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.. in other words -- nonexistent! DS (21 months) was sleeping from 10:30p-9:30 am. Then he started waking up earlier, so we put him down earlier, like at 9:30 or so, because it seemed like he wasn't getting enough sleep. He was still usually taking a 2 hour (or so) nap each day. But he started getting more and more miserable, and acting more and more sleep deprived. For the past 6 days he has not taken a solid full nap, and his bedtime sleeping is totally wacked out. He'll go to sleep fine, but then be up early in the morning (like 6am) screaming and banging his head on the crib because he wants out of his room. Our house runs a little different than others, I know. We don't get up at 7am.. DH and I sleep every morning til about 9, and don't go to bed until like midnight.. it's because of his job and how things roll here. But that has never been a problem. I thought that maybe he was just transitioning into not sleeping as long, but he's been so bleary eyed and miserable.. totally obvious that he's exhausted and really needs to sleep better. But I can't figure out what is making his sleeping so terrible. We put a fan in his room about 6 weeks ago that, up until 6 days ago, was helping him to sleep really well. His windows are covered so it is dark in his room all day. He only sleeps in there -- doesn't play in there much. We did that so he would know if he was in his room, it was sleeping time, not time to play around. He doesn't have a fever, nor is he acting like he has an ear infection or anything like that. Not coughing or snotting. No signs of him being sick at all.. he's just NOT SLEEPING. And it's depriving DH of sleep that he needs so desperately now (it is total chaos at his job). It's depriving me of sleep too, but up until now, I've been able to lay down while he took his naps and take a power nap. Not anymore. We're both worn out and don't know how much more we can take.. Anyone experienced this? What is wrong and how on earth do I fix it?!?!!? TIA.. your replies are very much appreciated! -Amanda
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Amanda,
The two great sleep killers for that age are ear infection and maybe his first set of molars are coming in! My son had an ear infection with NO symtoms and it was so bad he needed tubes, it wouldn't go away. He NEVER acted sick, never played with his ears anything. So you might want to go to dr to rule that out! Also the first set of molars comes in around 2, so that might be it, you can give him so medicine. Hate to tell you but 2 is also when my son decided he was going to be an early bird and wake up at 7am instead of 9am. Hasn't changed, every day like clockwork he's up at 7am. Good Luck!
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UPDATE: We FINALLY got through the sleeping problems. It took a while, as DS got really sick and then when he got better, I took him up to visit my parents by myself for a few days. (And it has always taken almost a week for him to get back into the groove of things at home once we get back). But finally, we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We went on the guess that he was trapped in a cycle of exhaustion. He wouldn't get enough sleep, and would be exhausted, then wouldn't go to bed b'c he was overtired, then wouldnt get enough sleep and so on... It took a day or two of letting him fall asleep in my arms or in the living room with DH and I, but now we're good. Last night he was still hesitant to do night-night prayers, as he knew he was going to bed, but we laid him down and he slept hard from 10:30 to 8:30. Which is great! And the past few days his naps have been getting better, so that's great too. I didn't know lack of sleep in a toddler could mess up a household so easily!
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Yea! Isn't it wonderful when they sleep well and long. Ahhh... We've been waking up at 3:00 am recently. Hope that stops soon. Hey--when did you start doing night time prayers and what prayer do you do? I always tell him that Jesus loves him when I put him to bed, but we don't pray. That's definitely something I want to do. I guess there's no reason we can't do it now, but anyway, I'd still be interested in know when you started.
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Oh, I know first hand how a toddlers sleep pattern can affect the whole house! ( I posted earlier this week in the same forum about my 3 1/2 year old). dh and I are getting up with our son about 3-4 times a night. We are both exhausted thru the day and I've noticed that dh is much more quick tempered lately that he hasn't been getting a good nights sleep. I've considered putting a fan in his room for some 'white noise' wondering if that would help but I hate for him to get dependent on that. We are so frustrated that we are willing to try anything.
Glad to hear your sons sleep is improving - hopefully I can post soon that my son is sleepign better at night!
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Bsteen,
we've been doing night-night prayers since he was a baby. DH says the prayer, but I'm trying to memorize it too. When he's saying it, I can go along with him, but let me see if I can remember it now.. "Dear Jesus, bless Mommy and Daddy and Little Man. Help us to sleep very good with no bad dreams and no waking up. Help us to love one another and to show it in everything we say, and do. Help us to take good care of the blessings you've given us and to be thankful for them. Thank you for bring us all safely back together tonight and for being with us and helping us do our daily activities to make you proud. Thank you for your love Jesus. And thank you for Mommy and Daddy and Abby (our dog) and for precious Little Man. In Jesus name.. Amen" I know I goofed some parts of it up in there but that's the best of my memory. And he usually says Amen at the end and bows his head and folds his hands through it. We also read a story from his little kids Bible (one of those board books that has simple stories and bright pictures) first before night-night prayers, and he LOVES it. It isn't too late to start though. Elijah looks forward to it (as do we) and it's cool because almost every night, we read a story with him that ends up correlating with things that we are going through, whether it's with DH and work or something. It's a good way to bring reality of daily life and the principles of our faith together during quality family time.
Tricia,
We found that putting a fan in our son's room DRASTICALLY improved things back when we were having problems with him sleeping months ago. I don't know if he's dependent on it.. I mean he'll sleep anywhere if he's tired enough, but I did take it to my parents house when I went there. I was partly afraid he wouldn't sleep without it, but mostly it was b'c they don't have any air circulation in the house and with a wood stove as their only heat ATM, it was getting hot in his room. So, that's the main reason I took it. But I would try the fan. It's not a specific kind of noise, so it's more of just a blur in the background. We live close to our road and thought that was probably one thing that was waking him up -- morons speeding past our house at 4 am or something. Or the dogs next door or whatnot. It's worth a try. We leave the fan on all day in his room - it keeps the air circulating in there so it doesn't get stale, and when he's napping or sleeping, it drowns out a little background noise so he isn't stirred as easily. I know the desperation you feel, and I was leery about DS getting addicted to the fan and all, but it got to the point where I was like "you know what? who on earth cares? mayb ehe'll have to sleep with a fan for the rest of his life.. right now if i dont get some sleep i'm going to go NUTS"..
Also, I think another reason DS is sleeping better is b'c I pushed back his naptime to 2/2:30 instead of 12:30/1. He was fallng asleep at like 8:30. and i figured it was b'c he was only going like 4 hours between his waking up and first nap but he had to go like 7 hours between his nap and going to bed. it was too much, especially with playing outside in the late afternoon and whatnot. so i pushed it back, and it's been working GREAT.
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Flybygrace,
Thanks for the prayer info. DS is 6 mo old and I don't have a great bedtime routine, so maybe I'll add a prayer to help it be more routine-like. Growing up, we always said a version of "Now I lay me down to sleep..." and then we would add our own prayer to the end. But the "if I should die before I wake" part always scared me. So I like the idea of just making up a simple prayer of your own.
BTW, DH and I are totally hooked on sleeping w/ a fan. We haven't started it with DS, but I might start if this waking up at 3:00 thing continues. He does fall alseep to rain sounds.
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I have a picture in DS's room that says "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guard me Jesus through the night and wake me with the morning light". I think that's it. I may be off by a few words. I don't ever remember "if I should die before I wake" in it, except in that country song "Feed Jake".
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I like that version MUCH better. I think I'd like to have a short memorized prayer and then encourage DS to add his own prayer. Otherwise, it seems like kids just babble out the memorized prayer and don't give it any thought (at least that's how I was.)