How to keep baby in bed-HELP!

[Sunshine]

Here's my set-up. Sophia (11mo) naps and starts out in a twin mattress next to my bed then upon first night-time waking sleeps in my bed. Now on to my delema.

She is a soooper bad night-time sleeper so the first nap is not usually a problem, she goes right down. The second nap around 4pm she's showing me sleepy signs and whinny so I KNOW she NEEDS to nap BUT...I try nursing down and she descides to go crawl off. I ask her to come back, bring her back etc. to no avail so I end up taking her back downstairs to play. We do this like three times before I just give up. She is SO tired and cranky and lately misses dinner because she'll need to go to bed early.

How do I handle this??? She simply will not stay in bed. I have attempted to put her in her crib which is also in my room but she screams bloody murder.

[Codi]

My first thought was to try taking her in before she gets to the cranky, whiny point. If you know she will be at that point by 4, try taking her in at 3:30 or sooner.

[Blue Aurora]

4 seems like a really late nap...what time does she go to sleep at night, wake up in the morning and take her first nap? Sometimes overtired babies will sleep worse and worse

[Sunshine]

My first thought was to try taking her in before she gets to the cranky, whiny point. If you know she will be at that point by 4, try taking her in at 3:30 or sooner.
I thought of that too as well as her interest in wanting to play in the room so I would purposely take her up early as well as letting her play, you know, get it out of her system then try and put her down. No luck, she still wouldn't stay in bed. I thought she may be trying to assert her independance, I don't know...I'm reaching.

---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 AM ----------

4 seems like a really late nap...what time does she go to sleep at night, wake up in the morning and take her first nap? Sometimes overtired babies will sleep worse and worse
Well she gets up at 12:30ish so that stretches her out only 3.5 hours. As she gets older, she is stretching her naps out. As far as a schedule, I would always say nap time was 10 to 10:30 sleeping for 2hours then up for 3hours putting her down at 3pm BUT....She is desciding that she wants to stay up longer. I would always say she was a good napper, meaning she would sleep when I put her down but not this past month something is changing.

[Codi]

Hmmm....my dd is (almost) 10 months and she naps twice a day. (she is napping now.)

She usually naps 2 hours after she wakes in the am. Then again like, 2 hours later. THen is awake till bed. So it USUALLY loos like this: wakes at 8am, nap at 10am, nap again at about 1-2pm then bed @ 7-7:30pm. That is not set in stone, but is what usually happens on a normal day.

For me, I don't fight them to take a nap though. I understand she is showing signs of being tired, but 4pm is like the witching hour with kids. Its just a general whiny time of day until bed time. (IME and from what other GCM's have said). If it were me, I wouldn't fight her on it. Let he skip it if she wants. Sometimes I lay down with dd and she fusses like she wants to get back up, but I dont move, and kind of keep my arm over her. She fusses for a second, then rolls back into me to nurse and falls asleep. This will happen a few times sometimes. Or I just get up with her and when she wants to nurs again, I lay down again with her. Ill do this until she finally falls asleep. But I agree that 4pm is a pretty late nap.

I dunno if any of that helps. :giggle Just throwing it all out there.

[Sunshine]

Hmmm....my dd is (almost) 10 months and she naps twice a day. (she is napping now.)

She usually naps 2 hours after she wakes in the am. Then again like, 2 hours later. THen is awake till bed. So it USUALLY loos like this: wakes at 8am, nap at 10am, nap again at about 1-2pm then bed @ 7-7:30pm. That is not set in stone, but is what usually happens on a normal day.

For me, I don't fight them to take a nap though. I understand she is showing signs of being tired, but 4pm is like the witching hour with kids. Its just a general whiny time of day until bed time. (IME and from what other GCM's have said). If it were me, I wouldn't fight her on it. Let he skip it if she wants. Sometimes I lay down with dd and she fusses like she wants to get back up, but I dont move, and kind of keep my arm over her. She fusses for a second, then rolls back into me to nurse and falls asleep. This will happen a few times sometimes. Or I just get up with her and when she wants to nurs again, I lay down again with her. Ill do this until she finally falls asleep. But I agree that 4pm is a pretty late nap.

I dunno if any of that helps. :giggle Just throwing it all out there.
Wow!! You are one blessed mama!! I have spent most of Sophia's life trying to get her to follow a schedule like that. She has fought sleeping in general her whole life. Oh yes, 4pm IS late, I had always put her down at 3 but she says no. The thing is, she won't stay in bed. I am nursing her down and she just crawls off so after this going on for maybe an hour, I get pretty frustrated and just get up. How to get her to sleep when she simply won't....:scratch

[Blue-EyedLady]

Wow!! You are one blessed mama!! I have spent most of Sophia's life trying to get her to follow a schedule like that. She has fought sleeping in general her whole life. Oh yes, 4pm IS late, I had always put her down at 3 but she says no. The thing is, she won't stay in bed. I am nursing her down and she just crawls off so after this going on for maybe an hour, I get pretty frustrated and just get up. How to get her to sleep when she simply won't....:scratch

I don't have any answers for you, but if you find some, would you please let me know? Your DD sounds just like my DS. He's 20 months old now, and it's no better. :banghead

[swimming with sharks]

It's your job to provide her with the space, time, and ability to sleep. You can not FORCE someone else to go to sleep. :shrug3 I have a now 4.5 yo who took 20 minute naps on occasion....is an early riser, was regularly up until dh and I went to bed, was up all times of the night, etc etc You've all heard it before. She was in general a MISERABLE sleeper and I thought I would never make it...I can't use this smilie too much :yawn:yawn:yawn Then we discovered she had allergies (which we suspected as she had eczema) when we were finally able to target the allergies, we saw some more sleep. As she got older she slept a little better. She sleeps 'pretty' well these days, although she still comes into our room each night (sometimes she sleeps on the palate on the floor) DS is nearly completely sleeping through the night at 23 mths. Different kids, different temperaments :shrug3 I EBF both of them, coslept both of them, I was more relaxed with ds. When he gets off my lap in the evening...I let him down he looks at a few books, and then comes back to go to sleep. If I try to 'make' him stay it makes both of REALLY upset and it takes way longer for him to go down. Oh dear, I've written a book post. :O All this to say, you CAN'T MAKE someone else (you also can't scream someone to sleep:blush).

[Sunshine]

It's your job to provide her with the space, time, and ability to sleep. You can not FORCE someone else to go to sleep. :shrug3 I have a now 4.5 yo who took 20 minute naps on occasion....is an early riser, was regularly up until dh and I went to bed, was up all times of the night, etc etc You've all heard it before. She was in general a MISERABLE sleeper and I thought I would never make it...I can't use this smilie too much :yawn:yawn:yawn Then we discovered she had allergies (which we suspected as she had eczema) when we were finally able to target the allergies, we saw some more sleep. As she got older she slept a little better. She sleeps 'pretty' well these days, although she still comes into our room each night (sometimes she sleeps on the palate on the floor) DS is nearly completely sleeping through the night at 23 mths. Different kids, different temperaments :shrug3 I EBF both of them, coslept both of them, I was more relaxed with ds. When he gets off my lap in the evening...I let him down he looks at a few books, and then comes back to go to sleep. If I try to 'make' him stay it makes both of REALLY upset and it takes way longer for him to go down. Oh dear, I've written a book post. :O All this to say, you CAN'T MAKE someone else (you also can't scream someone to sleep:blush).I couldn't agree with you more. I see the little sleepy signs and I'm all over the "trying" to nap. No screaming here, lots of sighs and eye-rolls however. Just the goofiest thing, rubbing the eyes to smiling at the sight of her bed to changing her mind, "I'd rather go play in the bathroom mom." This is only the afternoon nap that she does this. I realize that I can't make her or force her that is exactly why I just get back up and take her downstairs to play to which 30min later, she's tired again and in a cycle we go.

[arelyn]

Will she nap in a stroller or sling or Ergo or carseat? DS went through a phase where he would only take an afternoon nap if I pushed him around in the stroller outside. He'd fall asleep in it and I'd just leave him there until he woke up an hour or two later.

[Sunshine]

Will she nap in a stroller or sling or Ergo or carseat? DS went through a phase where he would only take an afternoon nap if I pushed him around in the stroller outside. He'd fall asleep in it and I'd just leave him there until he woke up an hour or two later.
Sometimes she'll fall asleep in her carseat but we can't leave her because it's over 100 degrees here and my husband says the tether is pretty tight on the car seat that it would jostle her and probably wake her. She has not been keen on any carrier so far so no on that however I just bought a Mei Tai so the jury is still out, I haven't given up. Oh geez the stroller, she's like "let me outta this thing" within 5minutes. Little miss high-needs drama queen wouldn't let me take a walk since birth.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 PM ----------

Hmmm....my dd is (almost) 10 months and she naps twice a day. (she is napping now.)

She usually naps 2 hours after she wakes in the am. Then again like, 2 hours later. THen is awake till bed. So it USUALLY loos like this: wakes at 8am, nap at 10am, nap again at about 1-2pm then bed @ 7-7:30pm. That is not set in stone, but is what usually happens on a normal day.

For me, I don't fight them to take a nap though. I understand she is showing signs of being tired, but 4pm is like the witching hour with kids. Its just a general whiny time of day until bed time. (IME and from what other GCM's have said). If it were me, I wouldn't fight her on it. Let he skip it if she wants. Sometimes I lay down with dd and she fusses like she wants to get back up, but I dont move, and kind of keep my arm over her. She fusses for a second, then rolls back into me to nurse and falls asleep. This will happen a few times sometimes. Or I just get up with her and when she wants to nurs again, I lay down again with her. Ill do this until she finally falls asleep. But I agree that 4pm is a pretty late nap.

I dunno if any of that helps. :giggle Just throwing it all out there.
It's now 1pm and she is still asleep for her first nap so putting her down for example at 3pm would not work today, she'll want to be up for a bit longer today. Every day is different with her. Honestly, I think if she is gonna crawl off after me trying to help her several times, I just think there isn't anything else that I can do. She doesn't know what's good for her but as PP said, I can't "force" her.

[MomtoJGJ]

I'm just thinking this sounds a lot like my DD3.... she would take two very predictable naps until she started walking... then she dropped to one midday nap. So, up around 7, nap from 10-1 or 2, and then bedtime between 6 and 7. I still feel like she'd do better to take a nap and she's almost three, but if we can push through she goes to sleep easily at bedtime... if she even closes her eyes for 15 minutes she's awake until 9 or later at night.

[WI Mama05]

:nak, but having three not good sleepers, I want to chime in that sometimes mine physically needed a bit of restraint to fall asleep when they were overtired. when laying in bed with dd3 I have to throw my one leg over her legs and gently hold her there while she's nursing and within minutes she's typically out. it's like she's so tired she can't stop her body. my first was that way too. She will sometimes complain for a minute, but it's not much and not loud and i'm right there.

[Sundance]

I'm just thinking this sounds a lot like my DD3.... she would take two very predictable naps until she started walking... then she dropped to one midday nap. So, up around 7, nap from 10-1 or 2, and then bedtime between 6 and 7. I still feel like she'd do better to take a nap and she's almost three, but if we can push through she goes to sleep easily at bedtime... if she even closes her eyes for 15 minutes she's awake until 9 or later at night.

That sounds just like my DD (2.5)!

I was going to suggest that maybe she's ready for just 1 nap? My DD transitioned to 1 nap at 10-11 months, and it was actually MUCH better for everyone involved when that happened. We just pushed her "first" nap back until after lunch (she usually slept in til 8 or 9, and was down at 12ish for nap). Mornings were a little long for us at first, but she soon adjusted...and she'd sleep til 3 or 3:30, making afternoons/evenings much easier. She went from having 2 30 minute naps in a day to 1 LOOOOONG nap.

HTH

~Melanie

[ReedleBeetle]

My son was down to one nap a day pretty early too...around 11-12 months I would say. He napped 2-3 hours after getting up and sometimes for up to 4 hours if we napped with him. :jawdrop And he got tired in the evenings, but before we dropped the afternoon nap, he struggled to sleep every time.