Losing my mind

Please tell me this is a phase. My kids get up before the roosters, take like a 45 minute nap in the morning, and then are sleeping maybe an hour in the afternoon. I just dont know what to do. I let them fuss and cry if they havent been asleep for more than an hour but they never go back to sleep anymore. So, of course they are just walking disasters, well crawling anyway

The whining and the crying needs to stop or I am going to jump off the deep end....... What am I doing wrong??

 

I don't remember a phase quite that bad at that age, but mine were (at least Amy was) definitely up with the roosters from about 8-12 months. I'm not sure where their naps were at that point, but I'm pretty sure it was not ideal either.

Their naps got better at about 16 months, when we were consistently on one nap. But the morning wakings started improving around 1 yr -- still early (they are just early birds by nature) but instead of 5, it was more like 6, and then 6:30 as they got closer to 2 years.

It can also just be a whiny age, whether or not they are sleeping enough. We didn't have that problem, but I remember one mother of twins tell me that even though her 3-year-olds were tough, she would not trade them for the 11-14 month version in a million years.

 

All of mine seemed to go through this same kind of phase. I wanted to run away from home! People would ask me "Are they teething?". It seems all bad days were blamed on that! I would give them Tylenol before bed some nights when they were really fussy. It helped. One of ours always got up at 4 am and would not go back to sleep. I just about pulled my hair out.

One thing we did was give them a nap in the afternoon, around 2. We did not let them sleep past 4. This always made for a bad night when they slept past 4. By 1 year they were only taking one nap from 12-3. They were ready for bed at night, usually 7:30.

Our pediatrician once told us once they become more active, some little ones have a hard time turning off the activity level. Another thing was turning off the monitors around this age (if you are fairly close to hear them anyway). I seemed to wake up at every sound they made and was bad to go in too soon. They finally got better at going back to sleep on their own by a year old or so.

I wish I had more suggestions. Getting mine to sleep well seemed to take forever and almost made me nuts. It may not help now, but it will get better soon!

 

At almost ten months mine are doing exactly the same...in fact I just posted over on the first year forum about napping and how crazy it is making me! I hope for both of us it gets better soon. I feel ya!

 

I remember around 12 months, Bea didn't take the morning nap hardly ever. Ainsley was still taking it, or I would have gone ahead and switched to one nap. When I did switch to one nap, it started out around 10:30, then gradually moved back to 12:30 over several months. I know most people say it's too early for one nap, but if things are this bad, what have you got to lose? I think they were waking around 6:00-6:30 back then. I would say go ahead and try one nap, starting with late morning. I don't know what time you are putting them to bed, but maybe also try an early bedtime. When they were waking at 5:00ish (around 5-8 mos) I put them to bed at 5:00 too. Good luck!

 

ok...I sooo feel ya! Ours are doin the very lame 45 minute nap in the morn (10:30-11am) and being basket cases in the afternoon but not wanting to take another nap. Plus waking up all through the nite on top of it all!!! :umm:

We are, however, teething but reading your post makes me feel at least that this sounds pretty normal and we are not alone!!!

 

Oh we are so with you all here too! From 8 months - 13 months, mine woke up at 8:30pm, then slept from 12-3 or 3:30pm, then went to bed at 7:30pm. I actually asked the doctor if they were sleeping too much. (he laughed) Anyway, it's 2 months later and they are now up at 7:30pm, taking one small nap STARTING at 2 or 2:30pm, and fighting bed at 7:30pm. We are DYING here too. I am soooooooo tired and my DH and I are fried. I curse the day I worried if they were sleeping too much.
The only advice that I can give is we have started putting my DD in a playpen again if she sleeps less than 1 hour. I NEED more time than that and she has gotten used to it. The first time she screamed for 70 minutes straight, but the next 2 times she gave up after 15 minutes and reads her books in there.
Best of luck!