Sleep issues (again)

My LO has been having a day sleep lately, and now won't go to sleep at night til around midnight. Can i drug her? (just tricking but i feel like it tonight)

She was going all day without a sleep. Now, Some days she is having an hours sleep. Occasionally she will have another 30mins. We do dinner, bath, feed etc at around 7pm, she looks snoozy but then will keep going for another 4 -5 hours.

I like to put her to sleep in her cot initially, so i hopefully get a bit of time in bed to myself. She feeds overnight and we co-sleep after her first wake up.

She is learning to crawl and walk and has a top tooth coming through (she has bottom 2 through already). I know there is heaps going on, but what can i do cos i need a break and sleep.

Should i keep her up during the day?

Oh noooooooo - the more they sleep, the more they sleep. I'd be encouraging more day sleeps first off.

Hi Kate - I have been told by my midwife and also read that sleep encourages sleep so I think avoid trying to keep her awake. My friend swears by having the room conditioned to exactly 24 degrees too, haven't tried it myself.

Kate, I'm finding that the less my little one sleeps in the day, the better and longer she sleeps at night (with less wake ups for feeds). I'm reading Pinky's book Sleeping like a baby (for the zillionth time) and while she says that *most* babies sleep better at night if they have good naps, this isn't the case for all babies and you have to do what works for your baby and of course YOU.

xxxx

We tried the encourage sleep to get more sleep...didn't work here either. Scrapped the day sleep and started to encourage an official "bed time". We stuck to it religiously for two solid weeks and now she goes to bed at 8 - 8.30. She gets up between 11.30 and 1 and comes into bed with us then. I know DD is older, but we haven't been doing day sleeps for a long time and we've finally got something working for us.

we also found more sleep didn't = more sleep. Very annoying! We began cutting her sleeps down around 10 months. At first it was limiting how long she slept for. I found that worked. She didn't sleep more than an hour. Then when she started staying up later again, we cut out a sleep. By the time she was around 18 months she wasn't having a day sleep at home at all. Even now she only has a sleep at creche and that's because all the other kids are... At hme she only has a day sleep if she's unwell or been swimming. She WILL sleep in the car at any given chance... even if it's first thing in the morning!

SO, have you tried cutting down the length of the sleep?

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Oh noooooooo - the more they sleep, the more they sleep. I'd be encouraging more day sleeps first off.

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I have read this heaps but it has never worked for my little one. I can count on one hand when she has had more than 2 day sleeps since she she was 4 weeks old. Most of the time she is also a happy little monkey who seems to survive without it.

I kinda think the day sleep is working for her at the moment. Would be nice if she could go to sleep before 10 or so so i could get a little break before having her all night again.

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we also found more sleep didn't = more sleep. Very annoying! We began cutting her sleeps down around 10 months. At first it was limiting how long she slept for. I found that worked. She didn't sleep more than an hour. Then when she started staying up later again, we cut out a sleep. By the time she was around 18 months she wasn't having a day sleep at home at all. Even now she only has a sleep at creche and that's because all the other kids are... At hme she only has a day sleep if she's unwell or been swimming. She WILL sleep in the car at any given chance... even if it's first thing in the morning!

SO, have you tried cutting down the length of the sleep?

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She only sleeps for an hour at the moment. would you cut this down?

DH is on leave and so she is staying in bed longer in the morning. Would getting her up earlier help rotate her sleep time abit?

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Would getting her up earlier help rotate her sleep time abit?

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What time does she get up?

My little one has been a relatively good napper but not the best night sleeper (waking very frequently). Since reducing her sleeps in the day (which happened totally by accident) she is now going down to sleep at 7pm and waking at around 6.30am in the mornings. If she goes to bed at 8pm she wakes at 5.30am - the earlier she goes the longer she sleeps. She'll have a 1 hour nap in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon which I make sure she is awake from by 3pm. If she naps later than I know that there is no way she will be in bed at 7pm.

And looking back, when we were in the UK, because we were so busy in the day, there were days when she didn't get a nap at all and would sleep 13 hours that night - with minimal waking for feeds. I didn't really think that was ok for her but looking back she was fine.

How is she in the day time if she doesn't sleep? Not too cranky?

Hey gorgeous, personally i wouldn't stop the day sleeps BUT in saying that maybe if you get her up when you get up (instead of leaving her in bed with DH :p ) and start her day from there, she might have a bit of an earlier nap.

As you know my girls are early risers but this works for us so maybe if you start your day by 7:30 and see how you go.

As an example Z currently wakes b/w 5:30 - 6:30 goes down for a nap b/w say 9 - 10 and will sleep from 30min to 2hrs IF she is still tired later she might go down fro a sleep at some time around 2 or 3pm then is normally in bed by say 8.
It's not always the same and she doesn't always want a nap and some days we go for a walk with this awesome chick.. not sure if you knew her :rofl: and she wont sleep AT ALL in the morning but sleeps from say 12 til 2 when we get home.
Other days as you would know she falls asleep in the pram and has a 30min nap while we walk :)

Go with what works hun and you know your more than welcome to drop her off here one day for a play with the kids while you and DH go and have some alone time.. or a nap :)
Actually you should do that while DP is off, bring her over here for 2hrs to play on the swings and then go home and have a rest of go to a movie while DH has time off work ;)

No I wouldn't cut the hour more Kate. But I used to say DD had to be up by 230 otherwise we'd have problems that night. My DD is also an early riser.

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What time does she get up?

My little one has been a relatively good napper but not the best night sleeper (waking very frequently). Since reducing her sleeps in the day (which happened totally by accident) she is now going down to sleep at 7pm and waking at around 6.30am in the mornings. If she goes to bed at 8pm she wakes at 5.30am - the earlier she goes the longer she sleeps. She'll have a 1 hour nap in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon which I make sure she is awake from by 3pm. If she naps later than I know that there is no way she will be in bed at 7pm.

And looking back, when we were in the UK, because we were so busy in the day, there were days when she didn't get a nap at all and would sleep 13 hours that night - with minimal waking for feeds. I didn't really think that was ok for her but looking back she was fine.

How is she in the day time if she doesn't sleep? Not too cranky?

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With DH home at the moment, she has been sleeping in with him til somewhere between 8.30 and 10. SO a decent sleep-in! She still wakes frequently over night, it was 2 hourly but now she does a 3 or 4 hour stretch. She is usually a happy little kid, even without sleeping.

Last night we did the dinner, bath, pj thing by 7 and i settles in to the couch to give her feed as normal. She was really fidgetty and i really wanted her to go to sleep (so i could do some cleaning) so we went in to our bedroom and i tried to feed her lying down on our bed (this usually works when she is tired). But she wasn't very interested and was rolling around etc, so i just rubbed her back to get her to calm down. And then she fell asleep! This is way out the ordinary, usually only boob or driving in the car will get her to sleep. So maybe she doesn't want to feed to sleep anymore? Not sure, will see how we go tonight.

Maybe i need to do NCSS properly and do the sleep diary. I haven't changed anything big because i wasn't sure what i wanted to change yet. I have changed the need for a nipple in the mouth to sleep, and after feeding she is usually happy to come off and continue sleeping.

Also yesterday she got up at 9, and had one 45min nap around 1pm.

MY DD doesn't seem to have very long naps in the day, but will probably nap around 4 times...especially if we are driving, which we've been doing a lot of recently. As it is today, she's woken at 5am (yuck) and is already down for her first nap - 6:20am. She is a bit younger than your DD....but maybe your DD just wants to be part of the action....that is what mine does...it's like she doesn't want to miss out on anything. I also think my DD is starting teething, and is constantly rolling and moving around so I think is perhaps having a developmental leap? It could be so many things...I just make sure I roll with it with minimal angst!

Hey Kate,

I swear our babies are the same. I was feeling all good about getting DD to sleep at around 7pm but the last 2 nights it's been past 9pm - and this is even without much napping in the day time. DD's top two teeth are coming through, she is bum shuffling and on the verge of crawling and she's saying a few more words. She's also still pretty sick :( I guess she's just processing all of this stuff. Despite us doing the SAME thing every single night, she just doesn't seem to realise that these are sleep cues and has other ideas - like playing!

I have also started the 10 day diary so that we can implement the NCSS. I have our plan written out and while I know that I do sound a bit naive, I am hoping that this will work in helping her wind down.

Who knows what's going on with our little ones, if only they could tell us themselves hey?
Sorry, I've been no help at all but I share your pain!

The super fidgety could be a tiredness sign too. DD thrashes about something shocking when she gets to bed or is tired. Rolls one way then the other, kicks her legs, pushes the blankets off, etc. I let her go for a few minutes, then give her a firm "Time to go to sleep DD" and she usually settles. This is all new for us too, but it seems to be working.

How have the past few days/nights been for you Kate? xx