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Why won't she sleep?!

4 replies

TiredDaddyOf2 · 16/01/2017 12:54

Hi all. A very sleepy daddy of 2 beautiful angels here.

Our 17mo little girl hates sleep... She fights it at every turn and frankly we are exhausted. Can anyone offer advice as to what to do next?

-My wife still breastfeeding feeds on a morning and to sleep (somethimes)
-she wakes every night between 11 and 12pm screaming until my wife takes her
-we made the mistake of letting her sleep in our bed during a spell if illness and now she's there every night
-we have tried leaving her for a while and "control crying" but she shares a room with her older brother and its disturbing his sleep.

What is the next step?
Thanks for reading

Tired Daddy Sad

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FATEdestiny · 16/01/2017 13:23

Sad Tired Daddy, that sounds like hard work. Is your toddltoddker having daytime naps? What happens to get her to sleep then?

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TiredDaddyOf2 · 16/01/2017 13:42

Hi Fate. She does sleep usually between 20 and 40 mins. We don't let her sleep after 2pm and she goes to bed a rounded 7. We have a set routine which works for our son, dinner at 5, play til 6, bath then a story and both to bed around 7. If she is tired she will sleep at 7 but you could set your watch by the time she wakes, always between 11.30 and 12

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FATEdestiny · 16/01/2017 14:04

Would it be possible to try and get her to sleep more in the daytime?

As a reference point my youngest was on 2- nap days at 17 months. She slept 9.30-11 and 1-3pm then 7.30pm-6.30am. That was without night wakes. With night wake ups, I'd expect even more daytime sleep. She moved to 1 nap days at 20/22 months (gradual change) and then would sleep 1pm to 4pm and 8pm-7am.

My older children were on 1 nap days at 17 months, but this would be at least 2 hours long.

It is said that good sleep breeds better sleep. A child getting enough sleep will find getting to sleep easier, will sleep deeply and so wake less often, will find it easier to resettle if they do slightly stir in the night - so will end up getting even better quality sleep.

The opposite is true. An over tired child will find getting to sleep hard, be a light sleeper so wake more often and find it harder to resettle when they do wake.

So I would say your toddler needs more daytime sleep. Maybe do her daytime nap in the pushchsir so you can jiggle back to sleep? Or try for an earlier nap and add in a second afternoon nap. Is that doable?

Not allowing sleep last 2pm is unreasonable. 4pm maybe. Although my 2 year old sometimes naps past 4.30pm, especially on weekends. It might m9ve her bedtime from 7.30 to 8pm, but doesn't affect her nights sleep very much at all.

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Phoenix76 · 16/01/2017 22:46

Hello tireddaddyof2! I just had to come on here to second everything FATEdestiny has said! I used to think that keeping them awake more during the day would make for better night time sleep - wrong!! Once I'd let dd have the naps during the day she so desperately needed night times were.......night times! Sleep for all of us at last! Mad but true! Good luck!

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