Sleeping advice

[ilovebed]

Em has always slept a lot. Until a couple weeks ago she was taking a 2-3 hour nap on weekends and routinely slept from 7:30/8-7:30/8. All of the sudden it's really hard to get her down by even 9 PM. It takes several attempts to get her down and she just won't go to sleep. It used to take me literally less than 5 minutes to get her down and now it's taking an hour. The other thing is now she's waking up ridiculously early in the morning. I'm talking 4:45 A FUCKING M in the morning. This morning I let her come in bed with us thinking she'd go back to sleep but she was wide awake! She was talking to herself and moving around. In the past, if she woke up in the morning she'd at least go back to sleep with us for an hour or longer.
How does a kid go from getting 12 hours of sleep at night to 8? Not a gradual change either. It just started happening maybe a couple weeks ago. I moved her into a toddler bed about 2 months ago or so and that transition went fine. A tad harder to get her down but she was still sleeping a good 11-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I almost feel like she doesn't need a nap anymore? But at daycare she's in a class that naps until age 4. And frankly, I'll be dammed if I'm going to give up that nap so easily. What do you think? Developmental? Time of year? We have a huge quilt hanging over her window so the sunlight doesn't come in. She will be 3 July 6th FWIW.

[dana86]

Maybe try one of those kids clocks that turns from red to green when it's ok for her to get out of bed in the morning? That is quite the jump of change but I can't say I haven't dealt with something similar with M. Even after dropping her nap it didn't help make her sleep longer or better. It just made longer days for me lol.

I would say maybe just make sure to keep to a set routine for bedtime and in the mornings reinforce that it is not time to get up yet and that she needs to stay in bed until it is time to get up. Usually with M of it's much earlier than when she should be up I get her back in bed, sometimes a struggle but usually she falls back asleep or will lay there until it is time.

[alias]

My first thought was to try cutting out or cutting back her nap. E sleeps 12 hours, but he doesn't nap more than an hour at daycare (although nap time is 2 hours) and on the weekends he only sleeps in the car. I can't imagine him taking a 2-3 nap and sleeping 12 hours. How long is nap time at daycare?

Also, E has been a good sleeper, sleeping 12 hours since he was about 10 months, going to bed w/ no issues. Never had to sleep train. Then, at 18 months, BOOM, would NOT go to bed, screamed, woke up in the middle of the night, screamed. I wanted to kill myself. It was developmental, but I had to do some sleep training to get him back on track. I did some trial and error and took suggestions and what worked was (in addition to a regular bedtime routine), explaining to him that he had to go to sleep, that I would stay with him, but only if he laid down in bed. This at first required me leaving and coming back and repeating this process several times. When he finally stayed laying down, I'd sit next to the crib, over time, move farther away, and then leave. It took about 2 weeks to get him going to bed on time, without crying and STTN, but I've had no issues since. I also had to move back his bedtime an hour b/c he just needed less sleep and daylights savings was BS. For E, I think it was lots of developmental issues, separation anxiety, and needing less sleep.

Does she need more activity to tire her out?

Also, E will stay and bed and play and talk to himself for a while in the mornings. He just does that. But, is there something you could give her that would make her happy to play alone for a while and not wake you up? Or could you try to explain she can play in her room, but shouldn't come get you unless she really needs something?

[jennlin]

i hate you guys with your good sleepers.

the get out of bed clock is a good idea. she's old enough to understand that. i do think time of year may have something to do with it...bjl keeps asking me why it's light out when we're trying to sleep. does she have black-out-blinds in her room?

[mrslefty]

May 12, 2015 8:55:00 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i hate you guys with your good sleepers.

the get out of bed clock is a good idea. she's old enough to understand that. i do think time of year may have something to do with it...bjl keeps asking me why it's light out when we're trying to sleep. does she have black-out-blinds in her room?

H still gets up 2-3...maybe 4 times per night. So I'm over here glaring at all the good sleepers too

[karebear219]

BKB has been getting up early too the last couple weeks. I think it is the sunlight. It's super annoying. I need to talk to H about shutting he door more after she goes to sleep so it's dark in there until we get her.

It sounds to me like she might be dropping her nap. Bkb started dropping her name at that age. She still naps every day at school, but she doesn't always at home.

We still do quiet time during nap time. I tell her she doesn't have to go to bed, but she can play in bed during quiet time. She stays in there for an hour, some times a little longer if I am having a rough day or need to get something done.

We'll skip quiet time if we have a busy day, but most of the time I still have her take it. Especially if she is sick or growing. When bkb does nap she is usually up for an hour to two hours before going to sleep at night.

When we put her to bed she always plays for at least 30 minutes to an hour before she falls asleep. Since she is happy in her room I don't worry about it. After a while we'll check on her and remind her to get some rest soon so she has energy to play later.

The clock is a good idea if blb gets up all the way when she wakes up. Bkb stays in her room 99% of time until we get her, so we don't have a need for one yet.

[jamer]

May 12, 2015 13:58:58 GMT -5 mrslefty said:

May 12, 2015 8:55:00 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i hate you guys with your good sleepers.

the get out of bed clock is a good idea. she's old enough to understand that. i do think time of year may have something to do with it...bjl keeps asking me why it's light out when we're trying to sleep. does she have black-out-blinds in her room?

H still gets up 2-3...maybe 4 times per night. So I'm over here glaring at all the good sleepers too

Thank god I was afraid to ask again

[ilovebed]

karebear219 that sounds like Em except that now she is actually getting up and coming in to our room. I need to train her to stay in there. Maybe the green/red light is a good idea. When she was still in her crib I suspect she was actually awake a lot more than I know about. She just wasn't able to get out.

We actually took this really thick quilt and hung it up over her window so it's completely blocking out the light. One of the problems is that her bedroom door is literally right next to the top of the stairs and out baby gate makes a lot of noise when you open it. In the next couple of months we are moving her to her new "big girl room" which is as far away from household commotion as possible so I'm wondering if that will help her.

Within 20 seconds of H opening that door to go downstairs in the morning (around 6 AM) she's out of her bed.