Author Topic: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!  (Read 922 times)

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Offline RaesBeans

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23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« on: May 09, 2015, 03:34:43 am »
Would appreciate some advice, getting stressed out about my son's lack of sleep.

He's 23 months, has gone to bed at 7pm for months and months and up until a month ago woke up between 7-8. We do a bed time routine, the same one forever, no significant life changes going on.  He takes a 1.5-2.5 hour nap each day.

On to the problem. For the past three weeks he has been sitting in his crib awake and quiet for hours after being put to bed. This started leading to short naps and early wakings. We would try to compensate with early bedtimes but he would still sit there.
Tonight we put him to bed at 7 and he sat there until 945 and started crying. I went in and asked him if he pooped and he said yes so i picked him up to change him. He laid his head on my shoulder, closed his eyes and almost fell asleep. He was exhausted. I tucked him back in and he went to sit again, I told him no lay down it's time to sleep and rubbed his back. I left while he was still awake and he stayed laying down and went to sleep.

It's like he is forcing himself to stay awake, but why?

I've even seen him go to sleep for the night and wake up at like 1am and sit there for two hours! I wouldn't know any of this is going on without the camera in his room.

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2015, 05:14:08 am »
Hmm this age is a tough one with switching to one nap, growth spurts/development leaps &/or teething in the mix! Is he happy and himself during the day or tired and out of sorts? Do you notice more staying up/nw on days he has longer naps?
Heidi




Offline RaesBeans

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2015, 13:08:00 pm »
He's acting like he needs more sleep. He's always been a high sleep needs guy so this is extremely dramatic to be losing so much sleep. When he takes a long nap it seems to lower the amount of time he sits there, but it's still over an hour.
I felt so bad last night knowing he was so tired and was keeping himself up until he couldn't anymore 😢

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2015, 02:17:09 am »
What time of the day is his nap? To me it really seems developmental - that maybe he is getting ready for a language leap or a new skill...the thing is we can set the stage for sleep and encourage good habits for sleep but it is up to them to decide whether or not to sleep.  I have never had a video or sound monitor (just movement sensor with the audio off) so I never knew if they lay awake or what unless they call out or cried. It just worked better for me that way!
Heidi




Offline RaesBeans

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2015, 14:30:22 pm »
He's definitely starting to construct sentences.
He naps at 1230.
You think it will pass then? His sleep regressions were always around two weeks and with this one going on four I get very concerned about him getting the sleep he needs.

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2015, 15:00:17 pm »
Well it should pass...but he may need a tweak in his routine too. If anything I would say to try and consistently push the nap a bit later and cap it to see if it helps, those long nw's make me think UT as well as developmental. I think with a long nap he may be a bit UT at bedtime but then gets OT after he cannot settle to sleep at a decent time.  The other option is to push bedtime back a bit.
Heidi




Offline Kellyjs

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2015, 19:35:27 pm »
If it helps any, we are pretty much in the same boat. It's like she's fighting sleep for some reason. It's always taken her 30mins to go to sleep at night but now it's nearing an hour. Capping the nap from 1.5hrs to 1.25hrs didn't help any as did pushing BT later. Today for example, we went to a BBQ and couldn't get her in bed until 7.45p. And she's only just this minute gone quiet. And that's on 1.25hr nap!

We however are on a ASN routine so up at 6,30, nap 12.45-2.15, BT 7.15 asleep by 7.45 but recently has been 8.05-8.15pm. I'm hoping it's developmental as she is trying to formulate sentences and trying more with her talking.

As Heidi says though, we aren't getting UT NW like you, so a routine tweak might be in order, but just thought I'd let you know what's happening here!  ;)



Offline RaesBeans

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2015, 17:22:34 pm »
Thank you so much for your advice and comments; I'll try some more tweaking with our schedule.
Much appreciated!

Offline RaesBeans

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2015, 17:24:55 pm »
At 23 months, what is a good/average awake time before and after nap?

Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: 23 month taking hours to go to sleep. Help!
« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2015, 05:04:08 am »
Honestly hard to say...mine were all so different! DD2 did 4.5/5 hrs A before and after her nap where DD3 does 6 hrs or more before and after nap, and may be doing nnd's very shortly.
Heidi