at the edge...an exstreamly tired

[godgavevision]

I lost it last night....I have no patience left.  At 14 months our daughter has started a new thing for no aparent reason.  I used the book to get her to gently fall asleep..and it worked for 2 months after 6 weeks of easing the chair I sat in out of her room..  Now she wakes up crying 2 times a night and will not except anything but to be held untill she starts to drift off..  When I try to put her back down ,like I was able to do when she was younger , she screams.
  So now what..what do I do?
  She wakes at 7am
        bottle
        breakfeast 8am
        plays and relaxes with mommy
        nap 11:30 to 1
        bottle
        lunch  and hour later
        plays
        nap 4 or 4:30  for 1.5 hours
        diner an hour later
        plays
        bath 30 min before bed
        bed at 9

  She goes down easy for all these bed times
   At night she wakes at 1:30 and last night 5am both times demanding to be held..would not go back down..expects to fall asleep enough on us to be able to go back down. I tryed holding her down and patting her..she was furious.
  The problem is I am so tired an upset , that It takes me a long time to go back to sleep.  I am miserable..spent after 5 hours sleep and have no patience left.
  What do I do next..please help.

[aelita]

poor you. Maybe try cutting the afternoon nap and putting her to bed earlier, say around 7pm?

[Aarismom]

Aelita is right...cut the 4:00 nap and put her to bed earlier (between 6 and 7, or 7 and 8 since your lo gets up that time the next morning). Looks like she's overtired by the time she gets to bed at night, which will cause sleeping problems. You'll want to get her more rested at night by trying to put her to bed at an earlier hour so she has more sleepy time on the front end of her night.

We had a similar schedule set up for our lo before we started having nap problems. By putting her to bed between 6 and 7 pm, her naps improved for the most part, and she got 12 or so hours of sleep straight at night. She's never had a problem with night wakings, but then she's only 4 months old at this point, and it could still happen. Even though yours is 14 months, the same thing applies. Yours is just taking one nap a day instead of 2 or 3.

Oh, and trust me, she won't wake earlier just because you put her to bed earlier. Babies this age also hardwire their wake-up time into their system for awhile unless you manage to train a later wake-up time in. No matter what you do, you should be able to get her to go back to sleep until 7 am, but it may take several nights of putting her to bed early to get her rested enough to start sleeping through. Then again, that rule applies to most babies, not all.

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[tylersmommy]

It sounds to me like she isn't able to put herself back to sleep. What is her nap/bedtime routine like? Is she falling asleep on her own then, or do you hold her until she's asleep? Does she fight falling asleep? One of 2 things could be going on...she could be ready for 1 nap, or she might need to relearn how to fall asleep on her own. I'll check back and see if you've posted more info so we can figure it out!