We have been having lots of sleep issues lately, initially due to illnesses. When that went away, there was the issues of too cold, too warm, blanket, etc, followed by later and later bt. Childcare suggested to try for offering DS to choose if he wants to nap or rest either on the couch or quiet activities and it started yesterday.
I was expecting DS to be very tired at pick up and on the way home but he was coping really well after a short 10.5h night. However, he still couldnt fall asleep earlier than 9:30pm. Oh and we went to daylight saving time one week ago. Last night at 2:30am, he was screaming probably from his dream and OT. He woke at his usual wake time 7:40, so an hour earlier than before the time change.
Today, he was tired and had very short night, 10h with a NW, so we offered him to rest on the couch to read or sleep and he feel asleep reading and napped 3-4pm. He was tired, he was tired when he woke up, and he was tired the rest of the afternoon. I think he is asleep or almost there now at 9:30.
My questions are:
1) we were obviously hoping that by removing the nap, he would go to sleep earlier and have a longer night. How long would it take to see that happening?
2) he is also going through a developmental leap and so dreams disturbed his sleep a lot, so would it be like treating it as sleep training that we dont sleep train when he is going through a growth spurt?
3) do we need to try our best to keep him up the whole day to "encourage" the switch? As i have read that some of you do a few no nap days and then add in a nap to avoid OT, how do you work out the frequency? I offered the rest time today and DS fell asleep. He was obviously very tired.
4) has anyone's lo has such a biological clock like DS that is so difficult to change? What have you tried to help them?
5) due to lots of big changes, losses, illnesses and growth spurt, DS has been feeling insecure and wanting us to stay with him till he has fallen asleep. It goes back to the same question about sleep training, we are trying to help him calm down to fall sleep as he gets totally panicky if we even step out to the loo and he has difficulty falling asleep even when he lays there very quietly and yawning, or are we the prop that prevent him from sleeping?
