Sleep Schedules for Toddlers
Does anyone have a toddler that goes to bed at a decent time and how in the heck did you get them to do it?? Bekka is a night owl and can outlast me. I've tried everything. Routines, bath time then alittle massage, quiet time reading books and cuddling etc.... nothing works! Help!!!
How old is she?
And does she still take naps? When our son started staying awake in his bed till sometimes 11 pm or later, when we put him to bed around 9 - 9:30, my husband finally convinced me that it may be time to give up naps. We did, and he was so exhausted by bedtime, he fell right asleep (still around 9ish). We still had "quiet time" but most of the time it took more energy for me to enforce quiet time, so it didn't last long!
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
JessicasCandles@gmail.com
nap time
My son is weird he has to have a lot of sleep and is over 4. Up until about 2-3 months ago he took a 2 hour name during the day and still went to bed between 830-9 and slept until 7ish if I didnt wake him up. Once he started preschool (he stays for extended care until I get off work) they have movie time but they dont have to lay down just sit downa nd watch a movie. He informed me that he doesnt lay down or so to sleep (he is the only one that doesnt fall asleep) but he started going to bed at about 8-830 and still sleeping until 7 ish. Then I found out about a month ago he wasnt taking naps at daycare either (i really didnt give him ones at home unless he was very tired. And he goes to bed at 8 and falls right asleep and I wake him up at 6 inthe mornings during the week and he wakes up around 7 on his own on the weekend. I got lucky he loves his sleep.
She will be 4 in Feb
She takes random naps. I've never laid her down for one as a routine because she will scream till she throws up. And she tends to aspirate it and then it turns into pneumonia. So our case is a little different when it comes to "crying it out". She goes to preschool for 3 hrs every morning and on Wed she gets two hours of therapy in the afternoon and Thurs she gets one. After therapy she almost always falls asleep in the car because they wore her out. which is like at 3-4 in the afternoon. When she does nap it's 2-3 hours. The other day she fell asleep at 4:30PM I tried to wake her up but she was out! She slept until 3AM then fell back to sleep at 6 and I had to get her up at 7 for school. That is really unusual for her though. Most nights she's up till 11. Last night I laid in bed with her and got her to go to sleep at 9:30ish. My problem with continuing to lay with her until she goes to sleep is that I'm going to be going to college at night next month and I know that Daddy won't lay with her and she's getting a special "hospital like" bed soon as our insurance approves it and it's not very wide. Sorry so long! LOl
Melissa
Blessed to be Bekka's Mommy
Our miracle is gonna be Four on February 13th!!
1 lb 5 ozs 13" to 28lbs 36" Time sure flies!
Sugar?
Maybe sugar too close to bedtime? Even juice or something little. My son can't have anything chocolate within 3 hours of bedtime. Last night he had ONE ELFudge cookie after dinner, and he was buzzing around like he at the whole box of cookies and washed it down with a case of Mt. Dew!
I would say maybe try to cut her naps, when she takes them, down to 45 minutes or so. Enough to give her a little rest, because obviously if she sleeps so hard and long she needs it, but maybe by shortening it she will still be good and tired at bedtime? What time. That does make it a bit difficult when you can't just let her cry it out a few nights and teach her a lesson! But definitely not worth the health risks!!! What about the SuperNanny approach? Put her to bed, sit next to the bed, and night by night slowly move your chair out of her room? If this works, maybe by next month when you start school, she will be able to fall asleep without someone next to her, and it won't matter that dad doesn't lay with her!
Sleep is one thing we always tried to keep consistent! We rarely bent the rules, because even one time could have started something bad! I understand your situation is different with Bekka though. Good luck :)
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
JessicasCandles@gmail.com
sugar
I forgot about that. My son cant have sugar either. We went out to dinner MOnday night and I let him have dr pepper. He only gets that once in a while. He only drank half of the kid cup at 530 and he did go to sleep until after 10 that night. He was so tired but just couldnt go to sleep.
Sleep
I put my 3 year old to bed every night at 8pm. sometimes she lays down right away sometimes she doesn't but we still make her lay in bed. it's good for them to put themselves to sleep.
We used to
We are starting to get back into our routine, but when Jacob had Croup not long ago his sleep schedule was all screwy so we're still recovering from that. Prior to getting sick, Jake would go to bed between 7:30-8pm(he's 17 months), and our 4 year old would go to bed between 8-8:30pm.
Sleeping
I totally understand where you are coming from. I can't get my 4 year old son to go to bed. He is up until 11 almost everynight. Now tonight is going to be different because he did not have nap and he was falling asleep in the car on the way home just a half an hour ago. I think I know what our problem is. He needs to get up earlier in the morning. Dad works from home and lets him sleep in most mornings. Hopefully we can get this all figured out.
Getting Up
Ok we are now going to bed earlier. But that is because we cut the nap out. But we are crying in the middle of the night in our sleep. I can not get him to calm down. It normally takes about 20 minutes or longer to get him calmed down. I know that he is dreaming about something and that is why he is waking up. Last night I even asked him to open his eyes and he would not open them. So I know that he is having some sort of nightmere or something like that. But how do we get him to sleep through the night again? Can any one help????????????????
:(
Luke has been doing the same thing this past week. Not as bad as your son, but about 2 hours after going to sleep, he starts crying. He's always sitting up in his bed, but really not awake. He won't talk to us, so I know he's still half asleep. He usually calms down after a couple of minutes. It's happened 3 times this past week.
Could it just be stress or a change in his routine? What about a movie or cartoon that he may be watching?
Those were my first 2 thoughts, then I googled it and this link is from kidshealth.org:
www.kidshealth.org
Has he been sick lately, taking a new medication?
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn