Monday, February 05, 2007

Any Suggestions on Toddlers and Sleeping?

For the last month, Princess has been waking up at 6:30 a.m. every morning (with an occasional 5:30 a.m.) I get up at 6 a.m. (weekdays) so I'm already up, but I had "my time" until 7:30 a.m. when she would wake up. Now that she is waking up at 6:30, I don't get "my time". I am not willing to wake up at 5:30 a.m. just to have "my time."

The other sleeping issue is that she would only take a nap on the couch. If I put her in her crib, she would just cry for ever and not fall asleep. (I would let her cry 30 - 45 minutes.) As soon as I put her on the couch she would fall asleep. In the last week or so, I was having a harder time getting her to fall asleep on the couch. Last week I decided to give her one nap a day instead of two. This solved the couch issue. She was so tired by the afternoon that she would go to sleep in her crib no problems.

I thought that by eliminating her morning nap, maybe she would start sleeping later in the morning. So, my question is do I just accept that her alarm clock goes off at 6:30 and we have to get up then or is there any way to make her sleep later?

EDIT: She goes to bed at 8:00 p.m. and takes a one and a half hour nap. (I would also like for her to have a longer nap.) Maybe I should just give her Benadryl 4 times a day - just kidding!!!

5 comments:

Mrs. C said...

What time does she go to sleep at night? I ask because children around her age average 15 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I put my boys to sleep around 7pm so I knew that they would wake up around 6:30-7am. Nap would make up the difference.

I know this isn't really answering your question but I think the answer (of wake up time) is definitely linked to what time she is going to bed at night and how long the nap(s) is (are).

Natalie said...

No suggestions other than just don't go in and get her up until it is the time you want her to get up. Sometimes, babies will wake up and talk and play for a little bit and then actually go back to sleep. If you just let her go, she may fall back asleep on her own. Or, just let her fuss until your predetermined time. Eventually her internal clock will get the hint. But we've made the mistake of getting jr (and the others) up way early when they weren't really ready to get up.

Also, just wanted to say it's good to have you back in the blogosphere. you've had some great posts since you re-emerged.

Anonymous said...

What I was going to write, agrees with mom in action. We put my son down aroun 7-7:30pm, and I usually get him between 7-7:30am the latest. Sometimes he will wake up before then, but we will let him talk in his crib, and sometimes fuss a little bit. Once in a while, he will wake up at 6:15 - and then he will fall asleep after a while. That might be worth trying.

Naptime is sometimes the same way - he will wake up, make a little noise, and then fall back asleep (usually). However, he is in his crib. Maybe you could continue to try the crib during naptime - after a while, she may get the idea that naptime is in the crib - not really sure on that!

Melissa said...

I've just stumbled upon your blog, but I can relate to this post! My daughter is 15 months old and goes to sleep at 7pm on the dot. She usually wakes up between 6 and 6:30 and is ready for the day. She takes 2 naps, a short one in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. I've gone through this before with my 3 year old and she eventually started sleeping till 7 or 7:30. I think it just depends on your child. One book I HIGHLY recommend is called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." It's by Marc Weissbluth, MD. He says that one reason that children wake up early is a too-late bedtime. Go check out the book. It has lots of age-appropriate suggestions and action plans.

Anonymous said...

Another thought is that she may be coming into the age that her individual body clock is making itself known. You know, some of us are morning people, some of us are night owls, some of us need lots of uninterrupted sleep, some of us function well on less. Watch the clock to see when she has her "lulls" and capitalize on them - even if it feels unorthodox for the moment.

I have 2 who seem to need only minimal sleep and 2 who sleep whenever I tell them to - and I did the same basic stuff with all of them. While you need to be vigilant to be sure that she's getting enough sleep, it's also important that you know her body cycles.

Getting in "my time" has required increased creativity with each new addition to the family - and when I was pregnant, I always enforced quiet time even if they didn't sleep. And now that they are older, they all go to their rooms for their own "me time" at the same time, even if there are differing "lights out" times - I'm too beat by 8:30 to let the night owls out of their cages :)