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Posted by xila on July 08, 2002 at 17:35:11:In Reply to: 19 mo. old not sleeping well... posted by CW on July 08, 2002 at 07:00:30:
How come that you have to wake her at 4pm? At what time do you put her down for her nap? It shouldn't be after 1pm. Don't even think of suppressing the nap. At this age, it is more than necessary. And it will be until she is 3 and even older. It is true that if you suppress that nap, she will fight sleep even more at night and is also likely to wake up during the night. You have also to try by all means to avoid waking her up, in the afternoon (or in the morning but this is not the case presently). This can upset her rythms considerably.
The key is therefore to put her down for her nap very early, shortly after lunch, which can be taken as early as 11.30 am (therefore naptime starts at 12.30).
Put her in bed as early as possible in the evening, no later than 8pm and preferably around 7pm. If she is in bed at 7pm and fights sleep for an hour, then you will have her fall asleep at 8, which will not be so bad. The earlier she will start her night sleep, the later she will wake up. She wakes up too early because she goes to bed too late. This is how it works. And the more sleep she will have (i.e. good nap, lasting about 2 hours at least, but ending before 4), the more sleep she will get afterwards.
Try to be very firm about bedtime, and if you worry that she is not enough tired, get her to have a lot of physical activity outdoors, AM and PM. There is nothing wrong for her to use a pacifier if it helps. There is still time before you can suppress it. At the moment, the priority is that she succeeds in falling sleep easily.
It might be that it is a temporary crisis; she has taken a bad habit all of a sudden and needs your help to put her back on track.
At this age, you can expect an average of 14/15 hours of sleep/day.
Good luck!
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