 |
Business Directory |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coupons |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Classifieds |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| | Author | Messages | |
JonAndAshly
Posts:237
 | | 10/10/2007 12:58 PM |
 Alert | | Our two year old daughter used to be the queen of taking long naps and going right to sleep at night. For the last week and a half she has been refusing to nap or go to bed at night. She will get up a dozen times and cries and sometimes screams bloody murder (which is not uncommon for her to do when she gets mad) I am thinking that it is just a phase. I think I remember our son doing that but I think he was much younger. Anyone had this problem? I am now suffering from lack of sleep, it feels like I have an infant all over again! | | | |
| | Sinbad
Posts:3053
| | 10/10/2007 1:02 PM |
Alert | | <---will be watching this thread.... coming up on 1 year old in december. | |
Just doing it one day at a time. Change is good and it should be looked upon as an improvment! not a problem.
______________________________________
***************************************
San Diego Super Chargers! GO!!!
Joined old forum March 2006
Post count: 3068 + these | |
|
| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 2:06 PM |
Alert | | LOL. Oh my. My five year old still doesn't sleep, so apparently what I'm doing hasn't worked. Good luck. | | | |
|
| | Cruzin
Posts:145
| | 10/10/2007 2:10 PM |
Alert | | I have been going through this with our 2.5 yr old DS since May. It has not gotten any better, he suffers from night terrors somtimes, but other times he just wakes up and will not go to sleep without one of us with him. He won't go to sleep at night or naps unless wee lay there until he is out. This is by far the worst phase of parenting that I have been through. I am one tired mama! | | | |
|
| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 2:20 PM |
Alert | | My daughter had night terrors when she was around that age too! My doctor suggested taking her off of cows milk (there's a ton you can look up on it), which I did and switched to soy and she hasn't had them since. Although, she is now back on cows milk. | | | |
|
| | love@hm
Posts:524
| | 10/10/2007 2:40 PM |
Alert | prepare yourself for what will likely become a very long and drawnout post.
1st you should make certain your dd's needs are being met. Make sure she is not hungry, too hot, or too cold, not scared, etc.
2nd she is probably over tired. She still needs her nap, and her not taking one is probably part of why she is getting up at night. Make certain she is on a schedule - them same time every day for both nap and bed. Do NOT waiver, especially as you are retraining her. There are a couple of things you can try:
1. Tell her, "If you take a good nap, and you fall asleep for a LONG time, when you wake up you can have. . . " This works with my now 3 yr old, but it didn't work with my boys.
2. Turn her door knob around and lock her in her bedroom. I know it sound horrible, but it will keep her from being able to get out of the room and she will soon learn trying to get out, crying and anything else is likely to get her no where - so she will sleep. This is similar to the CIO (cry it out) method, and will take anywhere to 3 to 7 days. Don't be surprised to find her asleep on the floor right in front of the door. Remember if you do this to unlock her door when you go to bed so if there is an emergency she can get out and you have easy access.
3. Get some Melotonin. It is a sleep aid that is safe for children. It is non-habit forming and was suggested to me by a DR. It is LITERALLY the chemical our brains produce to help us get to sleep. You can buy the liquid drops at a health food or herbal type place - regular pharms carry the tablets. Start with one dropper or 1mg. This is SAFE and much, much safer than benedryl. Once your dd starts to relearn how to relax you can stop using the melotonin - it took my ds about a month, and he only uses it (at his request) every once in a while 1x every week to 2 weeks. | | | |
|
|  | Bionicbunny
Posts:615
| | 10/10/2007 2:57 PM |
Alert | At some point kids just reach an age when they need less sleep on normal days. My kids hit that around the age of 1 but all kids are different. From that time until they were 4 they only slept about 9 hours a night with no naps unless they were going through a growth spurt, then they would take a nap or sleep later. If your child isn't sleeping well at night, maybe she is getting too much sleep in the afternoon and doesn't need a nap anymore. I would try to keep her busy during nap time so she is nice and tired and ready to sleep at night.
Good luck. | |
| |
|
| | JonAndAshly
Posts:237
| | 10/10/2007 3:11 PM |
Alert | Well I dont think its night terrors because she isnt waking up in the night, she is refusing to even go to bed.
Cry it out doesnt work with her. She slept with me for the first 9 months of her life because she is the strongest willed child I have ever seen. Even since birth if I put her down she would scream bloody murder. Whenever we tried to make her cry it out our neighbors would complain because she is serisouly that loud and it doesnt matter how many hours pass she does not give up. She wouldnt even let my husband hold her until around 9 months. Forget going out and leaving her with grandma or the babysitter, no one wanted to deal with her.
I know what you mean by turning the door knob around, we did that with our son. But she on the other hand is not trying to get out of her room.
I make sure she has had a good lunch, she is not thirsty, diaper is dy, etc. And I know that she is tired.
Nothing has changed in her schedule, its been the same since she was a year old. It is the same schedule that our 3 year old son is on. They have always taken naps and went to bed at the same time, now she is the only one fighting it.
I dont know what it is. Maybe she thinks she is a big girl now and she should decide when she goes to bed. She barely talks so she cant really tell me what is going on. Its getting a bit frustrating to say the least.
I honestly believe that is just a power struggle. I will look into the sleep aid. Maybe if I just give it to her for a couple of days it will get her back on schedule. | | | |
|
| | leefamily
Posts:0
| | 10/10/2007 4:33 PM |
Alert | | My dd is the strongest willed child ever too! I had the same problems. Right around age 1 she really started flipping out at sleep time. I used the 'go in there every 5 minutes' method. It worked for us. We let her scream, go in after 5 minutes to calm her down, let her scream, go in after 10,15,20 etc. It took a few days though. good luck! | | | |
|
| | Sp.ed.Tchr
Posts:142
| | 10/10/2007 6:56 PM |
Alert | Posted By JonAndAshly on 10/10/2007 12:58 PM
"Our two year old daughter used to be the queen of taking long naps and going right to sleep at night. For the last week and a half she has been refusing to nap or go to bed at night. She will get up a dozen times and cries and sometimes screams bloody murder (which is not uncommon for her to do when she gets mad) I am thinking that it is just a phase. I think I remember our son doing that but I think he was much younger. Anyone had this problem? I am now suffering from lack of sleep, it feels like I have an infant all over again!"
Sounds like my house! I am wondering if it is the change of weather? My 2 year old has not been wanting to go to bed at night for a little more than a week. Before it was 8:00 bedtime, no complaints. Now it is excuse after excuse (another kiss, another hug, I pooped, need "da man" (spiderman) blankie or attempts to lay elsewhere ("rock, mama"-the chair, "couch", or "pillows"-my bed). Last night it was almost 9 and he cried himself to sleep. Then he was up at 1:30 (typically sleeps til 6/6:30) crying. I put him in my bed after much protest from him. He slept til about 4:30 when he decided he wanted juice. He was NOT happy about getting water, but slept until 5. I gave up at that point. He has had 3 naps today 30 min, 15 min, 40 min. I really hope he sleeps well tonight. Thankfully I am not working this week, but hubby suffered today. | | | |
|
| | love@hm
Posts:524
| | 10/10/2007 7:44 PM |
Alert | Believe me, I know stronw-willed children!
A couple more suggestions:
1. Lay down with her and hold her in a comforting, yet firm position -- I used to hold my ds on the couch and watch TV; I started this when he was breastfeeding, but after he weaned it was just about the only way I could get him to sleep. When he would struggle I would simply continue to hold him, placing my hand where he was wiggling, his legs, his arms. I would tuck his feet between my legs but NEVER forced him to keep them there. I would allow him to talk, but I would not respond, I held him so his head was toward the TV - not me. If he wasn't asleep within an hr, we would get up. If he was asleep within an hr, I could move him (heavy sleeper) At this point I was also having to lie with him at night. Now I would recommend the melotonin that I suggested earlier - my nights were taking me 2 -2 1/2 hrs to get him to sleep.
2. In desperate times I used to get everyone in the car and drive around until he fell asleep, then I would move him into bed. This was something that would work for us though.
Both my boys slept with me until they were over 2. I had a newborn that slept better than one of my ds. The one thing I have learned is how important good sleep is, and how near impossible it is to force on a child that doesn't want it. . . when all else fails - let her go w/o a nap, and then have a really early bed time.
As for the melotonin, I used to think I would never 'drug' my kid, but he is special needs, and he needs that help. There are kids that use melotonin all the time. DS doesn't need it that often; I'm guessing your dd wouldn't either. Also, if you give it to her and let her run around it doesn't do ANYTHING - I know, I've watched it be ineffective when ds wasn't put to bed after taking it. I feel it is VERY safe, like I said our bodies produce it naturally.
I hope things start to go better for you! | | | |
|
| | Sp.ed.Tchr
Posts:142
| | 10/10/2007 8:26 PM |
Alert | I would consider my son to be "strong-willed" to say the least. As an infant, I had to be near him at all times for him to sleep. He even started sleeping in our bed. I could put him in his bed at night (after rocking him to sleep) and he would wake up as we were winding down for bed and have to go to bed with us in order for me to get enough sleep to go to work. A few months ago, I finally got to the point where I couldn't deal with him not wanting to go to sleep anymore. I read an article in Parenting and tried the bedtime routine and then sit in the room, slowly moving farther and farther away until out of the room. HA HA HA! It only got worse because he would wake up and be upset that I was gone! One night I reached my last straw and let him cry it out. After that, I knew I couldn't go back. I didn't want him to think that if he cried enough, I would get him out, so I stuck with it. After 3 or 4 nights, he had basically stopped crying. Now, (up until a week ago) I can say "bedtime", do his bedtime routine, and put him in his bed. No fuss! And for the first time since his birth, he slept through the night consistently. Then last week he started running from me when I announced bedtime, crying, and fighting. He tried excuses to stay up longer and cried when put in bed. I am not sure why....
BUT, thankfully, tonight is back to normal. I announced bedtime about 7:40 pm and had no trouble getting him to bed by 8:00. He was thinking about crying, but I just kept saying "Goodnight, Love you" over and over until I was out the door...
JonandAshly, just keep sticking to your normal nap and bedtime routines and she will likely fall back into it. If she wakes up in the night, comfort her and put her back to bed. When she realizes that she has nothing to gain by waking up, she will go back to sleep if/when she wakes. Good luck!! | | | |
|
| |
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.6 |
|
|
|