How do you find a routine and stick with it?

[Carmela's Mom]

I can't believe I'm the one posting this.  My daughter is 18 months old and was always a very routine kid.  She would wake up the same time each day, get tired and go in for a nap around the same time, wake up again and go to bed around the same time...and now something has happened.  I have no clue WHAT happened but for a LONG time now I'm dealing with a totally different routine (i.e. NONE) and a totally different kid.  She wakes up anywhere from 5 to 7 a.m.  On average, I'd say at 6:15.  I try to go for nap 5-5.5 hours after wake up so if she woke up at 6:15, she'd go for a nap around 11:30.  Nap is never earlier than 11.  Usually at 10:00 I give her a snack to keep her awake up until 11:30.... if she wakes up at 5:00, she stays in her crib until 7:00 and usually will doze off again so she will stay awake until 11:30 but of course not today....she's up at 5:05 and still going strong with her whining!  I tried to pat/shh but it didn't work.

How did you go about finding that perfect routine?  Did you just put them on it and let them adjust?  My daughter seriously will just talk and talk the ENTIRE nap if I put her in when she's either not tired enough or too overtired.  I am at a loss here and seriously no clue what to do.  Also nap lengths are now about 1-1.5 hours long.....

[jessica and emilys mummy]

I think as they get older they change their routine.
I have an early riser (well 2 actually),but Emily used to wake about 7am then nap at 11.30.Now she wakes between 5.45-6.15am and although she's tired by 11.30 I can't get her into bed.It seems she now likes to have lunch at 11.30 and then when we take Jessica to Nursery at 12.10pm she generally falls asleep on the way back.She'll sleep for about 2-2.5hrs and is quite happy to go to bed at her normal bedtime of 6.25pm.
what time does you lo go to bed?

[Carmela's Mom]

Bedtime for Carmela is between 6:30 and 7...with the very very occasional 7:30 (if she sleeps longer than 2 hour nap which is VERY rare).

[elfin]

I found this age to be very tough as well.  Myles was having early wakings (sometimes as early as 4:30am  :shock: ), would often protest nap and/or bedtime, etc..  I don;'t know if it had to do with molars and eyeteeth, or so many new developmental milestones, or what.  But I just tried to stay consistent as possible, and ensured that he was falling asleep independently and that we didn't create any new bad habits.  So trust me, I can sympathize!  We would have good days and some not so good days, but every day was a new day.  I really just learned to relax about it (I know easier said than done!), and just kind of go with the flow.

Maybe try and increase her awake time before her nap?  Myles was usually good for 6-6.5 hours after waking in the am before he needed his nap.  Are you still going in to settle her at naptime?  If you are this may be a bit of a culprit.

[LisaM]

Just wanted to say we are also going through a bit of a rough patch and our routine changes daily depending on what unearthly hour my dd (18 months old) decides to get up that day!!  Today was 5.15am and I am useless that early.  She is normally only sleeping 10 hrs at night now used to be 11 hours and her nap is only about 1 - 1.5 hours long so is definately not having as much sleep as she used to.  We have been trying to keep her up longer to see if longer awake time helps.  I thought things were improving slightly but since the clocks changed it has got worse again.  If only I had a crystal ball and knew how long she would sleep for her nap I could know when to put her down for her nap to make bedtime OK!

Oh well, we have been up for 4 hours now, only another 2 to go before nap time.  Good luck to us all during this phase.

PS - dd is definitely teething so maybe that doesn't help with the early starts.

Lisa x

[Carmela's Mom]

Today was 4:30 a.m.!!!!!  Yesterday was 5:05 a.m.!!!!  What the hell!  I try to keep her up for 6 hours, but normally by 5-5.5 she's DONE so we are now at 5.5 hours....she does go longer sometimes before bed if she doesn't get a good nap.  She isn't teething that I know of.....this sucks.  The first trimester of pregnancy is tiring enough without being up at 4:30

[LisaM]

Carmela

I really sympathise with you and just realised how much worse it must be for you as you are pregnant and I remember just how exhausted I was then - I keep thinking that everything they do is a phase so it will change at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Good luck and lets hope tomorrow is the day they sleep in later!

Lisa xx

[Carmela's Mom]

This is TOUGH!  Last night she woke up at 2:45 and didn't go back to sleep until after 3:30...then she woke up a lot until 5:00.  Then woke up for the morning at 6:20.  I just can't figure her out.  She goes in fine so is obviously tired.  This is her routine lately.

6:20 awake (after being up all night or morning)
7:00 I go get her...when she wakes she plays until I can go in there, milk
8:00 breakfast
9:30 snack (usually just leftovers from breakfast)
11:00 lunch
11:30-1:30 nap
2:30 snack
5:30 dinner
6:00 bath
6:30 snack & milk
7:00 bedtime

[Khyan & Sahria's mum]

I'm right there with you !

We start our day mostly at 5am at the moment but it can be 4.30am or sometimes if I'm REALLY lucky he will let me sleep in  :? till 5.30am  :roll:

For us this has been going on probably 1 month and yep I agree being pregnant is tiring enough without waking at the crack of dawn.

I am finding that his wakes seem to coincide with the sunrise and the light coming thru his curtains so I have put foil back on them tonight and we will see if it makes any difference over the next couple of days - fingers crossed

Other than that I have no real advice obviously but I'll tell you what I do... I used to be so annoyed by it and angry and just frustrated and then I realised that nothing I did was changing it and now I go to bed somewhere between 8.30 - 9.30pm and hope for only a couple of night wakings that are quick ones  :? and then accept that I will be starting my day at 5am then I nap when he is napping during the day and realise that that is just the way my life is at the moment until I feel alittle less tired. Although I fought the early wakings for at least 3 weeks before I gave up I keep hoping that it's a phase (possibly developmental) and that things will change real soon. I find that by assuming I will be up at 5am I am really excited if he sleeps to 5.30am - strange I know but it seems to work for me  :wink:

As for the night wakings if you know that she isn't teething then the only other thing that makes Khyan stay awake that long in the night is illness and I usually find that in the next couple of days the symptoms start to show. Thinking that he is probably getting sick when I'm up with him for hours at a time helps with my patience  :wink:

Saying all of this I REALLY hope that she isn't coming down with something - maybe it's just developmental !

Regardless big hugs to you I hope that you get the much needed sleep and rest that you so need REALLY soon

xx