I could REALLY use some help! Panicking w/ baby on the way...

[bbandit]

Hello everyone!  I don't post here much, but I have been a Baby Whisperer fan for 3 years.  I used Tracy's book to teach my 10 week old daughter to sleep through the night and fall asleep on her own.  It worked wonders.  She went from being bounced or rocked for 20 minutes to falling asleep without tears by herself.  She has continued to sleep peacefully and on her own since then.  She is now a couple of months shy of her 3rd birthday.  Well, in the last couple of weeks something has changed and I can't put my finger on what it is.  In the past 2 1/2 weeks or so her wake up time has become earlier and earlier.  She's literally shaving off 5 or 10 minutes EVERY single day.  2 weeks ago she was consistently waking up between 7:20 and 7:30 (and has for as long as I can remember).  Over the course of the last few weeks she has woken up earlier every day and we are now down to 6:03 a.m.  I'm pretty stressed about this because I have a new baby arriving in less than 6 weeks and I really don't want 2 kiddos up this early.  I'll give you a run down of my daughters sleep patterns to see if it can help you guys figure out what might be going on.

She goes down for a nap between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.  Her nap length varies from about an hour and a half to 2 hours long.  Occassionally it's longer than that, but not usually.  Dinner time is around 5:30 or 6 p.m. 

Here is her bedtime routine:
7p.m.  Her and Daddy head upstairs
brush teeth
go potty
put on jammies
turn out lights except for a lamp
pick out two stories
read the stories
sing 3 songs
say a prayer
lights out and Daddy is gone by 7:30 p.m.

At first, I thought maybe she was getting TOO much sleep with 12 hours at night and around 2 hours during the day.  BUT, I started paying attention to how quickly she falls asleep and I no longer think this is the case.  At night she is asleep within a couple of minutes.  At nap time, she's usually asleep in about 5 minutes.  She is always yawning before nap time and bed time as well.

My next thought was maybe she was waking up because she needed the bathroom.  She doesn't like to wet her pull ups now that she's potty trained.  A few days in a row she was waking up wet (and her pull up was still warm) so I thought maybe this was stirring her to wake up.  BUT, yesterday and today she was dry when she woke up so the wet diaper is not the culprit. 

I'm at a loss.  I don't know what to do.  We've tried putting her down at 8 and that didn't help.  We've tried making her nap time later and earlier and that didn't work.  I'm just completely confused and don't know what to try next.  I mean, if she continues with this pattern we will be awake BEFORE six by tomorrow and who knows how early by next week. 

ANY SUGGESTIONS at all?  Have I possibly overlooked something?  I'm open to any advice or opinions!!!

Thanks so much!

Trisha

[Mariek]

Hi Trisha

Firstly, congratulations on the impending arrival - only 6 weeks to go, how exciting!!

I'd say you're probably on the right track with your first thought tbh. At 3 yrs they should be getting about 12 hours sleep total (the babycentre website has a good article on this http://www.babycentre.co.uk/general/7645.html). So if she's getting a two hour nap in the day then you wouldn't expect her to sleep 12 hours overnight.

I think the answer is probably either a later bedtime or doing away with the afternoon nap. My DD is 25 mths old and we had a similar problem in that she was waking earlier and was more difficult to put down so we cut out the afternoon nap and she's now sleeping 7pm to 8am (which suits us better because the earlier bedtime means DH and I get to have some of the evening together.

HTH and hope all goes well with the birth.

love

[bbandit]

Thanks for the advice.  I think maybe I'll try shortening her nap first.  I'm just not ready to give up her nap yet (especially with the new baby), and I really don't feel like she is either.  Most days she is yawning by noon or 12:30 and she often time will tell me when she's ready to go up to nap.  BUT, I have noticed that if she naps later (say 2 p.m. instead of 1 p.m.) that her nap is usually SHORTER...not sure why.  So, maybe I could try making nap late and letting her sleep just an hour or so??? That way, I'd be cutting down on her sleep hours but still get to keep the nap...the best of both worlds! =)  I'll give it a whirl. 

She's always been very dependent on her regular sleep (my mom says I was the same way).  That's why this all came as such a shock to me.  Since waking at 6, she starts telling me at 11 a.m. or so that "she's very tired".

Thanks again,
Trisha

[imsmum]

We shorted our lo's nap around age 3 to 1 hour or she wouldn't go down until very late at night.  It worked and she finally gave up the nap at age 4 when she attended JK.  Good luck!

[bbandit]

Thanks!  We're going to give that a shot!

Trisha

[rach]

Hi Trisha

I agree with the advice already given, to try shortening your dd's afternoon nap.  My dd over the last few days has skipped her afternoon nap and by teatime when I get her home from the childminder's she is sooooo grizzly - doesn't make for a pleasant evening.

While she isn't waking earlier in the morning, she has started to wake during the night (she has also been ill recently).  I plan to work on getting an afternoon nap back after lunch, even if its just for an hour, and we're slowly but surely working on the night waking!

Keep us posted with how this goes, and good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

Rachel xx