Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Calling All Moms!

I need some advice. Charlie and Liv are finally down to one nap a day, but they only sleep for an hour. They might sleep for 1.5 hours if I'm lucky, and let's face it, I'm not an inherently lucky person. Blessed, yes, lucky...no way. That's Eli's department Mr. I-win-every-radio-contest-I-call-for. But I digress.

So. They are taking naps that are way too short. And the rest of the afternoon and evening and horrible. They are tired and cranky, and quite frankly, so am I. I've tried letting them cry to see if they fall back asleep. They don't. They just cry for as long as I keep them in there, and I've never been a softy on this. I've let them cry for as long as an hour and a half after they wake up. Anything longer than that just feels wrong to me. I've tried getting them up as soon as they wake. I've tried putting them down on a strict schedule and putting them down when they are tired. I've tried two naps a day and putting them down earlier. Generally they go down after lunch between 12:30 and 1, but they've also gone before lunch on the days when they just can't make it anymore. I try to get them down before they are too tired, I know the signs to look for. I've tried talking to them about needing to rest quietly for a while after they wake up, but in this case the conversation didn't work out so well. After an hour I can still hear them jumping in the cribs and/or crying. We use soothing music, we have curtains, we have blankets, we have snugglies. We do NOT have pacifiers as most of you already know if you read my blog. After three days of madness, they fall asleep just fine without them and for a while there they were even taking 2/2.5 hour naps. Not anymore.

They have always been champion sleepers at night. Currently they sleep from 7pm to 8/8:30am. Which we DO NOT want to change that, as you might imagine. :) But even given their great night sleep, they still need more sleep than they are getting during the day.

So send me your thoughts and suggestions. I'm open to any and all, I only ask that you don't suggest that I do things I've already told you we have tried. Some people on facebook didn't quite realize that those suggestions wouldn't be helpful. :) I included more info on the blog post though, so there's a more complete picture here. Operation "Kid Nap" has now begun! Tehe! I couldn't resist.

9 comments:

Eli Bowman said...

Honey....try some Jack for crying out loud. ;)

Emmy said...

Jack as in Daniels, Eli? I hear that works, too. :)
Good luck, Abby! Sounds like you've done everything an educated and professionally trained woman in this area would do. . .as you are the master! I have nothing to add only. . . you have officially reminded me that I am doing this all over again and now I am nervous. Thanks a lot!! :)

Leslie said...

When did you try to put them down for the two naps?

My only suggestion would be to try putting them down for their first nap an hour after they wake up in the morning, then proceed with an afternoon nap maybe around 2. I doubt there's much you can do to get them to sleep a longer stint (you've already done everything). This is the only thing that works for Henry (aka: the world's worst sleeper), but who knows. When all else fails, do what Eli suggested... a little Jack never hurt anyone.:-)

Nic and Abbey said...

Funny story...my grandma often recalls the night she put a tablespoon of whisky in my mom's bottle..."She didn't make a peep the whole night!". Not my recommendation.

I just busted out my sleep bible, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", and it sounds like you've tried just about everything in the book. Dr. Weissbluth is a big advocate of 6-6:30pm bedtimes, and that works for us, but in my opinion your bedtime is just fine.

Once, when Ella was a little nap-resistant, we did the full bedtime routine at naptime, too. Food, bath, books, song, prayer. It takes a little longer, but that was helpful. I continued that for a few weeks, then slowly dropped little bits of the routine to make it take less time.

Another thing I was thinking about...do you know if it is one child who is waking, or both? It would seem logical that someone is waking up first, and then making noise. Maybe if it is always the same child, they are the one causing the nap problems. I have a friend who has triplets. At about this age, they just stopped napping. She discovered that it was one of the triplets who was keeping the other girls up, so she gave that child her own room, just for naps, with a pack and play. Nighttime wasn't an issue, so they stayed together then. That worked for her.

Good luck, Ab!

The Katzbox said...

I've got nothing. Eli stopped taking naps about that time. If he napped, he was up until 2 or 3 in the morning. No kidding. And no fun.

Does your pediatrician have an opinion? Can they go without naps or with one nap without the lack of sleep being deleterious to their health? I know it would be bad for yours! You need the break. Yeesh, honey.

Maybe separate rooms might work! It made sense and I actually thought about that when I saw this on FB.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Love you.

Kristy said...

It sounds like you've tried everything. Nora is down to a scheduled nap 3 days a week, but we'll be phasing it out over the summer because of preschool. Do you have a set routine every time before nap? With Corbin it didn't make a difference, but Nora is very routine oriented and needs to know what is going to come next or her whole world is turned upside down. I also found that separating my kids during naps were a huge help. I hope you can find something that works.

Unknown said...

i have definitely considered that they are waking each other up, but there doesn't seem to be on culprit. they seem to take turns. i guess the only thing left to do is separate them during the day. gotta go buy more curtains now! :)

Valerie said...

Are they going through a growth spurt? Vivi always gets cranky and doesn't nap well when she's growing. I'm not sure how long this has been going on so it may not be valid.

Emilia said...

None of my kids were/are great nappers. They will eventually grow into their new schedule. I know that's not what you want to hear. Sorry. Good luck, Mama. I'll be sending sleepy thoughts your way. ;)

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