What to do about BD2? (O/T)
My BD2 has started doing something peculiar (For her)
She'll wake up 20 minutes after bedtime and start howling like she's being murdered. No amount of comforting, rocking, singing, reading, or anything will help calm her down. Then, at 11, she just conks out again. (Bedtime is at 8 and has been since December) Idk what is up with her. The other day I got so fed up with it I just put the gate up to her room so she didn't fall down the stairs and I went to bed. She fell asleep @ 11 on the floor in front of her door.
She does fine at naptime... but she'll quietly get up and laydown on the floor. I don't know what to make of it.
Any tips? She has a bedtime routine and goes to bed fine. 20 minutes (literally, always 20 minutes) later she's up and howling. I tried bringing it up to her pediatrician and he just shrugged it off. :?
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Have you asked her why she
Have you asked her why she does it?
Could he growing pains, digestive pains, bad dreams... Being that's she's inconsolable rather than just regular kid crying cause she doesn't want to go to bed, I'd assuming it was one of those things.
BD2 is speech delayed (takes
BD2 is speech delayed (takes after DH. He couldn't talk until he was almost 4) so asking why wouldn't do much good. :/ However, I can say she doesn't seem to be in pain and it's not her "I had a nightmare!" cry. (Both are pretty distinctive.) It's definitely her "but I don't want to go to sleep" cry, but it goes on from about 8:30 to 11.
If she's speech delayed I
If she's speech delayed I highly reccomend baby sign language. I used it with both my boys and it is really very useful. Even if she only picks up a handful of signs, it still gets her into the mind frame of communicating her wants and needs rather than crying over it.
What about adjusting her nap
What about adjusting her nap time to earlier in the day....is it possible that she just not tired enough?
When my DD started having
When my DD started having disruptive sleep issues it was because the skid was sneaking into her room and waking her up. She said the boogeyman was getting her and I put up security cameras and I stayed up to see when skid did not know I was there. Yeah he was a special little shithead.
Oh crap....I remember you
Oh crap....I remember you telling that story! In fact it was the first thing I thought of, when I read this one.
well if she's speech-delayed
well if she's speech-delayed she could be having some other subtle neuro-disruptions with her circadian rhythm and sleep cycles. Part of a dysregulated growth spurt thing. That's about the time they're getting other autonomic functions online.
Its not nightmares like
Its not nightmares like someone else suggested. You have to be able to get to a certain stage of sleep to dream which usually happens in the early morning hours.
Try to really time how long she is asleep like with a kitchen timer. It is possible that it's night terrors but that usually happens 1 -3 hours after sleeping begins. My 14 month old has night terrors. She is early to develop this it usually starts between 18-24 months old. She wakes up screaming in a panic crying almost hyperventilating Without Really recognizing that we are there because she is still not truly awake.
I will talk to my mom and comment back with possibly better info. My mother's a sleep tech that specializes in pediatric sleep.
It's not night terrors. I've
It's not night terrors. I've dealt with night terrors before. She gets up and moves around. It's 20 minutes exactly every time. She cries until about 10:30 or 11. Her developmental therapist says it isn't connected to her speech.
SD5 used to do this... It was
SD5 used to do this... It was just one of those things. she did it at our house and at BM2's. They took her to the Dr. the only thing anyone could come up with was Night Terrors and 'eventually she'll grow out of it'. she stopped waking up every night around age 3.5 and hasn't had one at all in the last 6months, she's 5.5 now.
Although SD5 did it hours after going to bed, not minutes, so that might be different.
You know....it really sounds
You know....it really sounds like something is waking her up.
TV maybe? DH refuses to turn
TV maybe? DH refuses to turn it off before when he goes to bed... *grrr*
I'm reading this book called
I'm reading this book called "The highly sensitive person" which I am, but it suggests that most highly sensitive people are born that way with a different nervous system. It tells how some babies/small children wake up on a regular basis. The author told about her own little girl who did this. Sh created a sort of tent around the crib, to keep it perfectly dark and quiet like a cocoon. Also one thing that has really helped my SD4 with her sleep issues (she always woke up during the night and just didn't want to sleep) is classical music. Gets her to sleep and keeps her asleep.