Can someone please help me. Recently, my 18 month old is having trouble sleeping through the night, which she used to do very well, and she is waking up in the morning at around 5:30. She takes a 1 to 2 hour nap in the early afternoon and goes to sleep at around 9:00 and by around 10:30 she starts having the hard time. I feel like I've tried everything, night-light, music.
The only thing that stood out to me from your request is the time you are putting her to bed at night. From some of the research/reading I've done I've heard that if you actually put children to bed earlier they sleep better...I've heard that it's good to put young children down before 8. We put our daugther down (10 mo old) around 7:30 and that seems to have worked pretty well for us- she usually sleeps until about 6:45. Good luck!
I would agree with the other responses.
To start with Healthy Sleep Habits book is fabulous. It works.
Secondly, try having her go to bed earlier...even if you need to do it gradually a little earlier every night. She probably needs more sleep than she's getting. That book says..."sleep begets sleep". I know it's going to get harder with the daylight savings, too, so some kids like room darkening shades (putting to bed at 7:30 and it's still light out could be confusing...).
I would also consider ditching the monitor. How far away from her room are you? We haven't used one for nighttime (I do for nap when I'm downstairs and she/he upstairs) really ever. One time when our oldest was very, very young, it wasn't on and we noticed we still heard her just fine. It might make it so you don't hear her do one little whimper, but you'll totally hear her if she really needs you. If it's on tonight...and you hear her cry...try shutting it off momentarily and see how loud she is. For example, our 20 month old has been briefly crying around 4 am the past few nights. The only reason I know is because I slept in the guestroom because my husband was recovering from minor surgery (in bed earlier than me...up later...I didn't want to keep disturbing him...having trouble sleeping anyway as uncomfortable incision etc). Point is, I was right next to my little guy's room, so I heard it, but haven't otherwise. I ignored it and he went back to sleep until 6:40, the usual wake up time.
Hi K.,
I can relate. I have 6 kids who all share rooms, and we have had plenty of sleep issues. The book that saved our lives was "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. It was recommended to us by our pediatrician when we were in a time of absolute desperation with our fourth baby. The book breaks things down by ages, and walks you through step by step. It usually, in my experience takes only a few days to resolve most of the sleep issues. We've used it so many times with various kids at various ages. It would probably have you start with the daytime sleep, and once that's under control, the night. But also, considering that your daughter is not sleeping much during the day with her 5:30 wake-up, you could try napping her a little earlier in the day, and putting her to bed by 6pm. I know this seems ridiculously early, but an earlier bedtime often seems to actually improve both quality and duration of nighttime sleep. I would never have thought of doing that, but when I tried it, it worked. Also, letting her cry it out is part of this method, and is awful the first couple of nights, but you'd be amazed how quickly it ends after that. With a couple of mine, I had to take my older child out of the room for a few nights, so it wouldn't disrupt her sleep, but I found that was worth it. Also, my kids usually have managed to sleep through the crying any time I've had to use this method. I would definitely recommend getting the book though, because there is a lot more to the process than I could possibly ever explain, and he also explains away very satisfactorily, most of the arguments against letting a baby cry it out, especially one as old as your daughter. Good luck.
Could she be teething. My daughter is a great sleeper as well and lately has consistantly been waking at 3 am and when I give her orajel and motrin, she falls back asleep fairly quickly.
Hi K.,
I'm wondering if you could shorten or eliminate her afternoon nap. Nine is late for such a little one to go to sleep at night. Without the nap, she might go to sleep earlier, but sleep better. My son woke up at 5 am every day until he was five! If he napped during the day, he'd be up until ten or later, but still woke up at five.
P. B.
