myung-jin kang

Hi Everyone,

My daughter is in a transition of dropping her nap and also being diaper free at
night time. She has been in transition for two months now. Sometimes, she wakes
up in the middle of the night because she has to go to the bathroom.When there
are distractions, she has a hard time falling asleep. Distractions in the form
of my husband needing to go use the bathroom and then waking up every time she
moves or I move. When she can't fall back asleep, she wants to play. Last night,
I carried her in a carrier and walked around the neighborhood. Normally, she
would fall asleep while I carry her. Two hours later, she was still awake. We
got back home and my husband took her for a jog in the stroller, then to the
park and when she came home, she fell sleep - three hours later and caught up on
her sleep. She slept for 5.5 hours. She is perfectly content but we are tired. I
am wondering what people have done in my situation. In the past, we have played
with her, read her books, played some youtube of children books she loves. We
let her sleep when she's tired and not set a bedtime since she was 13 months
old. She is now 28.5 months old.

All the best,

M.J.

Sandra Dodd

-=- She has been in transition for two months now. Sometimes, she wakes
up in the middle of the night because she has to go to the
bathroom.When there
are distractions, she has a hard time falling asleep. Distractions in
the form
of my husband needing to go use the bathroom and then waking up every
time she
moves or I move. When she can't fall back asleep, she wants to play.
Last night,
I carried her in a carrier and walked around the neighborhood.
Normally, she
would fall asleep while I carry her. Two hours later, she was still
awake.-=-

How would this have been different if you weren't intending to unschool?

With very young children, if your choice is to yell and spank or not
to yell and spank, those are your choices.

I don't see it as an unschooling situation.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pam Sorooshian

Not 100 percent sure I understood. You were out carrying her around the
neightborhood and then your husband took her to the park - in the middle
of the night?

If your schedules allow this - then I don't see a problem - you sleep
when she sleeps. But if you or your husband has to go to work on
schedule, then that person, at least needs to have his/her sleep protected.

-pam

Sandra Dodd

I didn't like my last answer. <g>

For the purposes of this list, it's true. The way people are with
very young (way younger than school-aged) children isn't an
unschooling issue.

Kirby, my oldest, two years before we considered homeschooling at all,
used to wake up. I had another baby. I was sleepy.

I would put Kirby in a high chair in the living room with a little
pillow, a blanket, a clean snack (not something wet or messy), and
something to drink, in a sippy cup. I would put on a six-hour
videotape (we had two long tapes) and tell him if he really needed me
to call me, but if not to please wait until the video was over. One
had Disney movies, and one had Donald Duck and other things. My
sister had made them for us.

Unfortunately for modern situations, DVDs aren't going to last six
hours.

He never stayed awake. He always fell asleep after while, with the
pillow and blanket. The first of us to wake up (me or my husband)
would put him in the bed.

Sandra

Anita Rios-Sherman

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:50 PM, myung-jin kang <mkangj@...> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> : When she can't fall back asleep, she wants to play. Last night,
> I carried her in a carrier and walked around the neighborhood. :
>
We have had similar situations. If she can not fall back asleep and your
husband has to work go in another room with her. Allow her to play or watch
a video/dvd. My son who is Autistic used to like to be up late in the middle
of the night when he was younger. I would put up a baby gate so he couldn't
get into the bathroom or kitchen by himself. Now that he is older if he is
up late while others are sleeping he is content. If he needs me I will stay
up with him or I will lay in the front room so he isn't alone.

> .
>
>
>



--
-
Anita
Wife to Jimmy
Momma to home learners and thinkers: Dexter (11/99) Joaquin (8/02) Maggie
(6/04) Waylon(6/06) Hezekiah (9/08) home learners and thinkers
2 Peter 3:18


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Amanda's Shoebox

If she's being woken up because of people moving around in the bed, could you get one of those $10 air mattresses from Walmart for her to sleep in? When our girls were about the age of your daughter, they slept in our room, but not in our bed. I would lay with them and pat their back until they fell asleep and then get in my bed. Maybe that would make it easier for her to sleep during the night. If she still wakes up, maybe you could get back in bed with her with a glow worm or something she could play with while you lay next to her. That way she might not be woken up to the extent she might if you leave the house or do something else similarly stimulating.

~ Amanda

Julie

Ah, sleep issues with small children. Our family has had 5 years, and counting, of musical beds, sometimes changing nightly, weekly, and/or monthly--whatever is getting us all the most sleep. Both of my boys seemed to go through a phase of light sleeping when they were around this age and it lasted about 6 months for each one. The only thing that consistently worked was for the kid to sleep alone with the parent least likely to need to get up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. So, if you're willing to sleep separately for a while, it may help.

As an aside: My husband and I slept in the same bed, alone all week for the first time in 5 years. Strange that it felt a little strange at first! Currently, one of us lays down with the boys until they are asleep or close enough and the other rocks the baby down (Audrey just transitioned, pretty much on her own choosing, from full time cosleeping and on demand nursing to sleeping all night and seeming to wean). Who knows how long this arrangement will last, and my husband and I may be night time separated again for a while, but it's nice for now. No bed time struggles, no tears, no fear, no sleep deprivation for 5 years and counting.

julie
james, 5 soon
tyler, just turned 3
audrey, 1 very soon!

--- In [email protected], myung-jin kang <mkangj@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> My daughter is in a transition of dropping her nap and also being diaper free at
> night time. She has been in transition for two months now. Sometimes, she wakes
> up in the middle of the night because she has to go to the bathroom.When there
> are distractions, she has a hard time falling asleep. Distractions in the form
> of my husband needing to go use the bathroom and then waking up every time she
> moves or I move. When she can't fall back asleep, she wants to play. Last night,
> I carried her in a carrier and walked around the neighborhood. Normally, she
> would fall asleep while I carry her. Two hours later, she was still awake. We
> got back home and my husband took her for a jog in the stroller, then to the
> park and when she came home, she fell sleep - three hours later and caught up on
> her sleep. She slept for 5.5 hours. She is perfectly content but we are tired. I
> am wondering what people have done in my situation. In the past, we have played
> with her, read her books, played some youtube of children books she loves. We
> let her sleep when she's tired and not set a bedtime since she was 13 months
> old. She is now 28.5 months old.
>
> All the best,
>
> M.J.
>

plaidpanties666

myung-jin kang <mkangj@...> wrote:
> My daughter is in a transition of dropping her nap and also being diaper free at
> night time.

Are these both things she's decided to do? As in she doesn't take naps anymore, so she's up later naturally, and she's refusing to wear a diaper at night or taking it off? If either of those are something you've initiated, then it might be a good idea to back off from that!

But if those are both things she's wanting and doing naturally, its time for you and your dh to start adapting. There's no magic timeline for how kids transition away from naps and there's no mangic formula for kids sleeping through the night - assume you're dealing with a "transition" that could take a year or more! The kinds of stop-gap solutions that get you through a few rough weeks won't work over that kind of time span.

Change the availability of beverages in the evening so she doesn't need to pee in the night. Also look into something like a matress pad and ask if she'd be okay just peeing in bed for now. The "getting up" part can be enough for the body to shift from sleepy mode to awake mode - in my own life I try to set myself up so I don't have to get up to pee for that very reason, it can take me hours to drop off again.

If those don't help and she's awake at night (and some kids go through phases of being up at night, even toddlers) you find ways to cope. It doesn't seem like getting her back to sleep works very well, so step away from that strategy and look for ways to make her safe while she's awake - a play-pen, a shut door, whatever works for y'all. You look for things she can do awake by herself that don't keep others up - quiet toys, mellow movies, whatever. If one of you can stay up, by all means do, but with enough sleep deprivation, staying up can stop being a safe option.

Alternately, you can look for ways to nap in the daytime - you specifically, I mean, if she's not napping - but those may involve the same sorts of strategies: find a way for her to be safe so you can catch some shut eye. A friend of mine used to lie down across the doorway to the (kid-safe) living-room to nap so that when her toddler would have to climb over her to get out she could wake up.

> not set a bedtime since she was 13 months
> old

What does that mean, "set a bedtime"? If it means there's no family ritual of settling in to sleep, it might help to have one! Some kids do better with a bit of regularity.

---Meredith