So lately R's sleep patterns have been a bit wacky. For the longest time, she was in bed between 6:30 and 7, and all it took to lay her down was, well, laying her down and leaving the room after the bath and story.
Lately-- as in the last month or so, maybe longer, since I haven't really been keeping track-- she's wanted a song, sometimes 5 or 6 songs, while being held or rocked to sleep.
We thought at first the sleep stuff had to do with her being sick and not feeling good. That certainly seemed to be why she was waking up so early and having a hard time falling asleep. We all know how hard it can be to sleep with a stuffy nose and snot pouring out.
The stuffy nose and snot have all but disappeared. I haven't needed to follow her with a tissue for a week or more now. She's not sniffly or coughing.
Yet, she continues to wake up ridiculously early. Yesterday it was 3 a.m. J held her until around 4, when he woke me and I held her until she fell asleep with me in the bed in her room around 5, and we stayed in there until shortly before 6 when she woke up and started calling for J.
We rarely-- read, almost never-- have a day where she wakes up close to 6 on her own. We consider it a good morning if she doesn't make us get her out of bed before 5:30. It's really tough when she's up at 2:30, 3:00, 4:30, etc.
Is there *any* way, dear readers, to try and encourage her to sleep later?
We've already pushed back her bedtime to around 7:30, and this hasn't changed anything. In fact, the night before she got up at 3 a.m. she had gone to bed at 8 just because the nighttime routine ran late. Going to bed later doesn't seem to result in a later wake-up. And I hear about other babies the same age as R who sleep 11 to 12 hours at night. I realize all kids are different, so I'm not necessarily saying she should sleep just like them. Just that it's not ridiculous for us to think that she might sleep from 7 p.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 a.m.
We also have dark curtains in her room. They're not attractive, just curtains we had in our bedroom when we lived in Texas, but they definitely make her room darker and block morning sunlight so the room is not super-bright in the morning.
This is kind of driving me crazy. Why is she up so early? How can we encourage her to sleep a little bit later? And how can we wean her from needing us to rock and sing her to sleep for 20-30 minutes every night?
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Hi Steph, obviously, I have no practical advice to offer. From what I have read, even kids who sleep that long have times when they don't. Do you know if her naps are consistent? I have also read that separation anxiety can impact sleep and that kids go through phases of it (it's not like a one time thing) throughout toddlerhood. I also read that learning new things keeps kids awake because they want to practice at night.
ReplyDeleteI have the pantley gentle sleep method book. For older kids, it has some suggestions about reasoning with them to reward them for staying in their own bed like a big kids. So, like you give them special reward for successfully staying in bed all night. If I remember correctly, they even suggested like having the child help make a bed time book that shows the whole bed time process...a picture of reading a book, brushing teeth, ending with sleeping in bed until...maybe until mommy and daddy come in to her room to get her or until the clock looks a certain way. Someway for her to recognize that she is supposed to stay in her bed.
If she is getting enough sleep to not be crabby and not crying, maybe her being awake and happy in her room is ok?
As for the other kids, just because kids are capable of sleeping that long, I don't know that that means they are consistently doing so.
Steph,
ReplyDeleteMegan has been sleeping well lately, but when she occasionally gets up early, it's when she is congested from a cold or allergies. You said that R has recovered from her cold, but could she have an ear infection? We have a scope you could use when you visit.
Love,
JWS
Hi Steph, I have no advice but I feel your pain. Tyler is a lot younger obviously but we have a lot of trouble with his sleep and it's starting to wear me down. It has been taking almost an hour every night of reading, soothing, nursing, etc. before he finally falls asleep. Then he typically gets up at least twice to nurse. I think once he starts solids that will help but he still is refusing all solids and the bottle. So I'm right there bleary eyed with ya! Who are these babies that start sleeping 12 hrs a night at 3 months???? Must be nice!
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for the comments and feedback. I so appreciate it-- and to those who have emailed suggestions too-- keep them coming. We'll consider anything.
ReplyDeleteConceptALT: she wakes up really upset, so it's not the kind of thing where she's just playing in her crib. If that was the case we would totally just keep sleeping until 5:30 or 6 and then get up. One of my friends emailed the suggestion that she might need to pee, so we might try putting her on the potty and see if that's part of it.
JWS: thanks for the scope suggestion. she has had an ear infection and she's been on antibiotics for it-- i think she has a few more days left of the antibiotic, but we went to the doctor on Monday and he checked her ears and said they looked great so we think that's cleared up as well. if we hadn't just had the doctor check, we'd be thinking that, too.
Jen, oh man, geesh. maybe a trip to grandma and grandpa's is in order? when we visited mom and dad at christmas and R was in their room it was SO nice to have THEM be the ones to get up with her in the morning... ;)
Oooohh, the potty advice...that a good one to remember! I'm taking a mental note.
ReplyDeleteAny improvement or update?