[polkadotghost]

I have a 29 month old and a 15 month old (yeah life is funny sometimes). My oldest Alexandra has always been an amazing sleeper. She's been sleeping through the night since she was a month old! We moved her into a big girl bed around her second birthday and she's been wonderful with it. Only since the seasons changed and its lighter in the evenings she now won't stay in her bed at bedtime. She keeps running out of her room about every few minutes and this can last 1-3 hours. We're going nuts. We've tried keeping all the lights out, soothing music, even looooooooong walks where she runs the entire time and should be exhausted but isn't. We even tried that Super Nanny trick with ignoring her. I need more ideas. Every time we try something we try it for a week with no change. Everything is a game to her and she thinks this is hilarious. We even gave her back her soother *I know I know for shame* but nothing is working and now she's hooked on the soother again. She has 90min -120min naps during the day and wakes up at 8am. Need help, miss sleep.

My other daughter Hope is also not much fun at night either. She has never slept well. We finally got her to sleep through the night only waking up once. But when she wakes up about 3 out of 5 times she wakes up screaming, not crying, screaming and refuses to go back to sleep. We've tried letting her cry it out but she's extremly stubborn, we've tried taking her to bed with us but she hates that, she just wants us to walk around with her for sometimes up to an hour. Just getting frustrated at them and not sleeping soundly. Don't know what to do. Please help?!

April

[redhedded]

Hi April, What time does Alexandra go to bed in the evening? At two and a half she just may not need the sleep that she needed in the past; you will be able to judge that. Every child is really different. While it is an extreme example my own daughter is also 2.5 years. She does not take naps and stopped taking them at 12 months. She awakens between 7-8 every morning and goes to sleep between 10:30 and 11:30 pm. She is extremly focused, plays hard, is pleasant and NOT irritable, so she does not need them. I would probably start by limiting Alexandra's afternoon nap to 45 minutes- 1 hour. See if it makes a difference in her willingness to go to bed and stay in bed.

Could Hope be having night terrors? My dd began awakening at about 12-14 months with uncontrollable screaming. (She had slept through the night never awakening since 9 weeks). Dr. told us that this is generally the age night terrors begin and are quite common. Are you sure that she is completely awake? My dd would scream uncontrollably and inconsolably, usually thrashing about for an hour or more, but it only occurred about once a month it seems or less. She was never completely awake, which is the general rule for night terrors. We would not talk to her just walk around the house; she would eventually calm, but it took a long time. She outgrew it by the age of two or shortly thereafter.

Does it happen about the same time each night? You might keep a log; if it does, then our pediatrician suggested that we begin to awaken our dd approximately 20-30 minutes before the anticipated terror time. That would interrupt the sleep pattern and usually circumvent the terror.

Best of luck. When all else fails drink three shots of espresso in chocolate syrup with whole milk and whipped cream (stbx venti iced mocha). You will feel grand.

[polkadotghost]

Alex goes to bed at around 8pm it had been 9pm before. I was thinking about limiting naps but I feel so bad waking her up. But I would also like to go to bed sometime before midnight also! We'll try the later bedtime since the 8 isn't working at all and really we're just kidding ourselves.

For our baby I was thinking possibly night terrors. The log idea is a great one! I'll start trying that. Of course the last 2 nights she's slept through it *knock on wood* I didn't know that they weren't really awake.

Thanks so much for your ideas we'll try anything!

April