[stayjay]

Hi Everyone,

We just returned from China this week with our baby girl! She slept through the night in China, but we are having some issues now that we are home. She gets up every 2-3 hours and wants to play. She cries in her crib and I go to check on her to make sure her diaper is clean and she is okay. I rock her and play until she falls back to sleep, then she is up a couple hours later, wide awake again.

I'm sure it's the jet lag and we are trying to not let her sleep too long in the afternoon so she will be tired at night, but nothing is helping. how did you folks who have been home for a while deal with this? Will she ever be on our schedule??!!

[elemomma]

I remember wondering the same thing! I thought the week and a half that we were up in the middle of the night was going to kill me. I ended up cutting her day time nap to 1 hour, then I made sure to wear her out before bed. Then she started sleeping longer stretches. At the end though, I got to where I would go in her room and pat her on the back, and say, "You're home now, it's night night time." I would put her right back down and walk out. After two nights of that, she stopped crying in the night.

I remember one night, when she got up, that I leaned my head over into a chair, and I fell asleep. I woke up about 30 minutes later, and she hadn't moved, she was still sitting in front of me playing with her toys.

This will pass, but nothing to me seems worse then lack of sleep. I get so grumpy. And for me forget about sleeping when your baby is sleeping, I had two other children who really wanted mommy's attention during naptime.

Hang in there, it may seem like eternity, but it won't be!

[TaraL]

Yeah, I was there too. I swore Olivia would never get on a schedule. After 2 weeks she got use to the time change. Until then...thank God for Nick At Night! I remember being up at 4am watching "Wings." Remember that show? LOL!

There are alot of factors that contribute to her not sleeping through the night. The 2 biggest are the fact that the times are completely different for her and also its all so new to her. It will get better. I will say though that it took a few months for her to sleep pretty much through the night all together. Lack of sleep is hard though. I know. Hang in there!

[MissyAmomChina]

Hi,

We also went through this and it was very difficult. We were fortunate that our daughter didn't have anxiety about sleeping in her crib etc. However, she was very annoyed when she'd wake up at 2 am, ready to start the day and we weren't.

Things that helped us were:

1-not letting her nap more than 1.5-2 hour during the day

2-keeping her bedroom really dark at night

3-turning on all the lights and making the house really bright when it was time to get up

4-going outside for natural sunlight--challenge to do this now, I know

5-verbally telling her (yeah, I'm not sure what'd make sense to a 14 month old). This is night-time, it's time for your body to rest etc.

I'm sure you've heard this before. For every hour time difference, it takes one day to adjust i.e. 14 hours=14 days/2weeks. We did see improvement by the 2nd week home --she'd make it till about 4:30/5:00 am.

After the 2nd week, we'd go to Lily, bring her downstairs and *try* our best to keep things low-key/quiet. I'd bring a blanket downstairs, stretch out on the couch, put her on me, sing, play quietly, look at book. Then at 6 am, I'd turn the lights on/tv on, get more active play etc. This was recommended by IA doctor--to sort of reprogram her clock.

Hang in there. Our daughter didn't have sleep issues by most international adoption standards. However, it was well over 2 years before she'd sleep past 7 am. (Yikes, and we are about to do this again with a ds!)

[annej]

Tara, your daughter is from the same orphanage as one of mine.. I just saw the pic she is beautiful.. My Kasey was born 7/9/03 and adopted in June 2006. SHe was cl/cp and was in the orphanage.. they were probably there together...
Anne J

[Mailbox13]

This is normal. We have adopted one from Russia and one from China. This happened with both. Time change and location/bed change are the big factors. She is adjusting to a new bed, new smells, a strange place, etc. Besides the time change, it can take her a while to get comfortable with her new surroundings. As the others have mentioned, getting them on a schedule can take several weeks .

1. Don't let them oversleep during nap time. 1.5 to 2 hours and then get her up.
2. Play hard. Wear her out. The more tired she is, the better they will sleep.
3. Develop a routine that gets them ready for bed. (Bath, then story, then rock, then song, then sleep or whatever combination works for you)

This might not help, but, parents with newborns usually go months before they get a good nights sleep. Their child usually wakes up every couple of hours for a feeding and diaper change. Yours will adjust much quicker.

[stayjay]

Thank for the replies everyone! I am trying to limit her naps to about 1.5 hrs, but it's the afternoon nap we have issues with. She is so tired by about 3pm that she just zonks out. Then when I try to wake her she is so groggy and it is impossible to keep her awake, she keeps nodding off. The other day she went to bed at 6pm! Is it advisable to keep her awake when she is falling asleep?