12 months old, routine changing - advice please

[Darls3000]

Hello there
It has been a while since I came to this site because the GNS book helped me so much we have been able to get a really good system at home but now things are changing a little and I think it is because of age.

My daughter has started to resist going to bed at night and wants to jump off your lap when feeding the bottle and go for a crawl around the room and the area outside her room. She does this for about 5 minutes and then she will drink some more milk and then she goes off again and she just doesn't seem tired eventhough she is. So by the time she falls asleep it is now 8pm instead of 7pm but she still wakes at 6.30am. Am I doing something wrong?

The routine at the moment:
Wake 6.30 / 6.45
7 & 8 - Milk and breakfast
Play / swings etc.
9-10 - Morning nap
10 - 11.30 - Activity, play, errands etc.
11.30 - Lunch
12.45 / 1pm - Afternoon nap (sometimes lasts 1h'30 but lately 1hr)
2.30 - Snack
2.45 - 5 - activity with friends, play
5 - Dinner
6 - Bath
6.30 - Milk
7 - Bed

Do you think I need to shorten the morning nap now and is that why she is not so tired at bedtime? The way it is at the moment, she is only sleeping 10 hours at night now and I know she needs more. She is very happy still but I want to stay on track., Any advice would be wonderful - thank you.

Katherine
x

[TorsMamma]

Hi Katherine!

From what I can see perhaps it is time to go over to only ONE nap/day. At about 12-12.30 ish and have it for about 1,5-2 hours. The total amount of hours needed for sleep during the second year is 13,5 hours/day. So if you have 12 hour night only 1,5 hours is left for the day nap.

With regards to the feeding. Why not sit in the couch watching a children’s show (Teletubbies or so) this usually keeps them a bit more calm sitting in the lap face forward. Den play and laugh all the way from the couch to the bed, and end it with a tickle. Leave with the happiest of jingles.

Also make sure you have it pitch black in the bedroom, use tinfoil if needed with tape to make it stick.

Good Luck. Keep in mind that it takes a few days for new routines to fall into place!
8)

[Darls3000]

Thank you for your response. I will try that and see how she gets on. Tonight she did it again and I gave her the milk in a beaker cup instead of the bottle and I was surprised to see that she took most of it as she wandered around the living room. I think she is trying to be independent so I will see how she gets on.

Thanks again

[TinasDag]

Hi there
I wander if you can help. We have just returned from a month away in the US where the time difference is 5 hours. My daughter was wonderful with her sleeping and routine when we were away as I followed Anna's advice and put a black curtain in the room between her cot and where we were sleeping. It worked! She slept every night from 7.30pm - 7am. Wonderful for everyone!!

Thank you Ann for your brilliant advice.

Now we are back, we are all suffering from jet lag but I don't know what to do.

My daughter goes to sleep around 7.30pm and sleeps till 11.00pm. She then wakes with a cry out and then falls asleep for 20 mins then wakes and so on and on till 2am. This has happened for the last 2 nights and we have left her till she sounds very upset and then my husband goes in and repeats the jingle and she calms but then gets more upset. After 2 hours of on off crying (it sounds like she is trying to settle herself back to sleep but can't understand why she can't sleep). So after 2 hours, my husband have her some milk and she drank it all immediately and after 15 mins, eventually went to sleep.

Were we wrong to give her milk? She hasn't had milk in the night since she was very young? What do you think we should have done? The jingle through the door didn't seem to have a positive effect.

her routine is a bit mixed up as she is sleeping till 8am instead of 7a, so I have moved everything along by 1 hour. I think this is right and she is still napping well in the day. How can I help her avoid distress between 11pm - 2am. I am dreading that happening again tonight.

Thanks and sorry for the long post. x

[TinasDag]

When did you get back from the US? Was this the first night back?
Jet lag is difficult to cope with even for adults.
If you just got back I would strongly advice patience & a confident attitude 8)

How can I help her avoid distress between 11pm - 2am. I am dreading that happening again tonight.

Seems like you're inviting some wolves to join the party... It's normal for her to question the state of things during these time changes. "Am I supposed to sleep now?" Your reply is unwavering confidence and a matter of fact attitude! "Sleep tight, everything's just as it should :thumbsup: "
I know some people here like to change back to local time by the use of 15 minute margins and do it successfully. Personally I try to stick to the original schedule but offer an extra nap (20 or 45 min) to guide things back to normal. When we were in Tampa last summer the whole family woke at 4 am wide awake. We "made morning" and went about things just like we would have had it been 7 am. At 8 am we all took a 45 min nap and, voila, we were back on track :thumbsup: \:D/

Keep calm, use your "tool box" if necessary and you'll be back on track in no time!
Good luck,
Tina

[Darls3000]

Hi there
Apologies for not posting this in the same message for continutity - I didn't realise but now I know.

A quick update - last night was good, my daughter didn't wake till 7.40am so she had a wonderful 12 hours

But, the problem with giving her the milk in the evening still continues. She just doesn't seem interested and we have had to change our bedtime routine and bring her downstairs to the living room after her bath and try and feed her the milk whilst she plays with her toys. We do plenty of laughing and giggling before bed but tonight, she was upset when we put her in the cot and had only had about 2oz of milk maximum.

Do you think I should change my routine?

It is like this in the evenings at the moment
5.30pm - dinner & porridge
6.30 - bath
6.45 - change and now play
7.15pm - try to put her down.

We have always had a lovely bedtime routine and I am sad that it seems to be gone for the last week and I hate to see her go to be crying. She calms fairly quickly though but I would love to be able to give her the milk and have her go into the cot without tears. What do you think?
Thanks
x

[Darls3000]

When did you get back from the US? Was this the first night back?
Jet lag is difficult to cope with even for adults.
If you just got back I would strongly advice patience & a confident attitude 8)

How can I help her avoid distress between 11pm - 2am. I am dreading that happening again tonight.

Seems like you're inviting some wolves to join the party... It's normal for her to question the state of things during these time changes. "Am I supposed to sleep now?" Your reply is unwavering confidence and a matter of fact attitude! "Sleep tight, everything's just as it should :thumbsup: "

Keep calm, use your "tool box" if necessary and you'll be back on track in no time!
Good luck,
Tina

Thanks Tina - your advice is good and I think I had lost confidence in her sleeping so I was so relieved that last night we seem to be back on track. Now it's just me and my husband who are suffering from jetlag!! Also, I wasn't patient - we have only been back 3 nights.....

If you can help with the bedtime issue that I have pasted also, I would be very appreciative. It started about 2 weeks ago that suddenly wasn't happy to take the milk from our laps and she was scooting all round the room being nosey.
thanks
x

[TinasDag]

Great that you had a good night

Seems we have the same problem actually My daughter "has no time" for her milk ("välling") at night. She's too busy exploring... Sometime I actually give her porridge instead which works pretty good. Other nights I just conclude that she's had enough at dinner and simply isn't hungry. All you can do is offer, the rest is up to her. Try porridge, a sandwich, youghurt or whatever works for you. If she's not interested don't stress 8)

7.15pm - try to put her down.

[-X Don't "try". Sleep is a positive thing and you know she likes it! Foster a positive attitude, continue laughing like you're doing and go about things as normal. Like I said, she is questioning the state of things. You respond calmly/firmly and w/ a positive attitude.
Love,
Tina

[Darls3000]

Thanks Tina - you have made me feel so much better. I do like to give her porridge at the end of her meal and so maybe she is just full. I will stop stressing about it and keep my attitude in the right place. I'm the adult after all...

May all our babies sleep soundly tonight. x

[Darls3000]

Hello again, it has been a few months since I have posted here because my daughter has been sleeping very well and is happy and content. However, we have another jet lag problem - same as last tome. After returning from s month away, she is going to bed at 8 then waking at 10.30 screaming and my husband and I use the jingles in a confident and firm manner to reassure her both from in the room and outside the door. This is having no effect and I cannot stand to leave her screaming like that so after 2 hours I am getting her out if bed and giving her porridge and reading a little. She us so wide awake because she is on a different time zone and this gies in to 2am last night!! We put her back in her got and she screamed and screamed for a further hour while we jingled but it just was not reassuring her. In the end she slept till 11 this morning because we also overslept.
Our routine is always very good (thanks to GNS) and it makes me so sad that these last 2 days have been so poor but I am desperate. The jingle has always worked with her if she ever had a problem but not now. Any advice what we should do tonight?
Daughter is 18 months old now and throws her darling teddy on tge floor when we leave tge room but she loves to sleep with it do we get caught in a cycle of picking it up over And over ...
Please advise if you can and I hope to hear from someone soon

Katherine x

[chokladkaninen]

Hi Darls!

Don't panic! [-X The important thing with GNS is not that you'll never ever have any sleeping issues again but that you know how to handle them. So think: how do you feel yourself when jetlaged? And then treat your child the same way!

I wrote this to another parent with a jetlag problem a week ago or so, it might be helpful for you, too!

Hi!

My experience of jet lag (though depending on how big the time difference was) is that it takes a week to settle and that it is not the sleeping hours that are upset but the food times. My children have always woken up hungry when it's time to eat according to the old time. So I'd say you're on the right track if you try to keep your schedule according to the new time, but allow small (and diminishing ) snacks at the old time meal times (when asked for). You'll be OK in a few more days that way - and if not, that's when a mini cure could be appropriate! 8)