Wow, it feels so weird to be posting here--I used to LIVE in this forum when dd was a baby because we had so many sleeping issues. I'm so pleased to say that they seem so long ago and far away...EXCEPT FOR:
Recently dd has had a lot of trouble falling asleep. Instead of her normal 7:30-8:00 bedtime (we wake up at like 6:30 or 7 am to get ready to leave), she is now not falling asleep until somewhere around 10:30! And she's still waking up really early.
Some background:
*we co-slept exclusively for the first 6 mo.s of her life, afterwards she would go to bed in her crib and when she woke up sometime in the middle of the night, (X)dh would go get her and bring her into our bed. She finally started sleeping the whole night through in her bed when she was around 2.
*She and I moved in with my parents for a couple of months when (X) dh and I separated and that transition was a little rough for her and our sleep routine was definitely disturbed as we started sharing a room and a bed at my parents house.
*We are back in our house again (without her dad--she apparently sleeps fine for him in her room at his new place) and she only wants to sleep in my bed now. That is one issue (I have a LO on the way and so would like to get her back into her own bed before that happens), but the real issue here is that she will lay awake for ages playing and goofing around before she falls asleep.
*I have tried to have a real routine before bed to get her in the sleepy frame of mind. Bath, toothbrushing, etc. then a couple stories and prayers and I lay in the dark with her until she tells me I can go (which is usually after just like a minute or less!).
So my real questions are:
1) Does she, indeed, need more sleep than what she's getting? I'm not seeing any real obvious signs of lack of sleep, just the hunch that she can't have gone from needing 10-11 hours of sleep to suddenly needing only 8-9--but am I wrong?
2) If she does need more sleep, HOW do I get her back on track. She *goes to bed* quite happily but she just doesn't sleep. How can I FORCE her to sleep, you know?
TIA!
Recently dd has had a lot of trouble falling asleep. Instead of her normal 7:30-8:00 bedtime (we wake up at like 6:30 or 7 am to get ready to leave), she is now not falling asleep until somewhere around 10:30! And she's still waking up really early.
Some background:
*we co-slept exclusively for the first 6 mo.s of her life, afterwards she would go to bed in her crib and when she woke up sometime in the middle of the night, (X)dh would go get her and bring her into our bed. She finally started sleeping the whole night through in her bed when she was around 2.
*She and I moved in with my parents for a couple of months when (X) dh and I separated and that transition was a little rough for her and our sleep routine was definitely disturbed as we started sharing a room and a bed at my parents house.
*We are back in our house again (without her dad--she apparently sleeps fine for him in her room at his new place) and she only wants to sleep in my bed now. That is one issue (I have a LO on the way and so would like to get her back into her own bed before that happens), but the real issue here is that she will lay awake for ages playing and goofing around before she falls asleep.
*I have tried to have a real routine before bed to get her in the sleepy frame of mind. Bath, toothbrushing, etc. then a couple stories and prayers and I lay in the dark with her until she tells me I can go (which is usually after just like a minute or less!).
So my real questions are:
1) Does she, indeed, need more sleep than what she's getting? I'm not seeing any real obvious signs of lack of sleep, just the hunch that she can't have gone from needing 10-11 hours of sleep to suddenly needing only 8-9--but am I wrong?
2) If she does need more sleep, HOW do I get her back on track. She *goes to bed* quite happily but she just doesn't sleep. How can I FORCE her to sleep, you know?
TIA!
