We've been here before...Drew is having some issues with sleep, and today I can barely keep my eyes open. Drew is waking up way too early in the morning, I'm talking anywhere from 4-4:45am. That darn daylight savings time screwed our house up big time. I need some suggestions on how to get him to sleep later. Brendan and I both struggling to stay awake these days.
Drew goes to bed around 7:30pm, we moved his bedtime back from 7pm thinking this might help. He did go to bed at 8:30pm this past Friday night and still woke up at 4:45am. We also gave him a big boy pillow in his crib, which he loves. Drew takes about a 2 hour nap each afternoon, from around noon until 2-2:30pm. I will add that when he goes to bed, he's tired, doesn't fight going to bed, most of his naps go the same way. Some days I have to go back in and rock him a bit, but for the most part, he does sleep well at nap time.
Our bedtime routine is bath, Pj's, milk, brush teeth, books and then bed. He sleeps with a fan on in his room for noise, doesn't seem hot or cold, but is still waking up at the butt crack of dawn...or before. When he does wake he is crying, I'm thinking because he's still tired. One of us goes into his room, rocks him, and lays him back down, sometimes this will work, most of the time he seems wide away at 4am. However, by 7am he's dog tired again. If when he woke he was content just playing in his crib, then I'd be just fine, but he literally wakes and screams and cries. We've waited it out a bit to no avail. We've tried a night light, we've tried no night light, and nothing seems to help. We've even tried bringing him into our bed and he thinks that's play time. We've tried giving him some milk while rocking and then back to bed, and still nothing.
We are both at a loss, so that's why I thought maybe just maybe someone would have a suggestion that may help. I am all ears to your suggestions. How do you get your toddler to sleep later? By later I mean 6am, I'm not asking for the world, just for him to sleep past the middle of the night.
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
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3 comments:
Here are my suggestions. I have an 18 month old as well and he also has one nap from 12:30-2:30 each day. Mine goes to bed at 8/8:15 and gets up between 6:45-7:15 each day. There is no magic trick and I definitely hear you on how hard it is. Here are some suggestions although I'm guessing if you're like me you have read and tried everything.
Rice cereal before bed. While my son is 18 months he still enjoys the banana rice cereal mixed with real banana. We give him some (3-4 dry heaping tbsps) at 7:45pm. I swear it fills his belly and makes him sleep deeper. And it's filled with iron so it can't hurt.
Does he use pacifiers? My son still likes his for sleeping and we have to scatter 12 around his crib so when he wakes up he can find one on his own and go back to sleep on his own.
Is his room completely dark with black out blinds?
We did the cry it out method and let me tell you there was crying. It was painful but worked for us. Not a method for everyone and i don't think it necessarily works for everyone but it did for us.
You can also try www.nannyrobina.ca. She is in Ontario, Canada (where I am) but also does sleep consultations over the phone. She is famous in Canada and in the UK and is on tv, gives seminars etc on sleeping, toddler shenanigans, eating, etc.
Good luck! I am expecting baby #2 on New Year's Eve and dreading the sleeping (or lack thereof) routine all over again with a newborn.
Steph, thank you so very much for your advice! Drew still does take a paci at nap and bedtime. I do think part of the reason he is waking up is due to a lost paci. I tried giving him 4 last night in his crib and that did seem to help.
He did wake up this morning at 3:47am, I went in gave him his paci back, put him back down, he seemed fine. Woke up again at 4:15am and Brendan went in, same thing. He although did not want to go back to sleep. So we let him cry, it wasn't 10 minutes and that little boy was out. He slept until 7:10am. He has never slept past 7am!
I'm so thankful to hear that other families struggle with this, and have overcome!
Congratualtions on your upcoming new addtion!
I thought I'd check back and see if you received my comment and glad to hear you got a bit more sleep last night! I'm still no expert obviously but it may also help showing him while he is awake at some other point during the day that there are a bunch of pacis in his crib. That way maybe when he wakes in the night he'll know or over time learn rather than crying to just grab one on his own, put it in and go back to sleep. Good luck! Love your blog!
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