Ok moms!
My 16 month old's sleeping is crazy. Normally we lay her down for bedtime anywhere from 7pm-8pm. Sometimes she will sleep intill about 5am maybe 6am. This is only if she has had hours and hours of out door play!! Now for the bad nights, most of the time she gets up like today anywhere from midnight-3am. Will NOT go back to sleep. I try everything, letting her cry it out, pat her back (while still in crib) tell her it's night night time, rock etc etc. She just screams. She wants to get up. So I have been coming in living room with her. (we have to share room with her) When we are in here. She sits and watches tv. Wants a cup of juice and maybe cereal. Around 6am..she is soooo tried it's crazy. She rubs her eyes and whines and cries. She finally falls asleep normally on couch. I put her back in crib. Now I have to get my oldest up and off to school. I'm so tried and sleepy. I don't know what to do anymore. She will sleep intill like 8-9am. he weather has been wonderful here past few days so I take her out and play about 2-3 hours. She was sleeping all night then. But what do I do when weather is bad? When she's not getting enough play? Which it's not just that because we can stay in and sometimes she will sleep all night. Sometimes she won't. But of the time it's a bad night. If anyone has any suggestions please help me. I'm so tried of not getting any sleep.
When she wakes up and we watch tv, yes she has juice and most of the time cheerios. After a while she is tried. But she fights her sleep so bad when she gets up. But naptime and bedtime she goes to sleep on her own. So i don't know. Her naptime is normally 1-2hours a day.
Try giving her some protein before bed. Carnation Instant Breakfast worked for my kids.
It could also be that she's over-tired. Does she nap during the day?
Hi there,
Virtually the same thing happens with my son at night. He is 17 months old. Last night he woke up at 3am, I tried to get him back to sleep for an hour. I thought he had fallen asleep so I tried to put him in the crib and he woke back up. I sometimes have a little makeshift bed out in the livingroom or his bedroom floor (it's just a comforter folded in half for cushion and some pillows on the floor) I'll just lay there with him and he can roll back and forth until he falls asleep. If he has been awake for one hour without falling asleep, I turn on the TV and let him watch it for a bit. Then after the shows over, I turn off the TV and we try to go to sleep again. I am usually successful.
If he doesn't go back to sleep in that first hour, I change his diaper, offer him a drink and a snack and then he watches the show. I am very tired today so I know how you feel. My son has always been this way though so I am starting to get used to it. Besides ignoring her, I'm not sure there is much you can do if you've ruled out all the reasons she might be waking up. She obviously needs you in the night.
Hang in there!
If she's screaming so crazily, maybe she has an ear infection and it's bothering her. On the 'high-volume of play' days, she's so tired the ear pain doesn't bother her? I don't know. Just a thought.
I agree maybe if she's waking to eat, maybe she needs a snack before bed. My son (23mo) is in the 15th percentile, so often, if he doesn't eat all of his dinner, or at least all of his meat (protein makes people stay fuller longer), we will eat some crackers or cereal and/or rasins while drinking milk and reading a book before bedtime. Then we brush teeth, then we rock and go to bed. When he doesn't want to go to bed, we put his stuffed animals to bed and tell them night-night. He loves that. We give kisses to the animals and he puts them in his crib.
Your daughter should be able to sleep through the night w/o playing outside every day. 2-3 hours is a long time. I hope you're using sunscreen! Hang in there. This could just be a weird phase. She could just be needy and want you. Could be teething too? Maybe molars are coming in and it's more painful?
It sounds to me, too, like she's waking up because she's hungry. I'd offer her a snack before bedtime to tie her over for a few hours. It also sounds like, perhaps, she's going to bed too early.
how many naps/day is she taking and for how long?
When our kids are bound inside and have pent-up energy, we set-up pillows at the end of a hallway and let them play smash and crash or have dance parties (quite entertaining for a 23 month old and a 3.5 year old). Or, we go to Target, Walmart, etc. and let them walk around to burn off some of the energy.
Good luck! We've all been there and can empathize.
my 22 month old did this for months the only resolution we found was put t;o bed about 930 pm just him and daddy hes shares room too.daddy barks go to sleep if he can't see me he will. Now when he wakes up i have daddy bark lay down. It usually works. If hes playing I leave the room put on a cartoon and leave lights out if im not there he'll go back to sleep. When hes back asleep I go back to bed. We figured this out about a week ago so far so good. just cause its working for me doesn't mean it will work for you but daddies have scary barks when they raise thier voices.
It somehow makes them mind better for daddy cause of the deep voice. So daddy will need to raise his voice. hope this works for you too
you may have to purchase some new items to intertain her and have her run off some of this energy. Place a gym mat on the floor and have her tumble on that.
Try having her dance to music, or find an in door gym like at McDonald's. Sit and have a soda while she is in side a contained playground.
Also try getting one of those baby night time stuff animals with the different sleepy sounds, my son falls to sleep with the sound of rain.
No matter what the "experts" say about not feeding children during the night, do it anyway! My son didn't sleep through the night until he was 3. He had a twin sister who slept through the night from the time she was 3 months old, so I don't think I was doing anything "wrong" with him. He was just a different child from her. I was very stubborn about not rewarding him with food in the middle of the night and if I could go back in time and change that, I would. He is a very thin child now at age 7 and I wonder if I was denying him nutrition that he really needed. I would suggest giving her a hearty snack at bedtime and see if that helps. If not, let her have a snack when she wakes up, cuddle with her for a few minutes and put her back to bed. I certainly don't think yelling is the answer as one poster suggested. That will only make her nervous and I sure can't sleep when I'm nervous! Most of all, try to take a nap whenever you can. I remember that exhaustion all too well! Sometimes I thought I would go insane, but I did survive. Take care of yourself!
Could she be waking up because she's hungry? Maybe she's not getting enough at dinner to sustain her through the night. At this age is can be hard to determine when they are full. Or maybe she wakes up knowing that you will turn on the tv. Instead could you turn on some music and have her play quietly? Explain to her that you can't turn on the tv because everyone else is sleeping and it might wake them up. Or maybe she has teeth coming in and you just haven't seen them pop through yet. When my daughter got her first molars she was up at night until they came through. Hang in there.
