We need some serious sleep help

vszapp

DD has had her ups and down with sleep like any kid. For the past ~3 months, though, we are having a tough time getting her enough sleep (she gets 12 hours total, if that). I think she is somehow stuck in between 1 and 2 naps. I thought it would end but it just keeps going. It usually goes down like this: She puts herself peacefully to sleep at 7:15-7:45pm. She sleeps until 5-5:30am or so (5:45 if we're reeeeally lucky). The problem is - she's still tired when she gets up. We try putting her back to sleep, saying it's sleepy time and mommy and daddy are still sleeping. She'll protest for a second, but then she lays back down and tries to sleep. She'll lay there from 5-15 minutes without falling back asleep and then get annoyed and want to get up, so we get her up. We don't let her cry it out, as we don't believe that's best for her, and we want sleep to be a happy thing. She seems ready to get up, if only temporarily. But, she sometimes is yawning from the get go, other times she gets sleepy within a few hours. Depending on how bad it is, she goes down for a nap at 11am (if she's going to have 1 nap) or ~9am (if she's going to have 2). If she has a second nap, it's usually at 2:30 or 3pm. If she does one nap, it's usually about 1h45min. If she does 2, she usually gets a total of about 2 hours. We have tried ealier and later bed times, which don't seem to make a difference.

I guess my concern is that she is just tired a lot. All of the other moms I know say their kid this age sleeps at least 11 if not 12 hours at night (she used to). Their kids also go down for a nap at 1pm, but we could never dream of making it that long. We thought for awhile that she was up more due to teething, but this has been going on for so long. She is learning a TON right now - several new words every day and honestly says at least 150 words already. So maybe it is just that she is excited to get started with her day, but when she's tired she can be pretty crabby. Any ideas? I know each kiddo is so differet, but I'm hoping some of you have seen something like this before...

aglenn

My DS goes through this off and on, too.  I think you are right about the verbal explosion having something to do with it, and teething doesn't help, and the transition from two naps to one kind of throws them for a loop for a while on top of all of that.  I do not have much advice as both of my kids are kind of resistant to intervention when it comes to sleep (nothing seems to work), but I do think it is probably just a temporary phase.

vszapp

Sounds like a good idea. We're stuck in purgatory and it's not working!! She used to wake up happy but now she's almost always crying. It stinks.

Kimbus22 said:

I'd try putting her to bed a little earlier and moving strictly to one nap. It's rough for a week or so and then they get used to it.

foreverapartofme

I think a nap right after lunch will do the trick!  Trying moving to one nap.  My DD goes down between 12:30 to 1:00 and will usually sleep 2 to 3 hours.  She usually wakes up at 7 ish in the morning and goes to bed between 7:00- 7:30 at night.  It may be rough for a week or so but I think one nap in the middle of the day may really help.  Good luck!

vszapp

The problem is she sometimes wakes up screaming after only an hour of nap! We have tried putting her back down, but it totally doesn't work. Those days are awful, and part of the reason we end up doing 2 naps sometimes. I thought it was because she was overtired when she went down for her nap, which is why we have been starting her nap at ~11. We just put her down at noon today... we'll see how it goes!

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tbmadeamistake

C sleeps from 8pm to about 6am, and takes a two hour nap right after lunch.  It was touchy here and there getting her to that point, but as dc keeps her on a strict schedule now that she's in toddlers, that helped a lot.  We also do straight from dinner into bedtime routine.  She eats at 6:30, straight into the bath, and then generally will get a few minutes of quiet playtime before we start reading books.  The going from two naps to one was touchy, and did involve a couple miserable days of keeping her away during the day to last until the later nap.  She does still wake up tired sometimes.  I find that if she's not crying, and ignore it, sometimes she'll fall back to sleep for another hour.  I don't go into her room until I know that she's ready to get up.  GL!

vszapp

She woke up from her nap after an hour and 15 minutes. No going back down. Ugh!