole little life he's been awesome about going down for naps/bedtime, but the last couple of weeks he's started to say "I don't want to go to bed!".  He's still sleeping the same number of hours so I know he needs the sleep, but I think he's having a hard time quitting the fun activities he's doing to have sleep time.  So maybe extend wind down and see if that helps.  We also use a timer at our house for the last 5 minutes before bedtime, and he gets a warning "Last 5 minutes!" and he and daddy get to have 1 last special play -- usually chase or hide and seek -- to help get the wiggles out.  Perhaps more warning may help her as well.


But I think I really would start with an earlier bedtime.  7 hours is a pretty long A time, even at this age, esp. if she took so long to transition to 1 nap.  Why did you limit to 1 hour nap, BTW? Or is that her doing?

[waffler]

LeeAnn - how about, moving her nap by half hour to 1pm, then shortening the afternoon A time too by half hour, just see how it goes? I realised with mira I had to keep moving her naps. she'd wake 7am, and lights out 1pm for nap (till 3pm... she has 2 hours nap and i love that Me time :p) and lights out at 8pm for bedtime.

good luck !

[maisy]

Thanks ladies

Becky - the 1 hour nap is her doing, sometimes she will sleep longer and I let her as she usually knows what she is doing. The other reason for the long A time is that she has always needed a short first A time, and then a longer one for Afternoon.

Ali - I may try making her nap time a wee bit later, generally it makes her harder to settle if it is later but it may make that difference at bedtime.

My gut is saying she is OT so I will try anything to eradicate it.

I was just thinking about it this morning and think I will look back to when she was transitioning to the one nap and see if there is any tips.

thankyou  xxx

[maisy]

Oh and I had a brainwave this morning, we no longer use a baby moniter in her room, so this morning I set it up. It took her over 20 mins to actually go to sleep. so if I had gone in and wakened her at the 45 min mark then she would have only actually had 25 mins. Wonder if this has added to the problem??  Probably

x x x x

[*Mona*]

Lee Ann,  no advice as Maja hasn't napped since december, when she started preschool.
she only naps in the car when we travel.

anyway, I'd move her nap up a bit too- 11:30 seems way too early for her age IMO
good luck

[becky1969]

Based on what you learned from the monitor, I'd say she's UT at nap time so she doesn't nap long enough, and then OT at bedtime b/c she hasn't had enough daytime sleep in her.  Move that nap later and I'm thinking you're going to see longer naps!

[maisy]

She would definitely nap longer and can sometimes nap up to 2 hours BUT then will still be chatting in her bed after 9pm at night? This is why I thought she was needing a shorter nap due to seeming very UT at bedtime. But then after so many nights of late nights (due to her nonsense )she has started waking early which resulted in the EWs??

Do you think she needs a longer nap?? Even after coping with the 1 hour nap for so long??

[becky1969]

You'll have to play around a bit.  My son took a BIG jump in sleep at 3 -- meaning he started sleeping more, not less.  So, why not move nap later see how long she sleeps and then experiment with bedtime a bit.  The chatting until 9 *may* have been OT, not UT.  I just have to wonder since you've already said she moved to 1 nap late -- that says she's a child that needs more sleep than most, not less.

Experimentation time!

[maisy]

Ok, thanks Hon!   will keep you posted!

x x x x