HELP! Need to Get 10 Mo. Old on a Good Nap/sleep Sched. Before Starting Daycare

I think it is normal to be concerned. I don't understand why everyone says don't worry(no knock on other's advice). She needs restorative sleep. my son was a basketcase before i got him on track. one sign that she isn't sleeping well is all the night waking. I recommend the same as the prev. post and read Healthy sleep habits, happy baby.It saved me! best of luck

Like some other mothers suggested, I would not worry. My son went to bed at 9:30 PM and the first day of preschool, he was wiped out and went to bed at 7:30 PM!
So, he eventually got himself into a schedule that worked for him. Now he wakes up at 7 AM and still goes to bed at 9:30, but he seems to be getting the sleep he needs. She will adjust. Just know that she will be tired the first few days, but she will go to bed earlier consequently!

Sounds like she needs more sleep. When kids are tired, their adrenaline spikes and the act wires and can't sleep. Most kids take their second nap at around 1pm. You might want to call the daycare and see when it has naptime and adjust/create your daughter's schedule. Given how late her afternoon nap is, you might need to move the time in 15 minute increments per day, if not more slowly. She should wake up between 6am and 7am in the morning (the morning is the only time it's okay to wake a sleeping baby so that she doesn't get off schedule. Then, she should have her two naps and get to bed around 7pm. At night, look for the very first sign of sleepiness (a far off look in her eyes, a yawn, rubbing her eyes -- whatever it is for your child) and be prepared to go directly into her (hopefully brief) bedtime routine so that her adrenaline does not have time to kick in. All of this advice is from "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," which you might want to check out. The author runs the sleep clinic at U Chicago med school and has excellent advice and statistics, which I have not seen in other books. In one or two places, I felt he went to far for my taste, and I just amended those pieces of advice with our pediatrician's office's help (e.g., we only let our son cry for about 40 minutes before going in -- no lights, no talking, no picking up -- and putting a hand on him, as opposed to letting him cry for indefinitely with no check-in). Unfortunately, your daughter does need to learn to self-soothe. The good news is that, if you follow a few rules about not caving in to her, she will learn in a few days. It's hard to listen to but works well, and our 5 yo son seems to love and trust us just fine! Hope this helps.
K.

The first thing you need to do is get your daughter to go to sleep, and stay asleep, on her own. This means that you need to start putting her to sleep awake, not nursing her to sleep. Also, she no longer needs night time feedings (between 4 and 6 months babies are physically able to go the night with out eating). She needs to be nursed back to sleep because that is how you put her to sleep for the night, not because she is hungry. At night nurse her, then do a bath, stories, some rocking and snuggles, and put her in the crib awake. If she wakes during the night let her cry for 10 min or so to see if she will settle herself. If she does not, then go in and comfort her with your voice only for a very brief time and leave. This will be hard the first few days, but she will adjust. Also start putting her down for naps awake in her crib, not the stroller or car seat, and not with you. The key is she needs to learn to put herself to sleep because this is what she will have to do at daycare. After she has adjusted to putting herself to sleep you can start working on a schedule. Move her bedtime up by 15-30 min every 3 or 4 days. Your goal should be a bedtime around 7:00. Naps should be around 9:00 in the morning and about 2:00 in the afternoon. But, she may switch to 1 nap a day soon after starting daycare, as most kids do this between 1 yr and 18 mo.
I know all this will be difficult at the beginning, especially if you have issues with letting your baby cry it out. But you have to remember that in a daycare setting your child will need to be able to self soothe, and put herself to sleep. You would rather have her learn to do this as home with you, rather than in an unfamiliar daycare setting.
Also, a sound machine can help block out household noise.
Good luck.

ROUTINE!!! it sounds like you are reading her cues, which is great, but it doesnt hurt to get your kid used to some cues of your own to trigger thoughts of sleep. for my kid, before nap or bedtime its food, books in the rocker, sleepy music in bed. simple. no tears, just try to introduce consistent triggers, consistent things you say to help trigger. i wouldnt stress if you dont have complete success, as she is young still, but i was so thrilled when we got my kid used to a routine because he really responded and i will definitely try it earlier next time. good luck and dont worry too much, i found right when i was stressed about my kids sleep habits, he would change them anyways.

I'd invest in a white noise machine -- you should be able to get one at Target for under $50 -- which will help her sleep. A bunch of my friends use these with great success! They are worth every penny -- especially for those of us who live in small places. In the summer we use fans, which I've noticed help our now 6 yr. old sleep in later in the morning :)

As far as daycare goes -- they will get her on a schedule there and most likely she will fall into that pretty easily. I wouldn't worry about getting her ready for in advance too much (that kind of thinking almost never works for us in our family, and just makes us miserable when we try!) I'd do what works for you now and then be prepared for (at the worst) a couple of cranky weeks when she starts daycare-- until she gets into the groove.
Good luck.
~S

Well, I've been throught this "emotional worry" before. I tried to get my boys on a schedule consistent with Preschool.

What I discovered is that I didn't have to work that hard after all. Once I statred getting them up and ready for Preschool, their little bodies naturally went to a schedule after about a week.

Try your best to get your daughter down earlier, but if nothing else, wake her up earlier.

It will all fall into place :o)

Love, N.

I wouldn't worry about getting her on a great nap schedule for day care. If it's a good day care then they should respect the fact that every infant has their own schedule. If they don't then it's not a high quality day care and I would look other elsewhere. My 18mo old still has not settled into a great nap routine and her day care provider is awesome at accomodating her fluctuating schedule. Begining day care is going to be enough of a change for her, if she senses that your worried it will make the transition that much harder. Good Luck!

A.

It helps at my house to have my son's room dark and quiet. I have blinds and curtains on his bedroom window. When it's naptime and bedtime, after lunch, my husband or I take him to his room, close the curtains, change his diaper, read a story and put him to bed. He cries some days, but I let him cry and it only lasts 5-15 minutes. When it takes longer, I go outside or to the other side of the house, so the crying doesn't upset me as much. Regarding noise, for him there either has to be a lot of white noise like a loud stereo or tv or completely quiet.

I think it is a good idea to get your child into a routine now for sleeping. It will be one less adjustment when going to daycare.

Oh, and although my son is a great napper at home 2-3+ hours in the afternoon, when he was at preschool and daycare, it was much less, because of the different surrounding environment.

Hi Denise,
Sounds like "the boob" may be the culprit! Wake your daughter an hour earlier and don't let her take a nap until at least 4 hours later, preferably 6 hrs. Then let her sleep no more than 2-2.5 hours and get her up and keep her busy until 8pm. Give her a protein snack, warm bath & then the boob. Put her in bed at 9pm sharp.
Everytime you nurse her she's getting a quick fix and a quick nap. Eliminate the double naps so she will take a long midday nap and want to go to sleep earlier in the evening. She'll adapt in 4-5 days to the new schedule.
You will need to discipline yourself to stay on a new schedule...don't think she's going to do it on her own.
I understand your home is small but she will adapt to the sounds of her parents being up later than her as well. Just be patient and don't give up!
Best of luck
AC

Hi Denise,

As a daycare provider myself, the best thing for your child is once she starts daycare she will quickly become accustom of the providers routine and that will help shift everything at home. I would not start to do anything now. Just enjoy the time you have left at home with her and make only one trasistion to daycare. Not 3.(new roution at home, new routine at daycare, then another at home.) To much. Good luck.

My first advice is to get her a sound machine to drown out any outside noise that may disturb her sleep. At 10 months old she no longer needs to nurse in the middle of the night and should probably break that habit. I have found that the more sleep little ones get, the more they want to sleep. Sleep training is hard work. My 2 year old usually sleeps 10-12 hours at night and a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. As for the sleep training..... I recommend a fabulous book called 12 hours sleep by 12 weeks old. Best book I ever read.
Good luck!

Hi Denise,
I HIGHLY recommend reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth to understand biological sleep rhythms and how to sync your child's with her naps and bedtime. I would first start by putting your daughter in bed at night around 6-6:30pm. You would be surprised how easily she will fall asleep. The biological naps at your daughter's age should be at about 9am and 1pm. As to her night waking to nurse, she doesn't need the food and is only using it to help her get back to sleep. Teaching her to fall asleep on her own is one of the greatest things you can do. While Dr. Weissbluth says that the cry it out method works the quickest, he is by no means an "advocate" and gives other options. I used the modified cry it out with my daughter. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Weissbluth, email me.
Sincerely,
L.

Hi there,

I highly recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-Happy-Child/dp...

which is really helpful for getting your child on a good sleep schedule.

We sleep "trained" our daughter when she was 3 months old as I was nervous about going back to work. She was getting up a lot and needed to be rocked or nursed or something to sleep. I also thought she was getting enough sleep but she wasn't. In fact, when we started putting her down earlier, it really helped.

We live in a 1-bedroom apt. too (although our now 18-month old has a little room that she sleeps in) so I understand.

Check out Weissbluth. He has great advice!

Good luck!

J.

One of the wonderful things about daycare is that they take care of things like getting children on a good nap schedule. They also deal with it when the children aren't ready to nap. You may find that when your daughter is in daycare, she'll be a lot more tired at night and you will be able to get her to go to bed at a reasonable hour. She'll let you know-- one way or another-- how much sleep she needs. This is a good age to get children used to going to bed by the time the sun sets (at least! many 10-month-olds need to go to bed by 7:30 PM!). Good luck!

Hey D! I am a first time parent and realizing that babies are strange with their sleeping. my daughter is 5 months and has been sleeping through the night for awhile but only takes a few 10 minute naps during the day. What I do is bath her before bed with baby lavender soap. That way she is relaxed and realizes its bedtime. Also, your girl might need a little on her tummy before bed. Maybe a little warm cereal. Start now practising letting her go to sleep on her on. At my daughters 4 month check her pedi told me its time to lay her down BEFORE she falls asleep. ( I did not take too kindly to that!) She whined a little at first but now she falls asleep on her own. Start leaving her in the room alne to fall asleep. Start slow though. Lay her down and rub her back. DO NOT lay with her. Anywho, daycares are armed with people who specialize in this stuff. So don't worry!! GOOD LUCK!!

Maybe try her on one nap a day, early afternoon? Then to bed earlier (gives you more self & hubby time-moms need the kids in bed BEFORE they go to bed)and of course you will be waking up with her.
Why active kids need less naps is beyond me, but in my case it was true. My most active child outgrew naps the quickest.
I used to worry too, all of us in one little space and how will I ever get her to go to sleep without me right there?
Trust me - there will come a time when she will not be caught sleeping near you! She is probably not hungry in the middle of the night, just used to breast on demand. You may want to try a binky then. Or let her fuss herself back to sleep, it is pure torture, but worth it. Takes about three days.
They will sit with her and rub her back in daycare at nappytime, right? She will need that. Good luck!

Read the SleepEasy Solution by Sleepy Planet - www.sleepyplanet.com. Period. There is a DVD too. I think I ended up buying the book and DVD combo off the website. I had no idea that babies could sleep thru the night by 4 months so when my now 10 mo old was 6-7 months old and we were so sleep deprived I came across this book. I was also nursing my son to sleep and he was still getting up 1-3 times a night in which I nursed him again to get back to sleep. Within a week he was weaned from night feedings and sleeping from 7 pm to 6am! Infants, babies, kids should sleep 11 - 13 hrs at night, going to bed at the latest 8:30, according to the book.

I have 2 children 1) 2yrs and 1)7 months and I find that their sleep schedule can easily be altered. If we are visiting friends late one night and they go to bed at 9-10pm instead of the usual 7:30-8pm the next few nights are rough getting it back to normal. I think your daughter will adapt to the daycare providers schedule when she starts and there is no need to do anything about it now.
As far as waking in the night, my son didn't stop waking in the night until he was weaned (about 14months). I did NOT give him a bottle to bed, we had a routine bath, books, bed and I found preparing him by saying "you have to go to bed soon" about 1/2 hour before would help when it was finally time, there was less resistance. Good luck!

I went through the same thing last year. I am a teacher and my daughter started going to an in-home daycare at 6 months. At 10 months (and stil at 16 months) my daughter would go to bed between 7:00-7:30 and she wakes up around 6:15, which is a 1/2 hour before we leave for daycare. She seems well rested in the morning if she doesn't wake up at all at night (99% of the time she doesn't). She also took a nap from 9-11 and 1-3. I pick her up at 3:00 and she is happy and well rested. I think as long as you are nursing she will not be as good of a sleeper. I think you should start teaching her to soothe herself to sleep or she will not be able to sleep at daycare very well. Daycares have a lot of noises, so babies are more likely to wake up and they need to know how to go to sleep on their own. I would start putting her to bad a 1/2 hour earlier for 4-5 days and then keep moving it back until you get to 7:30. Also, try putting her down for nap at the same time everyday and have her stay in her crib for at least an hour. You will probably have to let her cry in order for her to learn to soothe herself (try a pacifier). You can go in and check on her ever so often, but eventually add more time between checks. This will be really hard, but your child will be rested and happier and you will be happier. Also with daycare the 1st few weeks your daughter will be wiped out (tired), but she will adjust.

Oh, I wouldn't worry. Once she has to get up early, she'll start going to bed earlier. Also, at daycare they will help her to get on a better napping schedule. Generally once children are in the toddler room they are down to 1 nap a day. If your daughter needs more, they will work with her and ease the transition to one.