Toddler - getting back to sleep routine after various trips

[remymom]

Hi everyone,

DS just turned 2. Our sleeping habit since he was 6 MO, has been him starting the night in his crib. He'll then wake up at varying times (I stopped checking the time) but it could be anytime from 11:30-3 or 5. It's not so consistent. He then spends the rest if the night in our bed. He'll have good phases where he'll sleep well with us and almost not wake much. However now he's taken to the habit of drinking water from a bottle throughout the night and wakes and asks for milk (though we give him water) anywhere from 1-4 times after he's in his bed.

We've done a bit of traveling in the last three months. In fact three trips varying from 1-2 weeks. Each time we go on a trip, we let him sleep with us all the time. It just seems too complicated to get him to sleep in a pack and play as he's in an unknown place and I figure he needs the extra comfort. On our last trip, we let him regress back to drinking milk from a bottle in the night (I had also weaned him from a bottle for 1-2 weeks prior). On trips, we also tend to stay with him until he falls asleep, since it's more complicated when he's not in his crib to get him to fall asleep on his own. So each time we come back from a trip, we have to get him back to our home habits. We've now been back for two weeks from our last trip. There was a three hour time difference. It seemed to take forever for him to get somewhat back to a regular bedtime, though he's still going to sleep at 9....

So we're trying so hard to plan our days around his schedule. (By the way he's in daycare 4 days a week and he seemed to adapt right away to their schedule with no problem). We start his whole pre-naptime routine at around 12:30 so he'll be asleep by 1-1:15 and he resists sleep until 2. Then he ends up waking from his nap fairly late, yesterday at 5 and there was no waking him before. We'll then start the bedtime routine at around 7-7:30 so he'll be in bed by 8-8:30 and he again resists sleeping until 9-9:30. Then in the morning, it's a vicious cycle again and he doesn't want to wake up until 7:30-8. It's also winter here in Canada and we've had a lot of - temperatures so we've had little outside playing.

Any suggestions on shifting his whole cycle? He seems tired and I want him to get his rest and right now I feel I spend so many hours a day trying to get him asleep. I know we didn't exactly get him into the right habits at the more appropriate age of one and now we're dealing with a resistant 2 yr. old.

Thanks for you suggestions!

[tizzie44]

We've had a similar situation with our LO, and it started when he was weaned (not a change because of travel). He is 2, when he weaned (at 18m) then he would wake up from being in crib and we would bring him to bed with us (all times of night). He started crying at bedtime. We tried CIO (worked swell when he was a few months old-just cried for 5-10 minutes on one or 2 occasions). After a 2hr crying session (Super Nanny style-sitting in room with him while he cried) with no success, we just decided to co-sleep all the time a few months back. He still fusses and sometimes cries at bedtime, but not with the same intensity.

But he still resists naps and bedtime. We will read books, sing lay down with him for a nap and he'll talk and ask for things for hours until we give up and decide to go for a ride (where he'll fall asleep almost instantly because he is exhausted). He naps easily at the babysitter's: falls asleep on his own, in a crib, sleeps for 2 hrs. Then at night bedtime it is the same resistance: after our routine (brush teeth, pjs, books, song) we lay down with him and he talks, sings, asks for water, toys, more books, may even lay in silence, but he just doesn't fall asleep for up to 2 hrs. He does sleep well once he drifts off- sleeps 11-12hrs.

Would love some advice.