My fourteen month old daughter has been giving me a hard time getting her to go to sleep. I think I might need to reestablish a routine and after a bath have some down time with books and not allow her to play with toys. She gets excited crawling around and her new thing is standing up and holding onto the furniture so I guess it makes her rambunctious. Aside from teething or lack of an air-conditioner in her room (her room is tandem to an adjoining room; her window is between the two rooms thus not allowing an a/c to properly drip if there is water; there is a ceiling fan and I tried a floor fan to no avail) I think a routine now that she is getting older might help. Any ideas?
Sounds to me like the excitement of reaching her milestones is keeping her from wanting to sleep. Another thing you can try is a white noise machine.
I just answered a similar question from another mom. There are a few things to try to help her soothe herself to sleep. Fish tanks (small ones are fine) with enough fish for her to watch (half a dozen goldfish should do it), are very helpful, the motion of the fish imitate rem sleep and tricks the brain to sleep. Having a voice in the room is a wonderful tool for children all the way to age 9 or 10. I suggested to the other mom, a talk radio station perhaps. I created a CD with over an hour of narrated stories for children which many of my customers play for very young children or infants to help them sleep, (though they were designed with pre-school age children in mind). Or record your own voice singing and play that when she goes to bed.
We have a routine in our house. When my 2 girls, now 4 & 7, were younger, we started with "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer, then when my 7 yr old was 5, she wanted to do more. So now we also do the Lord's Prayer. We do this as a family group in their room. We only have a night light on when we do this. Then put them to bed & turn off the light.
But the real magic is music. Since the 7yr old was a baby, we have played a lulliby CD. Works for bedtime and daily naps (when they needed them). They could not fight the calming of the music. Even when fighting to get them down, They would be sleeping by the end of the second song. First song was "Twinkle, Twinkle". Having a favorite blanket and/or stuffed toy also helps calm when you make it consistant with bedtime.
I find when they are hot, they don't go to bed as readily. We had a recent heat wave and it took nearly 2 hrs to get her to go down!
Also - right before she started to walk, she DID NOT want to sleep. In fact, I would say before all those big developmental steps, she slept terribly!
Does she have a walker? Fisher Price makes this great lion walker/rider that retails for like $40! Might get her to expel some of that extra energy!
good luck!
what worked to calm and sooth my daughter at bedtime was to use the lavendar/chamomille scented baby bath (Johnson and Johnsopn in the purple bottle) It worked like aromatherapy, the lavendar and chamomille scent really had a calming effect on her.
Yes, a routine sounds like it's definitely in order. It makes things so much easier though it may take a few days to click. No play time after bath, that's the first...play time more often than not at that time of the evening just riles them up. A few stories or looking at books, a song or two and if she's still breastfeeding a little of that (or a bottle)...a little rocking or some soothing humming works too. Lay her down when she's just starting to close her eyes...rub her belly or back a little then slip out of the room. She may wake up a little but she'll get w/ the routine soon enough. The more soothing the routine the better. :)
Before bed, yes, let her wind-down... so she doesn't get over-stimulated.
Make everything dark and quiet.
If you read to her, just turn on 1 lamp.
Use soft voices. Not excited voices.
She has new motor-skills, so babies do get more active.
But make before bed, REAL 'boring' and dark and quiet.
Make it a routine, every single night.
Then prompt her with your voice, "bed time soon... quiet time now...." and then every night say the same thing. Over time, it will 'cue' your child, to bedtime. And then it will help them transition...
Do the same routine every night, in the same room, in the same sequence. Over time, that will also 'cue' the child to bedtime. And when she is older, it will get easier. It takes consistency.
My kids are older now... but we have had the SAME routine, before bed and naps, as when they were a baby... and we never have any 'battles' to go to sleep or nap.
The daily routine and consistency is important... and then it gets more like auto-pilot.
My kids, take about 1/2 hour to wind-down PRIOR to bedtime.
Also make sure she naps. Because an over-tired baby/child, actually gets more hyper and has a harder time falling asleep and sleeping and wakes more. And they have a harder time, calming down.
all the best,
Susan
Routines at 14 months should be short and tactile. I felt like every few months as their world and awareness enlarged I had to reestablish and reinforce the routine. I used Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems as reference for 13 years for all the sleep issues that surfaced, understanding sleep issues was important since I had insomnia as a child,. It usually took one tough week of strong reminders that I was the Mom and this is bedtime and our routine. Then we both looked forward to that time. I think at 14 mo they are not too picky about the temp. I am not the best at keeping to routines, but the bedtime one is sacred and brings incredible sanity to us all.
