Ok. I must confess. We are not doing well with sleeping lately. Is it a two year old thing? Is it Colby being a little stinker? Is it an adoptive thing? Not sure but it all started somewhere in the midst of the holiday season. Thinking it was the holidays and COlby was just over excited, I didn't think much of it. Now, I'm going crazy. Most days, he refuses to nap. Yes, he is tired. Yes, he is cranky without it. But no, he won't give in and go to sleep. He is in a toddler bed and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to keep him in it. There is no major tantrum. He comes out to peek at Mike and me to see if we are still there. Just checking I guess. At night this can go one for well over an hour. We have tried it all. Laying with him in our bed, sitting on his floor, leaving him alone. Ugh! Nothing works. He has said he's "Afraid dark". Not sure. So this leads to yesterday....
Mike and I sat with Colby and tucked him in for his nap after lunch. He had been very fidgety at church but he looked tired. We hoped for a good nap. No such luck. Mike sat with him for a little while and then came out to the family room. Colby peeked out a couple times and we sent him back. Colby got up once and went to the potty. Mike went in and praised him for that. Then it was quiet for quite awhile. We thought he had fallen asleep. No such luck. Mike went to check on him and what a mess! Colby had reached up on the dresser and grabbed the tube of Diaper Cream. Yes, I know, I should have put it away. We haven't used it in forever. Colby is now potty trained so why is it out? He squeezed the cream everywhere on the floor, the dresser, his bed, and the area rug. That stuff not only smells but is so sticky. Mike and I had to scrub the rug but it is still there. On the bright side, we wanted to clean it pretty good before we have company this weekend. The dog sleeps on it and it was a mess. But, ugh! Everywhere. Now what do we do? We had just praised him for getting up by himself and going poops on the potty, and now this? Ugh! And then of course, he wouldn't lay down again and threw a fit, crying and screaming, begging for a snack. A SNACK!!! After that mess. No way! So, last night, exhausted he fell asleep with little fuss. And today he did take a nap. We shall see about tonight!
Russia
We went to Yekaterinburg
4 comments:
Sad to see it go, but nap time will become a thing of the past soon! Matthew started working his way out of his nap around 2 1/2. He still had to stay in his bed and have quiet time. I usually gave him books and puzzles to keep him busy. This made his bedtime earlier and much easier. Good luck! :)
Hey Melissa! We have gone through this somewhat with our Small Fry. Several months ago he started to wake up crying several times at night, afraid of the dark. He never had a problem before, but my sister's daughter went through the same thing... so I think it can just be a 2-3 year old stage. Our solution was to put a nightlight right next to his bed. If he could see it he was totally fine.
Then about a month ago or so he wasn't taking naps either. Oh my word so cranky!! I would insist that he have quiet time though in his bed. Some days he would fall asleep and some days he would not. But he knew the deal was he had to stay in quiet time (he could look at books or play quietly with his matchbox cars on his bed).
I agree with Jenny, his bedtime was a breeze when he didn't nap! He was typically exhausted. I think he is going through a growth spurt because he is sleeping a lot more now at naptime! (Plus eating a lot)
With my two older boys I did quiet time until they were about 5 yars old. Even a half hour or 45 minutes helps everyone so much. (Mommy included). Sometimes even now, in the afternoon we have reading time when Small Fry naps. It's still like quiet time and everyone comes out refreshed.
Good luck!
Hi Melissa,
we had a lot of this around the 3 years mark (few months before, few months later). What helped Max was also using a nightlight. We found a programmable one (yes, I googled lots of nightlights :) ...) which displays a blue moon at night and a yellow sun at wake-up time. Without it Max would get disoriented and wake up crying in different corners of the room.
We also started to talk about simple sleep rules and lead him back to bed silently each time, and point to the blue moon (yup, there was the infamous time when he wandered out of his room 24 times in an hour and daddy was super-boring each time...). He now springs out of bed when the sun is yellow (I guess this is a precursor to having a real clock) and usually sleeps well and does not peek out of his room for fun too often (although there is never an end to creativity, early this morning I heard "Daddy, Mom, I have a question").
He naps occasionally or otherwise has quiet time. It works fine at home, but quiet time (not!) at preschool is all another story.....
Emanuela
Oh....I don't even know what to say, Melissa --- I, too, will be doing a post on this soon. Going to bed has been the biggest challenge since coming home last May. It was really bad taking 90-120 minutes May - Aug, then tapered to 30-60 minutes when she started school (and getting up at 6:15am). We've had some good nights but oh, sometimes it takes 2 hours STILL. Tried the Super Nanny approach, hot milk, routine (bath, lotion massage, read a book, quiet time, hold her close), ETC. but then she jumps out of bed to find us.
The past few nights have been good. I take her in our room, only the TV on, and she falls asleep next to me within 20 min. Once she's out, there could be an earthquake -- so we move her, or keep her with us, depending on how we feel.
Of all the challenges, if this is the worst thing, then we are truly blessed!
Good luck and keep us posted!
~Laura
Post a Comment