Here in the Edspire household we are dealing with some sleep issues.
I wonder if anyone is able to offer advice on the three separate dilemmas I am facing with my fabulous three?
Problem 1: To Nap or Not to Nap…
Esther and William are now 25 months old. They are generally good sleepers and have been since they were 15 months. Until very recently they have slept for about 90 minutes during the day at 1pm ish and then slept from 7pm – 7am overnight. At the moment they are getting upset if we put them down for a daytime nap and tend to play around for an hour and then we get them up again. When they do sleep during the day though they go to bed at 7pm they are often not asleep much before 9.
So I am thinking that the time has come to change our routine and perhaps drop their daytime nap?
I have to be honest the thought fills me with dread as I cherish the hour I have without them in the middle of the day. If I am very lucky, and have timed it right, Matilda will be asleep aswell and I get to have a sit down with a hot cup of tea!
But my selfish thoughts aside, if Esther and William do not sleep in the day then the last bits of their day are terrible as they start to become tired, clumsy and cross. I just don’t know what we should do for the best!
How did you cope with the end of daytime sleep or have you found a way of encouraging your toddler to enjoy an afternoon siesta?
Problem 2: Cot to Bed?
The terrible twos have begun though one month in they are not too terrible so far but their are things on the horizon that we need to address that may well bring them on if we do not approach them carefully. One of these is potty training (to which I sm devoting a whole series of posts!!) the other is transitioning twins from their cots into beds.
To be honest I have absolutely no idea where to begin with this one?!?
Esther and William share a room. Can I honestly expect them to learn to sleep in a bed and not just play around all night running from bed to bed? Fellow mummies, how do we even begin?
Can you please please share your tips for moving toddlers from cot to bed?
Problem 3: Matilda Mae, Where Do I Begin?
Matilda Mae will be 17 weeks old tomorrow. She is wonderful and I love her with all my heart.
But … I do not enjoy the amount of time I spend ssshing her and jiggling her to sleep.
I walk miles I am certain every day in the quest for Matilda sleep.
And this would be fine, sort of, if I did not also have the twins to look after and enjoy.
Matilda has something of a routine now.
We get up about 7am. She is generally awake and happy til 9am when operation sleep begins. I feed her and then pace around with her until she is almost fast asleep or completely asleep amd then put her in her crib.
She tends to sleep between 40 minutes and an hour at this time.
She is then awake and often whingey from 10ish until 12 – 12.30pm when operation sleep begins again.
This is usually a longer sleep, between one and two hours on a good day. Sometimes she will cry after half an hour or so then I will cuddler her back to sleep and she will sleep on me. This has always coincided with Esther and William being asleep and so has been a welcome cuddle time but I will not be free for cuddles if the terrible two no longer sleep.
Often Matilda has another short nap around 4.30 / 5.00pm either before or after her bath.
She then on a good day is asleep in her crib by about 8pm, wakes for a feed about 10pm and then sleeps through.
I say she sleeps through but actually she sleeps in our bed with me and so helps herself to food throughout the night, though I am only really aware of this happening once in the night. I think!
There are so many bad habits in the statement above, in this routine of ours and I am not really sure how to start straightening them out?
I would love to hear about other baby’s routines at 4 months or 17 weeks. I would love to know your tips for helping Matilda to settle her self to sleep? How do I help her to soothe herself to sleep when she wakes too early from her nap? Ar there alternatives to the constant pacing and ssshing? What works best for you? It may be just the thing that works for us too!
Please please if you have read this and have any tips or advice or a blpg post I should read. Please leave a comment below and help us get some sleep!!
You poor thing! I am having similar issues actually and I just want to recommend the baby whisperer. Read the stuff on sleep, saved my sanity when luka was little
XxX
Do you know I have that book and have never read it. Will have a look. Thank you x
We are having the same nap issues with gemma.I am loathed to stop her afternoon nap as I need that hour or so but she has been monkeying til 9pm instead of 7.30pm past few nights.her dad had to sit in with her to get her to sleep which is ridiculous!
No nap this afternoon and went down at just after 7 so might need to get used to it. She is nearly 28 months,25 corrected so should think myself lucky.
Still going to carry on with morning nap.
Can’t imaigine how you cope with 3 of them!
I am putting off the move to a bed for a while.I can’t imagine what she would get up to in the morning before we got up.toys and books would be everywhere but I suppose they need to grow up eventually. Ny niece was 2 when moved to a bed.she sat on her bed when woke until her mum or dad came through but gemma is not so well behaved 😉
We’re having similar issues with our twins’ daytime nap at the moment – but they’re only 21 months yet! They definitely seem to need to sleep in the day, but are quite often awake until gone 8.15 (we put them to bed about 7.15-7.30). Could you try cutting their nap down and waking them after an hour? Or even less? I did that when dropping their morning nap and they cut it out themselves in the end… Or try giving them a nap every few days? Like you, I’m also dreading losing that break in the middle of the day!
As for Matilda’s naps – I remember at that stage with my two I would just watch for tired signs then put them in their cots, letting them go off to sleep on their own. Then I’d just get them up whenever they woke. They seemed to get tired about two hours after they last woke. Then it gradually moved so they would be awake for 2 hrs in the morning (7-9), nap, then awake for 3 hrs (10-1), nap then awake for 4 hrs (3-7).
I’ll be interested to know how it goes, I’m dreading dropping The Nap!!
If I lay Matilda in her cot awake she just cries!!!
Oh no 🙁 Did have that at times but I think because there were two of them they learnt to self-settle fairly early on because, as you know, when you’re by yourself you can’t sort them both at the same time! It’s one of the many things I felt guilty about but couldn’t do anything about. It doesn’t seem to have done them any harm and they sleep really well now…
Gosh – Gemma still has a morning nap. That is good. We lost ours before Christmas. I missed that time too when it first went. I guess we will just adapt. May have to build in some quiet time to our day.
How do you keep a toddler in bed? Giving them such freedom but asking them not to use it. Baffles me x x x
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