Nights, Naps, NW's

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

I don't even know where to start. I think Ethan is severely OT. Or something...haha. What has been happening for us for the past week is, it has been taking us two hours to get Ethan to go to sleep. Before this, we could just say our good nights and plunk him in his crib and he would go to sleep. Then I went out for a meeting and DH has to put him to bed (this was last Monday) and Ethan started screaming so DH tried to get him to sleep for about 30 min and then read him stories until I got home (trying in between stories so put him to bed again). When I got home, I picked Ethan up, hugged him and put him in his crib and we didn't hear from him for several hours. Then every night since then, he has screamed bloody murder for at least an hour and a half and then it is taking me another half hour just to get him calm enough to sleep. Anytime I pick him up, he just struggles to get down so I put him back in his crib. I have been trying WIWO. Still just screams and screams. He just wants to get down and walk around. If I let him do that, I know that in an instant he would be giggling away with tears still in his eyes. I don't know what to do and I am starting to lose it.

Also, our naps are getting thrown off for the whole day. Ethan is waking at 5:30am after going to be around 9pm (when I finally get him to sleep) and he is a cranky mess by 6am which makes me a cranky mess by about 6:05am and I don't want to do this anymore I have tried putting Ethan down for a "nap" again at this time but he just play/fusses/cries in his crib and will not go to sleep. He will nap around 10am usually and for only 15 min. Should I be letting him sleep longer here? He will have a 1hr45min-2hr nap in the pm most days. He also wakes up 2-3 times a night still for no apparent reason other then to check that I am still alive and will still come to him.

I don't know what to do. I haven't heard my kid cry this much in his whole life. I am exhausted. I don't even know where to begin. It seems like everything is going along relatively smoothly and then one night or day that doesn't go perfectly, throws everything off.

Help!

TIA

[Tweakster]

Jenn what's happening with his teeth?  Can you post the day for us.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

I'm not sure with the teeth. I had thought maybe he was teething but I have given him tylenol and it doesn't seem to do anything. He has two bottom teeth and 4 top teeth. His upper canines have looked a little bit inflamed so that has been on my mind. But the thing is, if i just put him down and let him walk around, he is completely fine. So I am wondering if it's a bit of a power struggle since when he was with DH, he let him walk around again after bedtime. I don't even know if that makes sense. Argh...cannot think without sleep! I'll try pain meds again tonight and see if they do anything.

His day is looking like this:

Wake 5:30-6am
S: He goes down for 15 min anywhere from 10-10:30 when waking so early.
S: This I have tried tons of stuff. It seems to work best with 2hr45min A time. So napping from 1-3ish.
Bedtime: 7pm but hasn't actually gone to sleep before 9 for a week.

Its hard to say what a "normal" day is for us at this point as I have been trying all sorts of stuff just to get him to sleep. Some days he completely doesn't seem to need that am nap. Other days he is a zombie by 8am. I feel like he just needs to sleep for a whole day and night and then we can start over again...or maybe thats what I need.

I never would have thought that I would still be having sleep issues at 14 months old.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Today, with a wake up of 5:30am, he had a nap at 8:45-10am and then another nap starting at 12:45 which he is currently having right now. He is such a sleepy boy, I thought maybe we should catch up a little bit. Hopefully I have not thrown him way off.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

So yesterday looked like this:

Wake 5:30
S: 8:45-10am
S: 12:45-2:30pm
Bedtime: 7pm but took until 7:45 to fall asleep which is better then the past 7 nights.

His night was a little bit better being caught up on a little bit of sleep but we still had a nasty EW this morning of 5:15 so we are definitely going to have to do two naps again today. He is cranky as can be right now at 6:45am. I don't think the EW's are going to go away until I cut the am nap but then with such EW's, how do I cut the am nap? It's a vicious circle!

[Tweakster]

Hi there Jenn, honestly, sleep has gotten worse for us too :-)  If that's possible.  We have no normal days either, and you'll see the toddler board is full of kids not sleeping, regressing in their habits, refusing naps or taking too short naps and being OT and cranky.  It's the age I think.  Hugs!!!

Ok so it looks like he needs at least 5 hours to bedtime after a long nap, given the routines you are posting above and his refusal to go to sleep earlier...what about trying:
Awake 5:15
Nap @ 9:15 - 9:30
Nap @ 12:15 - 2:15
Bedtime asleep by 7:15

Hopefully if his waking gets a bit later, you will be able to alternate some 1 nap and 2 nap days.  Or this may just work for him until he's completely ready for 1 nap.

Its hard to say what a "normal" day is for us at this point as I have been trying all sorts of stuff just to get him to sleep. Some days he completely doesn't seem to need that am nap. Other days he is a zombie by 8am.

I think this indicates that he's not really ready for 1 nap just yet but if you can get him sleeping better at night, he may make the leap sooner.

I also agree that once you put him to bed, it's bedtime.  It's not a good age to start showing inconsistency really.  They do start to use that to their advantage and we have just witnessed this first hand with Finn.  They brains are just ticking away these days, like a runaway train lol. 

You definitely need to bring bedtime back at this point, it's too late I think.

Just my two cents really, we are no better off in our house at the moment so hoping I can help someone else get some sleep lol

He also wakes up 2-3 times a night still for no apparent reason other then to check that I am still alive and will still come to him.

What's happening here then, is he full on crying, or just babbling and/or mantra crying?  I think this may need some intervention, WI/WO or just even calling from outside his room 'it's sleepy time Ethan, go back to sleep' etc.  What have you tried?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Just my two cents really, we are no better off in our house at the moment so hoping I can help someone else get some sleep lol

Aww thanks! Sorry sleep over at your house isn't going well either! Somehow I just thought we would be past working on sleep by this point! What was I thinking!?!?!

What's happening here then, is he full on crying, or just babbling and/or mantra crying?  I think this may need some intervention, WI/WO or just even calling from outside his room 'it's sleepy time Ethan, go back to sleep' etc.  What have you tried?

He usually wakes up, stands up in his crib and cries "mama" over and over again. Sometimes if I call out to him from our bed (we are right across the hall from him) and I just say "mama's right here Ethan, its night night time" to which he responds with "hi mama". Occasionally he will go back to sleep after this but then sometimes that starts us off with him thinking we are playing so then he keeps saying "hi mama" "hi dada" and giggles and jumps in his crib for a while and then gets really OT and starts screaming his head off so I have to go in. If I go into his room, I just lay him down and say "night night Ethan" and he goes back to sleep. So I am not even sure why I need to go in there. He seems to have just developed seeing me as a prop even though I don't really do anything. I never even pick him up. I literally tip him over and leave.


I think your suggested routine for today looks good. We are pretty much on that right now. He went down for a am nap @ 9:10 and and I am just about to wake him up @ 9:25. Hopefully we can get a better wake up time so our days get a little bit back to normal!

Thanks so much for your help, Wendy!

~~~Sleepy vibes to Finn~~~

[Mom to M&M]

I definitely think he needs more time before bed. If he's taking a good hour nap from like 1-3, I wouldn't think he'd be ready for bedtime until 8. So by putting him down at 7, he's UT, then he fights bedtime so long that he ends up OT and then has a bad night! If you woke him at 9:25 today, I'd do nap from 12:15-2:15 and then 7:15 or 7:30 BT...

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Sorry it has taken me so long to come and update. I have the day home kids on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday which makes it just about impossible to write a post! Today they aren't coming until later!

So we now have a wake time of 4am But now he is sleeping though until then I did WIWO for 2 hrs and then he finally went back to sleep for 30 min so we got him out of bed at 6:30am. I don't understand this kid!

He will not, absolutely NOT, have an am nap with the other kids here. Even though he is in a quiet room and I do as much of a wind down routine as I can, he just wants to be playing. He will sit in his crib playing but not go to sleep. So these past 2 days he has only had one nap which I have started at 11:45. He has napped for 2hr 45min at this time so waking at 2:30. Then I have been putting him to bed at 7:30 but I am fairly certain he has been OT at this point.

Sooo......starting on Monday, I have kids full time mon-fri so if Ethan will not nap with them here, should I just keep trying that early nap? Unfortunately I have lost a lot of my flexibility to change things around which is super frustrating.

Maybe as Ethan gets a little bit used to having the other kids here, he will take an am nap. I hate being out of control like this!

[Tweakster]

Jenn how's it going?  I imagine you are busy with all the kids now but just wondering how little Ethan is handling this?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Hi Wendy!

Well....things have gotten a lot better in some ways. About a week ago, it honestly felt like something just clicked with Ethan. He started sleeping through the night. Just one night after nothing else had changed, he just did it and hasn't gone back so far. He is still waking early at about 5 usually but this morning I got him to go back to sleep until 7:15 which allowed him to only have one nap today. I am not really sure what happened but it really felt like he just sort of figured it out IYKWIM. I wouldn't mind him getting up a bit later as he is quite cranky if he wakes before 6:30 but at least I know that he is getting a good chunk of sleep at night.

Ethan loves having all of the kids around him but he just won't nap until they are also going down for a nap which works okay if I can get him to sleep later in the morning. Its a tough transition but I feel like we are making progress a little bit.

Thanks for checking in!

I hope Finn is doing well!