Those with older kids come in here...

jonnygurl76 · December 2012

DD turned 3 last week and her sleep has turned to shiit. She refuses to nap and we have had a few nights where she will keep calling me and not fall asleep or she will fall right to sleep and then wake up in the middle of the night wanting only me. Last night she was up for 3 hours, I finally took her back to bed with us which I have never done before just so that she would sleep. I didn't fall back to sleep, I haven't been this tired since recovering from a c section and caring for a newborn.

I know this is the age of becoming more aware and having fears, she is afraid of shadows/reflections/the dark. But does this sound normal to you? I didn't mention it at her 3 year appt because she was fine except for the not napping, it started right after. I have no idea how she is functioning on so little sleep, I feel like a beast with not getting the mid day break and a full nights sleep.

CA2006 · December 2012

I don't know your child, obviously, but it sounds to me like she is really overtired. DS is 4 and still takes a 3 hour nap on weekends. This is rare, I know, but he needs it. If he doesn't get enough sleep, he ends up waking in the middle of the night for this reason or that reason. ANd the problem is compounded. DS will tell us that he is scared of this or that, but it's just a stall tactic at bedtime now. We address his fears (if it's the dark, we put a nightlight on, if it's a specific toy causing a weird shadow or whatever, we move the toy before bedtime, etc.). Also, I found that oddly enough, the Pajanimals "Scary Dream" song helps to calm his fears. We watch it every now and them during the day or night and we repeat things from it when he gets scared. But honestly, I think once your DD catches up on sleep, things will get better for you.

jonnygurl76 · December 2012

CA2006:
I don't know your child, obviously, but it sounds to me like she is really overtired.nbsp; DS is 4 and still takes a 3 hour nap on weekends.nbsp; This is rare, I know, but he needs it.nbsp; If he doesn't get enough sleep, he ends up waking in the middle of the night for this reason or that reason.nbsp; ANd the problem is compounded.nbsp; DS will tell us that he is scared of this or that, but it's just a stall tactic at bedtime now.nbsp; We address his fears if it's the dark, we put a nightlight on, if it's a specific toy causing a weird shadow or whatever, we move the toy before bedtime, etc..nbsp; Also, I found that oddly enough, the Pajanimals "Scary Dream" song helps to calm his fears.nbsp; We watch it every now and them during the day or night and we repeat things from it when he gets scared.nbsp; But honestly, I think once your DD catches up on sleep, things will get better for you.

She refuses to nap!! She won't even give me 10 minutes of quiet time. I have tried everything I can think of, I agree that I think it is worse because she is overtired. I am out of ideas.

cantalopes24 · December 2012

E still naps. At that age he had the choice of napping or not. He was however required to stay in his room for at least an hour and play quietly. The only time we've had issues with night waking was when he was 2 and dealing with a lot of changes most of which involved his dad and we ended up having to go to counseling. Even then he had to stay in his room and sometimes either MH or I would lay with him and read with just the night light on in his bed.

CA2006 · December 2012

jonnygurl76:
CA2006:
I don't know your child, obviously, but it sounds to me like she is really overtired.nbsp; DS is 4 and still takes a 3 hour nap on weekends.nbsp; This is rare, I know, but he needs it.nbsp; If he doesn't get enough sleep, he ends up waking in the middle of the night for this reason or that reason.nbsp; ANd the problem is compounded.nbsp; DS will tell us that he is scared of this or that, but it's just a stall tactic at bedtime now.nbsp; We address his fears if it's the dark, we put a nightlight on, if it's a specific toy causing a weird shadow or whatever, we move the toy before bedtime, etc..nbsp; Also, I found that oddly enough, the Pajanimals "Scary Dream" song helps to calm his fears.nbsp; We watch it every now and them during the day or night and we repeat things from it when he gets scared.nbsp; But honestly, I think once your DD catches up on sleep, things will get better for you.
She refuses to nap!! She won't even give me 10 minutes of quiet time. I have tried everything I can think of, I agree that I think it is worse because she is overtired. I am out of ideas.

What does she do when you try to hav eher nap? Cry? Scream? just get up? I agree with lopes about quiet time. Or, one thing we found with DS is that if we wait too long to get him down for a nap, he's much harder to get down. We observed and there is a "golden timeframe" in which to get him down more easily than any other time. Typically, unfortunately, it's right around lunch time. So we will feeed him lunch really early now and wait for that time then off to bed. I am lucky b/c he rarely fights sleep anymore. But there are days where he is kicking and screaming from being overtired and insisting he doesn't need a nap (yeah, right). We just put him in his room/bed and close the door. He eventually calms down enough that we go in, talk with him a bit and tuck him in. Then all is well. I know not all kids are like this though.

pennysuedog · December 2012

Yeah , I don't think it is normal. We have had issues with stalling bedtime and bad dreams but they are not every night. I agree with the overtiredness but you would think eventually she would just crash. Have you tried lying down with her at nap time?

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