Nadia has been having more and more trouble falling asleep for her nap and at night. Most days she does eventually fall asleep and take a nap, but it's only because I go in her room a few times and remind her that she's supposed to be taking a nap (not playing). On Monday she didn't sleep at all. On Sunday she took a really long nap. I can't remember which day, but there was one day this week that she took so long to fall asleep that I woke her up after she had only been asleep for 60 minutes because I thought too late of a nap might make it harder for her to fall asleep at night. She's been taking at least an hour (and often more than that) to fall asleep at night. Everything has been much worse the last two weeks (since the time change). During the first week after the time changed she was getting up really early. She used to stay in her bed until I got her (around 7am). Thankfully she's stopped coming into our room each morning (that went on for a week), but I can hear evidence that she's awake (ex. coughing) around 6:20 or 6:30 each morning. To add insult to injury, she's only slept through the night once or twice over the past week because of her cold. One of us gets up once or twice in the night to give her some water or Tylenol to get her back to sleep in the middle of the night. Between getting up earlier, not sleeping through the night, and taking longer to fall asleep at night, she's really been losing a lot of sleep. And it shows. She's doing a lot of yawning these days.
Today when it seemed she was having a hard time falling asleep, I decided not to go in her room and try to help her to get to sleep. I thought maybe if she skipped her nap then she'd have an easier time falling asleep this evening. My plan was to keep tucking her in for her nap each day, but that if the norm became that she wasn't actually taking a nap (she did nap 5 of the last 7 days), that I'd just change it to a quiet time/ room time instead of a nap. If she still was taking a nap several of the days (even without my "encouragement"), then I was going to continue to tuck her in but not make an issue of it if she didn't fall asleep. Well my plan backfired this evening as she really fought going to bed tonight. I thought the process would go more smoothly since she didn't take a nap today (she did have 2 hours of quiet time). Instead she cried and screamed more than ever before. Usually putting her to bed is no big deal. So now I'm not sure what to do. Monday was the first time in a few weeks that she skipped a nap. She had been regularly taking them, but it had been taking her longer and longer to fall asleep, which meant on many days she was in her room for over 3 hours because she played for quite awhile before she fell asleep. Any suggestions? I don't want to move her bedtime back later (8pm). Maybe I shouldn't be concerned that it takes her so long to fall asleep at night? Would switching from a nap to a quiet time help? I just want her to get an adequate amount of sleep. She plays very nicely in her room so a transition to quiet time wouldn't be difficult. I'm just not sure what is the best route to go at this point. She'll be turning 3.5 years old next month. The irony is that we transitioned her to a twin size bed (from a crib) in early January, and we didn't have any issues with her getting out of the bed until this month. I figured if we had struggles over staying in bed, it would have been at the beginning. It caught me off guard that it just became an issue recently.
Ian is doing really well at night. He goes to sleep almost immediately, and he sleeps until sometime between 6:30 and 7:30am (with 7:00 being the norm). I can't remember the last time he didn't sleep through the night. He's also had a cold, but it hasn't caused him to wake during the night. He had been taking 50 minute naps until 8 days ago when he went back to taking 20-30 minute naps. I keep hoping he'll go back to 50 minutes, but it hasn't happened thus far. I'm imagining it will at some point. He often starts to nod off at the kitchen table during lunch. He usually doesn't cry when I put him down (for nap or at night). That represents progress!
1 comment:
I made Tyler and now Brianne take a nap until they were half way into kindergarten. I believe that kids that nap and have plenty of rest act much better. I also need a break! Sometimes they go through phases where they don't want to nap, and my motto is that even if you don't fall asleep you better not get out of the bed. Lately there are times Brianne doesn't fall asleep during nap and then I find her asleep somewhere in the house before it is time for bed. I don't mind her not sleeping as long as she is quiet and no one hears her. It is hard to believe Nadia is already 3.5 years old. The years go by so fast.
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