How do i get her to sleep before 10pm?? (warning - long rant)
The past 2-3 weeks have been shocking with DD (20 months).
Since she started FDC she doesnt want to sleep at night!
Nothing has changed in her routine. We still do the same every night:
6pm dinner
6.45pm bath
7.15pm milk, book
730 bed
It has been like this for the past 12 months.
Now she will scream non stop - she will get out of bed - turn the lights on and scream.
We tried taking away her step stool so she cant open the door (but in turn cant get back onto the bed either - so we have to go in and put her repeatedly on the bed) and remove her night lights until she is actually asleep.
She will scream until she makes herself sick - kicking the door non stop.
We have tried leaving her for 5 minutes, walking in - put her on the bed, kiss and tuck in with good nights and she does the same time.
After 1 hr or 1.5hrs of repeating this with increasing the time frames a little each time she is still not asleep.
I then cave in as it is 830 by now and i am exhausted and i dont want her to wake DS, so i let her come into my room - she will roll around on the bed trying to get comfy with me for about 1.5-2hrs until she finally passes out!!
and she wakes at 6am every morning without fail!
I cannot do this every single night. I want to be asleep before 1030 because DS is due to wake a few hours later for a feed.
I have tried to hold out her day sleep (she still sleeps 2 hrs in the day) too see if that will make her go to bed earlier but she will pass out from exhaustion - sometimes in the middle of lunch and i cant wake her,
I'm no expert but from my experience if she has a day nap everday (routine) she should sleep better at night. If she misses her day sleep she will be over tired come bedtime & behave the way you've been describing, well if my DD missed her day sleep at that age, I would have probs getting her to sleep that night. I still had her in a cot at that age so I could put her in there & she just had to stay in bed whether she wanted to or not until she was too tired to fight it anymore & fell asleep.
You say its since she started FDC, do they give her a day sleep? If not, that may be the cause of the problem??
IMO At 20 months old she would still NEED her day sleep
Someone else may be of more help, as I said, this is just from my experience
maybe reduce the day sleep to 60 mins, but do it gradually over a few weeks, 10 mins less a day and see if that helps, that way she will adjust to less day sleep
PP - aricyn does this if he has a day sleep - and he is really really exhausted at around 4pm... lol.. but we make him hold out - we bring his bath earlier in the day (4.30 instead of 6pm) and that seems to wake him up enough.. then he has his dinner.. then he plays until bedtime (6.45)
More often than not he'll pass out in bed in about 2 mins flat.
If we give him a day sleep - yup - up till 10 messing around.
Maybe she's going through that in between stage... she's sorta ready for it, but not.
It was suggested to me by my SIL that you give a day nap on one day, then the next day, no day nap etc.. sorta ease them into it.
He only gets a day nap now when we go out somewhere and he falls asleep in the car. We don't do much at home either, cos if he gets too excited or runs around heaps, wears him out quicker.
So we do a lot of lounging until his body is ready to tackle doing activities AND no day sleep.
She has passed out on the floor now - i dont know how i would keep her awake for 6 hrs longer (from midday) to be ready for bed.
Perhaps she is in that inbetween stage
Do you think if i let her lay on my bed and watch night time tv with me i will be able to get her out of that habit... or is it a mistake to start
How do i get her to sleep before 10pm?? (warning - long rant)
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