Comments on: Sleep impacts children’s behavior. Duh.

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:59:14 +0000

@Tobasco, My very unscientific theory is that sleepy parents beget sleepy kids. If you or daddy are night owls, your kidd might be wired for less sleep. Yawn.

By: Tobasco

Tobasco — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:28:09 +0000

I have to say that posts like this one definitely get my stress/guilt soaring. My daughter has never needed a lot of sleep. Even as a newborn or small baby she only needed 12 hours TOTAL for a day. She never ever ever went to bed before 9 pm. I stay at home. There isno reason for me to purposely keep her up late or wake her up early. That’s simply how it is for her.

Now at three years old she has dropped naps and sleeps from 8pm-6am if we’re lucky. I certainly don’t keep her awake. I would love to sleep in past six! Especially since i rarely get to bed before midnight. But that is truly all she needs. We have tried occasionally to put her to bed earlier and all that happens is that she wakes up earlier.

Last night after a particularly long and busy day she fell asleep on my lap at 6:45 and it was a big struggle for me to decide if I should let her sleep or not. She did wake up at 3am ready to go and it took a while to get her to understand that it was the middle of the night and we needed to sleep more.

I have to say it is somewhat offensive for people to be saying you’re a bad mom if your two year old doesn’t go to bed until 9pm.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:35:14 +0000

Good to know you are super fun! That’s what my blog’s all about.
http://oururbanplayground.com

Your experiences sound similar to mine. Things are finally sorting out with getting my second one to sleep smoothly. The 3rd baby who is 3 months now is super easy. I think because she just is an easy baby, but also because I am so much more chilled out. My girls are 8,5,3 mod.

Love your blog.

By: Nicole T

Nicole T — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:19:11 +0000

Of course, it could be a “chicken and egg” situation. Do I keep him awake during the day and force an earlier bedtime? Somehow I don’t think day care would be down with that.

By: Nicole T

Nicole T — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:17:55 +0000

My husband is a night owl, and my son (2.5 yrs) is too. They are up til like 12 am, then both sleep til 8:30 am or 9 am, then are off to daycare and work. My son naps for three hours during the day like a BOSS.

When he drops that nap, then I’ll move bedtime back. How? I don’t know. Until that happens, I’m okay with him staying up – during the week, it’s the only time I see him. On weekends, falls asleep around 5 pm (after skipping nap), and sleeps for two hours, then is up til 11 pm. On average, he gets 12-13 hours a day. And when he falls asleep, we let him sleep and wake up on his own.

I like to sleep at night, so I’m in bed by 10:30 pm, then up around 7:30 am (or 5:45 am, depending on my crazy desire for morning yoga) and at work by 8:30 am.

I’m still kicking my self for every night of not sleeping in college. I mean REALLY!?! Did I think I’d have more time to sleep as a grown up? Glad I at least balanced it somewhat with naps between (or in) classes…

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:54:00 +0000

@Jen, funny you mention CIO (cry it out) because we were quite ruthless in sleep training our first. We tried all the same stuff with #2 and he beat us most of the time. #3 slept with us at first then in the swing and now in his crib. He still cries at night when we lay him down before settling. I think we’re just super fun people and he doesn’t want to say goodnight.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 04:57:22 +0000

Sleep. Putting kids to sleep is torture in my house. Total torture. I was a good mom, I did the “cry it out” “self soothe” methods with my first two babies. That worked until they could get out of their crib on their own. Then all hell broke loose!!! I have finally gotten a bit of a handle on it and my 5 year old will actually go to bed now. I had to cut out ALL TV and any type of screen.

With my 3rd baby we are doing the opposite. Feed on demand, co-sleep, mommy soothe. Hopefully this little one will go to bed when she gets older;)

By: Mills

Mills — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:22:18 +0000

I echo what Zarah said above. After reading your sleep schedule, I think the only thing you should take away from the article is that you are doing everything right.

By: Cara

Cara — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:30:18 +0000

At the beginning of the last school year, our then just-turned 3 year old went to bed fairly late (started routine around 8:30), because my husband’s semester (he is a PhD candidate) didn’t allow him to get home before 7, and we didn’t want to sacrifice their time together. However, this is also when she stopped napping and within a week or so, it was clear that he was going to have to adjust his morning schedule to have time with her here instead. Bedtime routine then began at 6:30. She is now 4, and that is still how it is. So yeah, move it back to 5:30?! Ha! We did the move back already as far as possible:)
So bath at 6:30, pajamas on around 7, 4 books read, and then Mom and Dad are out of there.
We don’t have strict rules on “lights out” so she can read or color on her bed and puts herself to sleep that way every night. Some nights it gets pretty late before she is asleep, but it works out well for us most of the time — she typically is out by 8:30 at the latest and often before 8. And she’s up around 7 most mornings, but sometimes sleeps in until 8. Her sleep has never ever been predicable;)

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:55:58 +0000

@Heather, I always notice that my kids are out of sorts when they don’t get enough sleep. You can just leave that study open in a browser window somewhere for him to discover.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:26:41 +0000

My 4 yo and 2 yo go to bed at 7 P. They both wake around 6:45-7:15. My 2 yo naps for 2 hours in the afternoon ( never past 3 pm). We eat at 5:30-6:00. Bath and books from 6:30-7:00. I do this solo since my husband doesn’t get home til 7:30-8:00.
We now have a 1 month old, so I have lost my usual 9 -10 PM bedtime!
My husband jokes that I am draconian about sleep schedule/routine. But it has served us all well, I think. We skip a lot of evening activities…but I really believe sleep is more important to them right now. When they are older, we will have soccer, and other extracurricular activities to work into our schedule.

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:13:40 +0000

@aBitofBrooklyn, I can remember when my oldest was an only toddler, we used to set a timer (sometimes as short as 20 minutes) to speed dinner along. Now it just takes us 45 minutes to an hour because we generally let it run it’s course.