So scared of APing please help!

[LeeLeeMelis]

My son will be two in a few weeks and I am at my wits end with his sleep. It is taking him over an hour and a half to get to sleep at night lately. For naps he sometimes falls asleep on his own but at night I'm usually having to hold him to sleep and it is taking FOREVER! Naps are off, he is coming out of a month of being sick, company and teething. I want to give him the cuddles he needs but I'm so afraid of making  habit. Last night he simply wouldnt go to sleep, he just laid in my arms, we'd go from his reading corner to the chair, he wanted books he wanted everything but sleep. Finally I took him downstairs to sorta start our night over again. He had a snack and milk and fell asleep in the chair at about 11 and slept till 5:30 where we fell asleep together on the floor in his reading corner till 7:30. 

I have no idea where to adjust his nap when this happens. Please tell me this is a phase and my not so great sleeper is just feeling it full force right now.

Thank you!
Melissa

[momtonb&ab]

hey there!

can you give us an idea of what a regular day looks like for you?  what is your routine?  how does he eat? do you medicate for teeth?

teething can be a beast then it comes to sleep, but 11-5:30 definately means overtired for days coming, so if your last few days have been like this then we are working from OT.   how long has he been on one nap (assuming he is)....how much daytime sleep does he get?

i suspect you are going to have to use wi/wo to get him settling himself, and probably some really really early nights.  we are here, will do our best to get you through.   

[LeeLeeMelis]

Prior to the last month a regular day was
7am wake up
12-2:00-2:30ish nap
7pm bedtime
We go for a walk or run almost every morning he gets good play time, he'd watch tv all day long if I let him but I limit it to a half hour when I am showering in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon while I make dinner and for him to settle down a bit in case he is tired. We play outside a lot if its not too hot and we get together with our friends across the street almost every day, they're best buds. He eats very well (if his teeth arent bothering of course), we have had nothing out of the ordinary as far as eating goes. He would also drink milk all day long if I gave it to him.

We had two weeks of him being sick, a week of company and then a week of teething. Last week was the first week of nothing obvious in terms of sick, teething etc. I did medicate for teething with tylenol before bed and orajel if he seemed really hurting or told me it hurt.

I am thinking that he may be ready to drop some sleep at naps or at bedtime but I really dont want to make him OT. He is VERY easily affected by OT and always has been. I'm totally fine with early nights, on days he missed a nap I got him down at 6 and he go till 6:45 or so.  Up until a few weeks ago he was able to put himself to sleep after on a minute or two of crying. It's hit or miss lately. Oddly enough though after the night we had he is a very happy and un-grumpy boy today. I'm not arguing!!

I really appreciate your take on things, thanks so much!
Melissa

[momtonb&ab]

my suggestion would be to get him to be super early for a fwe days to make up for that terrible night and the other rough nights.  i suspect his difficulty settling is probably at least part OT.   i wouldn't shorten his nap until you have a good night or two, then i would say if you think the nap needs shortening just cut it by 15 mins or something.

i would also suggest using walk in/walk out to re-establish independent sleep.   sounds like a gentle reminder for him of how this going to sleep thing works would really help

[LeeLeeMelis]

Wes refused a nap yesterday but then fell asleep with us while we tried to keep him relaxed a bit on the couch. He slept from 1:45-3:15. I got him to bed at 7:15 and it took until 9:05 doing wi/wo to get him down. He woke at 4:50 and I took him into bed.I know that's probably not the best but the kid needs some sleep and we have friends coming over today so I had to get him some sleep. He woke for the day at 6:25.  Hopefully he wont be miserable today and get a nap.

[mylittlelovelies]

Hi there
Just wondered if your DS is generally low or high for sleep needs?

If you're aiming for a 12hr night and a 2.5hr nap...thats 14.5hrs total sleep in 24hrs...which for my DD (who is on the lower end of sleep needs) thats WAY more than she would ever have..in fact DD2 who is only 1 year old is probably dipping her total sleep to about 13.5hrs already...so i wouldn't be expecting 14.5hrs from her at 2years old.

Anyway! you know your LO..but if you suspect that the TOTAL sleep is dropping a bit, but you want to keep your long nap, then i would think you might need to make bedtime a little later. You might find that a 7:30 or 8pm bedtime means he is just that bit more tired and doesn't fight you. With both my daughters, stalling or resistance at naps or bedtime means UT. However, i agree with the previous posts that you need to recover from being OT first...so once you get back to having a well rested little boy, you might want to decide where to cut some sleep so that betimes aren't a battle. Sometimes just half an hour later means they conk straight out and then you get more sleep from them overnight because you don't spend hours battling bedtime.

good luck!

[LeeLeeMelis]

Thanks so much Clajy, At the moment I"m trying to get him down for a nap and tells me he wants to go night night when I go to sit in the chair for a story, then when I move towards the crib he tells me he wants to sit and read a book, back and forth. The little stinker is trying to make Mommy look like a robot!! I'll do wi/wo for nap today. I have some errands to run so if he doenst nap he can rest in the car. We'll try for a good bedtime again then we'll adjust the timing of things. Just gotta get him rested a bit more!

I'll keep you posted!