Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Sleeping Babes...

I wish I had them during the day. At night, they've always been great. At 4 months they started sleeping through, and the daytime was great too. But during the past few weeks, things have started to crumble. They now wake up a couple times a night. Not for long, thank goodness! And they put themselves back to sleep. Don't even have to get up.

But during the day...I'm lucky if they take an hour nap in the morning and afternoon. 40-45 minutes is the norm. So I have started leaving them in their cribs if they wake up after that ridiculous amount of time in the hopes that they will cry themselves back to sleep. Yesterday, Charlie slept for 40 minutes in the afternoon and then screamed for a full hour. He was so dead tired, but he just kept on crying. Horrible for the mother, horrible for the child. Today, it's Olivia's turn. She's been crying for 20 minutes now (after a 45 minute nap). Oh wait! Shhh! She's quiet. I hear babbling though. We'll have to wait and see.

Between all of this screaming, and crying, and trying to get these babies the rest they need, my more-than-elderly dog keeps barking. I'm sure that's helping.

Anyway, I'm tired of the tiredness. :) I can't figure out what the deal is, but I hope it resolves itself soon. I'm hoping they just need to start moving around on their own more. Any tips?

6 comments:

Nic and Abbey said...

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth.

It's a lifesaver.

Good luck! :)

Kristy said...

It might just be a phase where they are trying to push boundaries or have some control over something. Nora went through those periods of trying to stay awake when she was their age, but now she gets upset if we don't put her down for nap right at 1pm!

Beth said...

All three of my girls gave up morning naps before they turned one. I stretched nap time to as clost to noon as I could (even if I had to deal with a little crankiness) and then I tried to get them to take one longer nap. After a month I was able to adjust it to a little later in the afternoon and they slept 2 or 3 hours. Another thing that sometimes interupts sleep around this age is that they are working so hard with developmental milestones their minds won't let them sleep (crawling, walking , talking) I remember then whenever one of my kids started focusing on a new skill they started having sleep interuptions and as soon as they mastered the skill all would settle down at least until the next one came alone.
hope this might help!
Beth

SS said...

Ugh. Sounds like teeth and yes, when Muriel began crawling she also began bopping around her crib (in her sleep) which would wake her. We use the same routine for naps that we do for bed (minus the bath), make it very dim and if she was still very fussy/feverish, we gave her Tylenol. I think a lot of times she was very uncomfortable and it didn't manifest until naptime. And I'll second Abbey on the HSHHC book -- worked for us.

Emmy said...

Well, I have nothing more offer. I agree with all of this. And, just a note of encouragement. . .it's just a phase, it's just a phase, it's just a phase, it's just a phase. . . .

The Lawson's said...

All children are different. Linsy was down to one nap a day around this age. She had stopped taking naps before she was 2. On the rare occasion she took one, she was up until 1:00-2:00am at night. Jace was the opposite. He followed the normal patterns of nap taking. I think everything your friends have said are worth trying. If it continues, you may try pushing them a little later and work on the one longer nap a day. I agree that sometimes it is better to put up with some crankiness in exchange for a longer single nap time. Good luck! This is tough!

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