Sleeping Habits - Wahiawa,HI

My 7 yr old still fights sleep-good luck!

seriously, don't wait until she is sooooo tired. it helps. or drive her around in the car.

Co-sleep, it doesn't last forever. Hell, my 2 1/2 yr old "co-sleeps" but she goes to sleep without me there. She just feels comfort in being in mommy's bed.

OR

Drive her around. Over-tired kids almost always fall asleep when you drive them around. Sometimes when they are stubborn it may be a 30 min trip, but a lot of times it takes 15 mins. Change up the route when she starts catching on... my 2 1/2 yr old started catching on so I took a different route and bam she was asleep.
Especially when my daughter is grumpy and over tired during the day I drive her around so she can fall asleep and take a nap.
I know Cry it out is used a lot and it works for some people, but you have to be careful because it can also breed insecurity and fear of abandonment.

Please do not let your baby cry it out. The cry is her way of communicating. Have you tried holding her against you, rocking, singing, tickling her? Love her with all your heart. Make sleep a pleasant experience.

Sleep with her, then you both get a nap. Or, yes, I took a lot of car trips when I really had nowhere to go. Worked every time.

My daughter never napped by herself, never. She either needed someone sleeping with her, or a car drive, or a long walk in the stroller. She took a nap every day until she started Kindergarten, but they all took effort from me.

There is an alternative to co-sleeping in your bed, which for some works fine, for others not. That is laying down with her in her bed until she falls asleep. Did that many times, and enjoyed the close cuddle time with my daughter.

Co-sleep.

She is over-tired. So then, she cannot sleep nor fall asleep and is more hyper. This is what being over-tired, does to a kid.

Maybe is she teething?
Hungry and hitting a growth-spurt?
Try some white noise in her room.... I use a fan on low for both my kids and have used it since they were babies.

Making the transition from crib to toddler bed is very exciting for a child. No boundaries, nothing keeping her from getting up and roaming, right?! With both my daughters, after they moved into their toddler beds, I helped them learn that they were to stay in their bed for "Night, night time." In the beginning it involved a couple of naptimes and bedtimes where I sat on the floor and gently pushed escaping legs and feet back into bed. All the while saying night night over and over again. Im not going to lie, in the first week it took me about an hour to get them to fall asleep and learn their bed boundaries. It was tough. Sometimes, I fell asleep in the room myself and quietly had to escape. After about a week of this, i started a routine for naps that I was going to do with bedtime. One book and singing twinkle twinkle little star until the rolling around stopped.(about 3 times) Then I would leave the room while she was sleepy and say night night. Sometimes she cried and I would just close the door behind me and tell her over and over again "night night" or "in your bed" from behind her closed door. We worked ourselves from it taking her 20 minutes to fall asleep on her own to now hardly any time at all. I followed the same routine for bedtime, too. It's tough, really tough sometimes. I felt guilty, but I knew that being a healthy sleeper was important to growth and daily function, for me and her. So it was worth the battle. Good luck.

Just stay consistent. I would NOT let her co-sleep unless you plan to let her continue to do so once daddy is home. Otherwise, she will not only fight moving back to her own room, but she will resent daddy for pushing her out. When you put her to bed, sit next to it and sing to her, and each time she tries to get up, lay her back down. She will fight, but if you hold your ground she will learn what is expected of her. This will make for a few long nights, but in the end it will be well worth it. Also, once she is in bed, if she gets out put her in time out. I do that with my boys sometimes.

After reading all of the other responses, mine is going to sound a little more harsh. I had the same problem with my son (now 3.5) at that age. We did let him cry it out, and it was aweful. The crying lasted every night for about 2 months until he spent a week at grandmas. She would stand at his door after she put him to bed and just say "shh shh grandma says no crying". Then when he came back home, we would put him down and he would start to whimper and we would say "shh shh grandma says no crying" and it usually worked. Is there someone in your daughter's life who is more of an "authority figure" for her? That is what grandma was for my son and it seemed to work. As he got older, he went through episodes of crying every night on an off. For a while he was crying every night again, and there was nothing that we could do to get him to sleep. He would want more light, less light, potty trip, cup of water, rub my back, read another book, etc. The requests were never ending, and if we did not continue to come back to his room he would cry (co-sleeping does not work with my son - he can't fall asleep if we are in the room). Finally we ended up closing his door for short amounts of time (like 1-2 minutes), and when he realized that the alternatives were either stop fussing or be in complete darkness, he stopped and went to sleep immediately. When he was 3 and it started again, we started giving him a dime every night he went to bed without fussing, and when he had enough $$ he could buy a matchbox car that he wanted (this worked really well). Now, he has outgrown his nap, and he is usually so exhausted that he sleeps right away at night.

Bummer. When this started happening in our house, we started "quiet time" for an hour each day. You make the rules. My daughter had to stay in her room. I have heard some make the child stay on their bed. Some just read quietly or watch a video, but it has to be low key activity. Sometimes she will sleep just because she stopped moving. I have also done snooze cruises, but that is because my kids would transfer easily and I was desperate. Limit the amount of sugar that she eats (harder than it sounds cuz sugar is in EVERYTHING!) but do your best. limit juice, which has a ton. Try to get her in water - swimming and water play makes you really tired!! Since she is still young and not yet in school, you can use her natural rhythms to structure your day. My daughter stayed up until 10pm at her age, because she usually took a LONG nap in the afternoon. My second child would fall alseep at 6:30pm and wake up at 5am (no nap) but that was her natural thing. If she is a slow starter in the morning, don't plan morning activities. Good luck. I know it is hard.

It's so hard, isn't it?

Although I agree with the suggestion to co-sleep, I know it's not for everyone. However, I will implore you to NOT let her cry it out. That really isn't teaching her anything other than to not trust that her needs will be met. Her language, I assume, is not that great yet? So she can't really tell you what's going on.

My advice is: beginning tomorrow, start a routine that you follow every day. Children thrive on having a rhythm to their day that they know and can trust. It makes them feel secure.

Put her down for a nap after lunch (when her body is naturally drowsy) and even if she doesn't go to sleep, tell her she needs to have a quiet time. This is part of her new rhythm. If she gets out of bed, calmly pick her back up and put her in again, telling her that this is quiet time. If it helps her to have you in the room, stay for a few minutes to sing or stroke her head to help her relax.

After quiet time and whatever else you do in the afternoon, (hopefully something active and outdoors so she gets lots of exercise and gets worn out!) make sure her dinner is always at the same time every night. Then after dinner, keep her activities quiet to help her wind down.

Do the same bedtime routine every night (many moms do bath, story, bed. I always rocked and sang my children to sleep. Always worked. Of course, it may have been they were just trying to escape from my singing.)

Whatever you do, be consistent with it. Make sure you are getting her to bed early enough so she does not get overtired. Once a child is overtired, it is very difficult for them to calm down. All children are different, but I suggest that at 20 months she should be in bed ready to sleep no later than 8:00 pm.

Try this for a week, and I will bet you see a huge difference.

Good luck!