...Or Not.
Isn't keeping people from sleeping a form of torture? If it is, my daughter is torturing _me_. She's never napped well, and night-time sleep was terrible until she hit about 18 months. She went to bed nicely from about 18 months until the middle of October. For the past 2, almost 3 weeks, she's been, shall we say "resistant", to going to bed at night. She's fine if she's in the bed with Mommy and Daddy (for a night or 2--hoping she'd settle down), but that solution is unacceptable for the long run. We tried a night light (screamed longer); we tried laying down with her in her room until she goes to sleep(lasted FOREVER); we tried letting her cry it out (it has lasted up to an hour before she collapses on the floor for a short time before waking up to scream again). Everything I've seen says that after 3 consecutive nights of any one of these solutions, the child should be over the problem with sleeping. She continues to scream, fight and otherwise refuse to go to bed, and if we do get her to go to sleep, it lasts for about 4 hours and she wakes up screaming so we go through it all again.
Last night I rhetorically asked her, "why don't you want to go to bed?" She finally has the words to respond!
C: "Scared the monsters"
Mommy: "Where are the monsters?"
C: "Monsters dark"
Mommy: "Where in the dark?"
C: "Seep..." *whimper*
I think this means she's having nightmares? Great. Just great.
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3 comments:
Hey there - is she having night terrors? Doesn't sound like the typical ones but it's about that age so it's possible.
Sorry for that! Personally I would let her sleep with you til she's sound enough to put in her own bed and start gradually decreasing the time. Then take her to her room and stay with her a bit - read a story, etc. Gradually work on it -- I know this may not be idle but it's got to be better than screaming all night! Eventually you should be able to put her in her room after bath, teeth, a story and lovings, favorite song and prayers to sleep.
Something the boys really liked was the "Sleep Sound in Jesus" tapes playing softly until they drifted off.
Hugs!
oh no! i don't have any ideas, but i hope this gets resolved soon!
Bummer! Another mom friend of mine always recommends giving anything new two weeks for adjusting. For me anyway, a two-week window at least takes off some of the pressure I feel to get the problem fixed NOW. I hope you're taking naps when she does! You must be exhausted!
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