another nap question

The girls have been in big girl beds for sometime now - over a month, I think. They were climbing out of their cribs and DH and I are against bed tents so we thought we would make the switch. It went really well and they started sleeping better than they did in cribs. Fast forward to last week ... ugh! For some reason they would cry uncontrollably when we left the room after putting them down for naps and bedtime. I figured it was too dark and put some extra night lights in there. Well, that worked a little. I could walk away, but couldn't leave the room entirely. Then, we thought we would change their routine a little bit by having a bit of quiet time and that worked a lot. I could leave the room, but had to be outside the door with it cracked open so they could see me.

Now I don't have to do that for bedtime anymore I just leave the room. However, nap time is a mess. Isabelle will not sleep. She is so obviously tired - she rubs her eyes and yawns like crazy and has those little sad, red eyes. I know she's tired, but she just keeps getting out of bed and keeps her sister awake. Today she sang and was being ultra annoying trying to get Aurielle to wake up. I went in there and put her back in bed like 100 times. I didn't say anything to her I just put her in and walked out. This went on for an hour.

I finally bring her in bed with me and she starts to get drowsy, so I put her back in her bed. She snuggles up to her blanket and falls asleep. The second I leave the room she gets up and starts playing. I let her play for thirty minutes then I got her up, then her sister wakes up! AH!! :headbang:

I was standing outside the door for naps, but I was getting really tired of sitting there and I think that just made it worse. I'm not sure what to do here. I looked in the HSHHC book, but didn't see anything about this.

We don't have any where else to put her since we don't have an extra room...anyone have suggestions?

 

i would put them down for a their nap & leave them for an hour (unless it sounds like WW3 has broken out), whether they sleep or not. i've always thought about sleep in sort of the same way as eating - as the parent, it's our job to put our children down for a nap at a time and in a place that is conducive to sleeping, it's their job to decide whether they will sleep or not. anyway, i would try that for a week & see if you get any improvement.

 

I agree with Rachel as well. My DD went through the same thing when she moved to her toddler bed and realized she could get out of it. What I did, I was would sit in her room during nap time and read a book. If she got out of bed, I did not say anything to her, I just put her back in bed. If she tried to talk or play with me, I would just say "shhh...sleepy time". After about a week or so, it got to the point, where she would lay there quietly and finally fall asleep within 20 minutes and I could leave the room. I think once the novelty of the freedom of getting out of bed wore off, she was back to napping. Good luck!

 

Thank you for your suggestions, gals! I will give it a try today.