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Working Moms
Need sleep help for my 2.5 y/o
DD is starting to transition out of her nap (on a side note ... why do my kids hate sleeping so much???). If she naps, she is up until 10 every nigiht. It is awful! I have stuff to do at night and I cannot spend my entire evening working on trying to get her to go to bed. Nor can I do that stuff while she's awake b/c I have another child that needs my attention too. She won't play in her room after "bed time" either, like my DS did at that age. She has got to be right next to me. DH is a bit of a help, but he's not always there to help.
I tried cutting out the nap and she did ok for a week. The next week she was falling asleep on her own and so late in the afternoon that she wasn't going to bed until after 10 pm.
this week I'm trying to wake her up earlier, but really, I need her to sleep until at least 7. She's with my ILs in the afternoon, so I asked them to put her down earlier and only let her sleep for 60 mins tops. yesterday she went to sleep earlier, slept for 90 min and was still up until 10 pm.
this is so upsettinig b/c she used to be a great sleeper. I miss my good sleeper!
Not to mention, I am just exhausted from having no downtime at night. I'd like to go to bed at 10, but most nights she's still awake. Last night she was in my room again at 1 am (which is unusual for her).
DS1 age 7, DD age 5 and DS2 born 4/3/12
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Re: Need sleep help for my 2.5 y/o
If my son does nap, we make sure he's up no later than 3 although we prefer him to nap from 12:30-1:30. If he doesn't nap, we give him some downtime in place of that - usually snuggles with his blanket in front of a dvd. Then we give him a snack around 3/4 and try to keep him really active through dinner and afterwards so he is completely tired out by bedtime. It doesn't work every night, but it usually works a lot at least enough to keep him in his bed and not bothering us. Hide and seek is a good game or dancing to music or tag. We literally run him in circles to tire him out (: I can't wait until the weather is nice so we can go to the park instead.
We are in the 'dropping naps' phase too...it's so hard. She's either a cranky bear by bedtime when she doesn't nap, or does nap but then doesn't fall asleep until 9 or 10 either.
She is at least getting to the point where she'll 'read' in bed, but that's very recent. (I bought her a story reader thing for her birthday that she listens to at night).
Tell me more about this reader. I let her play some easy games on her brother's leapster the other night in her room with dim lights on. She was in there for maybe 20 mins and I was hoping she'd just pass out. Yah, not so much! I think she ended up falling asleep in bed with me that night.
It's similar to this (sorry not clicky):
https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3934698
We have a Dora one, but you can buy refill books/cartridges for any of the readers once you buy the basic set. She can't change it herself yet, but it 'reads' the story as they turn the page of the book. She caught on pretty quickly. Mine has a volume control as well...it was HEAVEN in the car when we did the road trip....she 'read' books for hours.
I'm struggling right now with a child about the same age. It's rough, and I almost could have written your post (except at least my child is napping at daycare).
We're currently working on the silent return method from Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, but it's not going that well.
Some friends just recommended mytotclock.com. I haven't decided yet whether it's bunk or might be worth a shot (I think it might be something like a "reader").
We have a tag reader I coudl give her. We have a baziliion toys she could use (LF text writer, LF letter writer, some ABC toy ...), she just likes to hang with me. :sigh:
DS was so easy. He was big time obsessed with Thomas. I let him take a train or two to bed and told him if he got out, I was taking Thomas away. I think he tried it once. The boy really loved his trains.
Well, I did get DD to stay in bed last night by letting her wear her snow white dress up dress to bed. I told her she had to stay in bed like the princess did until the prince came to get her in the morning.
Then I sent DH in to wake her up, but she didn't get up...maybe I'm onto something here LOL.
We're dealing with this, too. It's 9:30 PM here right now and DD is standing up in bed talking to herself.
Early naps are not an option as she naps at preschool from 3-5 PM. Even when I'm on leave with the new baby, I'll pick her up from school at 2 PM, so I doubt I'll be able to get her down for a nap much earlier. I definitely think that's part of the reason why she's struggling at night, but there's nothing we can do aside from switching preschools.
She is good at playing on her own, so we just let her. She'll read to herself, play with her dolls, etc.
Is your DD potty training at all? That has really thrown a wrench in DD's going-to-bed time for the past few weeks. We've stopped letting her take a cup of water to bed (because that made her need to pee, which made her get out of bed fifty zillion times before falling asleep) and we also read bedtime stories on the potty to encourage her to get everything out before bedtime. That seems to be helping some. Maybe your DD is going through something similar?
Good luck! It's frustrating, I know.
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)