HELP! Toddlers and sleep question....?

My youngest is 15 months old, and has always been a terrible sleeper. Never sleeping thru the night, and sometimes when he gets up he'll scream until I come and get him out of bed and stay up with him. As a matter of fact, it's 4 AM right now, and he's been up for about an hour and a half already. Most of that spent in his crib, fighting sleep.


He wakes for the day at 6:30


Naps at about 12 for about an hour and a half. I've tried cutting the nap in half but it causes his temprament to be horrible.


He goes to sleep if I am lucky around 8:30, though I put him down at 7 and he's rubbing his eyes at that time.


I'm going nuts and I'm exhausted, how can I get this baby to sleep better?

HELP! Toddlers and sleep question....?
It is normal for kids to wake up, but to stay up is not normal. One sleep fact that might be helpful for you is to know that getting a little longer nap or an earlier bedtime help a child to sleep more deeply and for longer periods. Or in other words sleep begets sleep and sleep loss begets more sleep loss. Lots of people think keeping a child up later or skipping a nap will help their child fall asleep better at bedtime and sleep later in the morning. Just the opposite is true. I learned this interesting information from reading about the research of Dr. Marc Weissbluth when my own baby had similar sleep problems.


Maybe part of my story will be helpful...


I found that for a few days putting my baby to sleep as early as 5:30pm and then moving it back about 20 minutes a day until it was about 6:45 helped her start falling asleep more quickly at bedtime and sleep later in the morning usually about 8:00pm (I used a dark sheet on the window to keep the sun from waking her up too early also). I also started responding to the crib slowly at the end of the nap. Often she would cry several minutes, then fuss, then babble and then after about 10-15 minutes go back to sleep for another 1 1/2 hours! I wondered how often I had accidently cut her naps short previously? My next two babies woke up during naps too. I would nurse them and then put them back in their crib. I could usually tell in just a few minutes if they were in the mood to go back to sleep or not.
Reply:First thing done give in to him.. Its hard for me to give you advice as our situations are different, our little one sleeps only for hour during the day and goes to sleep on his own at 8 on his sofa in the lounge room. He does however wake up thru the night at 3am when I pick him up cuddle him and put him in bed with us. then sleeps soundly til 6am. We dont mind him in our bed so you could do that or just stand firm..
Reply:Phenerghan.
Reply:I've a few ideas - sorry if you have already tried them.





You need a set routine every night so he knows it's bedtime and therefore time to sleep.





The hour before bedtime needs to be a 'wind down' time so no TV (even if he is too young to really watch it the flickering lights stimulate the mind so he will be more active)





1) Give him a warm bath - Johnsons do a bedtime bath cream for babies that has lavender in it thats supposed to help sleep. Never tried it but I guess you will try anything if you are desperate.





There is also a lavender talk/baby lotion - you could try those too (I don't think you can OD on lavender)





2) Give him his last drink of milk of the night





3)Read him a bedtime story (15 months is not too young for stories)





4)Leave the room - even if he is not asleep. They need to learn to get themselves off to sleep so when they wake in the night they can do so.





5) When he wakes in the night - go in, don't put on a light, check he is okay (nappy/diaper etc) then put him straight down again and leave the room. DON'T Talk to him above a whisper and don't say much at all - in fact 'goodnight' is probably enough.





If he yells, leave him. You know he is alright because you just checked. You can sit outside his door if you are worried - but keep quiet.





You might have 3-4 night of him yelling but thats all it should take for him to get the message - it's nighttime and time to sleep.
Reply:wish I coud help. I know the drill.....my sister went thru it........that kid just gave her HELL, in every phase......


sleeping hours, teething, toilet training.......what a nightmare child. My own son, however, was a pure Gift from God.


Glady went to bed........slept soundly....... cut his teeth and barely grimaced.......and toilet training......I swear to you.....we put him up there, and he just looked at us like.........





"Well, damn! Finally! I was getting TIRED of crapping in my PANTS!" He took to it within 5 seconds, and we never looked back.





Oh, how my sister went thru HELL with all that...........the"fear" of the flushing, and all things bathroom related, -----





what can I say? All depends on the temperment of the child and the pure luck of the draw.





I guess a shot of whiskey is out of the question, eh???





OH, I'M KIDDING PEOPLE!!!!! just thought the woman could use a LAUGH-------------calm down!
Reply:bad as it sounds some tough love is going to be called for. while it is much easier on both u and the baby to get into ur bed, u will have a bigger fight in getting him to return to his when u decide he is old enough.


unlike adults cutting nap time has no relation to the amount of sleep a baby will do at night. have a pleasant wind down bedtime routine, leave a night light on, say goodnight see u in the morning and leave.





unless u know for sure that there are monsters under the bed, only check on him but dont sit there. hold on to ur ears coz there will be 2-3 nights of yelling till he realizes mum means business
Reply:I would just check on him, change him if need be. Then, once you know he is okay, let him cry it out. This is the time when he should already be sleeping through the night and he's gotten used to some soothing behavior that he gets from you. It may take him awhile, but once he no longer gets that from you he'll have to learn how to soothe himself when he wakes up at night. It's hard, I had to and I felt like a bad mom. The first couple of nights I cried as she cried. Then she just started sleeping through. She even became somewhat of a lazy bones in the morning. Sleeping in until 10 or so.
Reply:my son was bad for getting up in the night i tried to just persist with putting him back in bed but often i just took


him into mine as i needed sleep and a ratty mother is no good in the morning. he is now 3 and a half and he goes to bed at about 7pm and that him right through till 6.30 in the morning. when we get up for work.. he often


wake in the night still and i just have to tell him to go back to bed. took a while for that to work but eventually he understood that he wasn`t getting into my bed and went back to sleep.


just a shame now i can`t get a long lie on a weekend as he always up ay 6.30 xx





good luck it does get better.

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