Our youngest daughter is now 25 months old. Until one week ago, she was the perfect little sleeper. She used to regularly take a 1 1/2 to 2 hour afternoon nap and she would sleep almost 12 hours at night in her crib. As of last week, she figured out how to get out of her crib and she is not sleeping very well. She will only nap for our babysitter who comes 3 days a week and she will not go down easily for us at night or stay in her crib. The typical night now consists of her screaming and crying in her crib because she does not want to be left alone. We have had to sit by her crib until she falls asleep around 9 or 10PM. She has been waking up for the day any time between 4:15 and 6 AM. She climbs out of her crib and will NOT let us put her back to sleep even though she is exhausted and inconsolable. We tried to put her into an extra twin bed in our 4 year old's room but she does not want to stay there either. What do we do?
Lots of people have critized me for this, but it worked great! I would let my daughter watch tv in the living room with me, lights off, pjs on, snuggled in a blanked and when she would fall asleep we would carry her to her bed. And no she doesn't do this anymore. She is now 8 and is well adjusted and knows that bedtime means in bed.
L.,
I doubt this has as much to do with teething as it does with her new found developmental skill of climbing out of the bed. Once they can get out of bed sleep can become more challenging. As a Child Development Specialist and mom I would suggest:
*give her lots of chances to climb during the day to practice this motor skill and also tire her out in a good way
*put her mattress on the floor or give her a bed so she does not fall while climbing out
*put her to bed and put a gate on the door to her bedroom so she can't get out of her room which may mean two gates to cover the door since she can climb well
*put her to bed awake and DON'T wait with her until she falls asleep,part of learning to sleep is falling asleep alone when tired
*when she cries call to her every five minutes without her seeing you and say, "Mommy is here and it is time to sleep". Don't say anything else and keep your voice calm. Watch the clock because it can seem like a long five minutes. I did this with my son and the first night I went in 5 times and the second night once and then we were done.
*If she sleeps for the sitter that means it is behavioral. I often hear parents say kids sleep for sitters and not for them. Keep the rules the same and don't feel guilty!
*If she gets up at 4AM I would repeat the pattern of the night but if it is 6AM I would let her get up and then tire her out for a nap and repeat the night routine for nap if you have to. If you know your child is tired that is all the information you need to know you are doing the right thing. It is a battle of wills and this point and she needs to know who is winning this one.
Good luck. Let me know what works. I am very interested in sleep behavior. A.
Well I would make the transition to a big girl bed. She won't stay in it. Only one of my kids stayed in the bed when we made the transition. I would stand by the door and turn them right back around into bed. It got very tiring and it was exhausting the first few days but it paid off. Now the kids know they need to stay. That's not to say they test the boundaries every so often, but we continue to be consistent and we don't have a big issue with it. I think snuggling on the couch is great for special treats, but it gets harder to break them of these habits as they get older and once they start school they need to be on a schedule. What were the other kids like? What methods worked for you in the past? You have to do some tough love here, be consistent and be patient as you will have some work ahead of you. But it will be a huge pay off when you are able to have the peace you need in the evenings for yourself and spouse.
I wish I had good advice. I don't, but I can share with you that time helped in our situation. My son is 2 and a half and did not sleep through the night, or consistently at all, until he was 2. Once he started sleeeping, we realized that it was because of teething! He was a very early teether (got first 2 at 2.5 months) and had all (including 2 yr molars) in completely at 23 months. Because he was constantly teething outside of a few random weeks here and there for those first 2 years, he could never sleep comfortably. We tried every sleep solution around, with no success (except thoroughly letting him cry), but once those teeth were in, we didnt' have to do a thing. He went from us needing to lay next to his crib until 9/10, taking him for walks at 2/3AM, to literally, the very next night, going to bed and sleeping all night long w/out a problem. He is our first and we just didn't realized that he had been teething all that time. The few random weeks here and there that he would sleep, we always thought it was something new we were trying, but in hindsight, it was just his brief period where his teeth weren't coming in. One time, he had 7 coming in all at once- it was HORRIBLE!!!
Anyways, I"m guessing that your little one will go back to normal once those molars are in!
What does the babysitter do? Since you have four children (bless you)can you think of anything that might have happened with the others that was similar? My heart goes out to you. I have memories of just waiting and waiting for little people to fall asleep. Perhaps a little tylenol to help her pain would help. Good luck!
Visit The Sleep Lady's website (Google should get you there). I used her system and it worked for both of my kids. She has a book out, but there's great advice on the site alone.
If she is teething, then you might try giving her a dose of children's Tylenol about a half an hour before bed, to relieve the pain long enough for her to get to sleep. That should at least tell you whether or not it is due to the teething. If that doesn't help... you may have to ride it out. She may have just hit the terrible two's stage. If she's crawling out of the crib, she's probably ready for her own bed. I swapped my kids over to a twin bed with guard rails at about that age. She may also only be napping for the babysitter because she's exhausted from not sleeping at night - have the babysitter keep her up from her nap one of the days to see if she falls asleep faster at bedtime. Although she'll probably be a barrel of cranky until she falls asleep that night, it might help reset her schedule a bit to forego one nap.
Good luck!
I'd change her to a matress on the floor and either put a gate in her doorway and let her cry it out; or put her matress on the floor in your room. Choose what to do and stck with it. Also use tylenol for teething pain. But I think it's more her new skill then teething causing trouble.
My 3rd went through a rough patch like that but is now sleeping better. I gave him more activity during the afternoon and he would be ready to sleep earlier. Also, I would try to have her take an nap that was earlier in the afternoon starting about 12pm or 1 pm. Naps that start later than that can interfere with bedtime. Be aware that some 2 year olds will grow out of their naps at 2. My first 2 did. Good luck.
