at wits end

I just dont know what to do, Rhiannon has just stopped sleeping through at night, and is refusing to go to bed, her normal bed time is 7.30pm and as soon as we put her to bed she starts getting up and down, and no matter what we do 11.30pm is rolling around and we have a screaming overtired, almost making herself sick child.

She will go to sleep if one of us sits on the end of her bed, but as soon as we move she wakes up.

She is having a 2 hour sleep during the day but she keeps changing the times, and most nights is dead on her feet at 6pm, so we put her to bed and its like she has a 1hr nap and is up again.

so last night finally at midnight i managed to get back to my bed, only to have to start all over again 30mins later, in the end she ended up in our bed, have no idea what time. Oh and no matter what time she goes to sleep she is awake at 6am, and i am so so so tired, and just dont know waht to do anymore

yeap have done that from day one, and its just not working at the moment, our biggest problem seems to be that she wants her sleep in the morning, and if i hold her out till 12ish she is so tired she wont sleep, she wont have an afternoon sleep, is wantin to go to bed at 6pm and is then up 30mins later wide awake, and then it goes down hill from there.

I know she is teething at the moment, but we have never had this problem, but she only has her molars to come through now, so we are wondering if it is that.

I am also wondering if she does get up, instead of making her go back to bed, and having 3 hours of everyone being frustrated, if i should just let her play for an extra 30mins.

thats the problem, she has her 2 hour sleep in the morning and then is up for the rest of the day, which is why i would like her to have her nap later, and it doesnt matter how much or how little we doing during the day either...she just doesnt want to sleep.

she has just climbed on the couch to go to sleep, but we are about to head out to meet friends to go swimming and have lunch so will be interesting to see how tonight goes

Maybe try pushing that day sleep a little later by 10mins each day or even every few days. She probably has a biorhythm for that sleep time (that is when a persons body temp etc drops in anticipation of sleep). It takes 3 days to create a new bio-rhythm (longer to change a habit in some cases though!). Once she is sleeping later she may be less tired at bedtime and go to sleep more easily. When they are overtired it is harder for them to drop into deep sleep and they tend to wake up 40mins to 1 hour into their night sleep.

It's probably a combo of factors...overtiredness, teething, perhaps some separation anxiety + a lil' bit of cheekiness and boundary testing ;)

Like Deb said, be consistent and you will eventually get there. Hang in there in the mean time. :)

Maybe also check of some of the articles at www.thesleepstore.co.nz. :)

Emma Rose does this sometimes too, and it drives me nuts as well. Two things that have worked for us are to have a big wind-down period before bed, with a bath and pyjamas, a quiet, gentle massage, a couple of storybooks in the big bed (aka Mum and Dad's bed), putting on the sleeping bag, and then quietly into bed. It seems to take Em ages to wind down and relax.

The other thing we try when all else fails is to give her a second nap at around dinnertime. Em usually does a nap in the late morning or early afternoon (like from 11-1 or 12-2) and then if she's grumpy by about 4pm, I'll put her in her cot from 4-5. She doesn't always sleep, though -- sometimes she just lays there and grumps, then plays for a bit, and then seems to be refreshed when I go in to get her for dinner.

DH has also started taking her for walks when it's nice out after work -- he literally lets her walk for half an hour or so, stopping to inspect plants and bugs and pick weeds. Usually after she has a good walk she's exhausted and sleeps pretty well!

Maybe those molars are to blame for a fair bit of it?  Ella has them coming through too and they're keeping her awake at night.  Not as much as Rhiannon's are though, the poor girl!  Big hugs to you, Kazzle, that sounds blind-exhausting and you're a real trooper for getting through the day after nights like that!

thanks guys, Claire, Rhiannon has been in a big bed since she was 16.5mths so its not that, thanks guys for all your advice.

We have been swimming, been to the playground and she has had some lunch and has just gone down for a nap...so i will see her sometime after 2pm....and then at 5pm while waiting for daddys train i will take her to the park. I think part of it could be boredom as well, so trying to keep her active throughout the day

well we put Rhiannon to bed at 7.45pm as she was starting to go to sleep on Kent, and well for the next 30mins we had crying and getting out of bed, but once i put a chair in the hallway between her room and the lounge, she settled down, Kent sat there for 30mins and then got up and moved, and we didnt hear from her till 3.30am this morning, at which time she was up until 5am then slept till 6.45am so not too bad.

I am babysitting this morning again, so am hoping they will run around outside for a while, have lunch and a nap and then tire each other out again in teh afternoon.

its really frustrating, as we have had Rhiannon teething for the past 6mths constantly, and its not just one tooth, its 3-4 at a time, they all seem to be coming through at once, there are just her 2 yr old molars to come and her gums are all swollen now...so yeah we are putting it down to teething and fingers crossed it is over soon

Pamol is okay, but rhiannon would drink it like water if i let her, so i only give it too her when her cheeks are really red, not much i can do except ride it out..lol