It’s Toddler Time! Arden has Decided that Sleep is a Thing of the Past…
Lately, it has become abundantly clear that Arden has left babyhood, and is now becoming a toddler! Once set in stone and working perfectly, his sleep schedule is now all over the place. He has mostly decided that being put to bed at night is the worst form of torture imaginable.
When we came home from the hospital with Arden in December 2020, he had sleep trained himself. Our schedule at the hospital made it so he knew we would be with him all day, and then at night when we had to sleep, he would as well. For the most part over the past 10 months that we’ve been home, he has kept the same sleep schedule. He loves his evenings, so we usually put him down for sleep between 9-9:30PM, then he will sleep solid until around 9AM, and then will have a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, usually from 1-3PM or 2-4PM, depending on when he wakes up in the morning.
This schedule has worked so well for the longest time that the changes we’re seeing lately have definitely shocked us! Lately, going to bed at night time is something that Arden does not want to participate in. We put him down at his regular time, but instead of going to sleep, he cries, squirms, holds his breath, and does every trick possible to keep himself awake.
It’s difficult to “sleep train” Arden, because he cannot be left alone without monitoring for suction, breathing, etc. We try to stay outside of his room once we put him to bed, but inevitably we always have to go back in at some point to suction him, especially once he’s worked himself up with a few tears.
Of course, seeing him in distress is hard on the heart, so we’ve also tried sitting in his room, reading to him, putting on sleep sounds, sitting next to his crib, and other strategies to get him to doze off. But to no avail.
At first I thought that perhaps his 2 hour afternoon nap was giving him too much rest, and that’s why he wasn’t tired for night time sleep. But after cutting his nap back for a few days, he just became more and more exhausted and irritable. This week, all of his exhaustion has seemed to culminate into a big emotional mess, and he can barely keep himself awake during the day.
Fearing that he’ll get run down and sick, I’ve been forced to allow a little more napping during the day so that he can at least catch up on his rest a bit. The last thing we need is a trip to the hospital if he catches a cold.
We’re trying to power through this current stage, and we’ve tried a few strategies that I think we just need to stick to. We’ve tried to ensure that he’s not overly stimulated by turning off the TV in the house long before he goes to bed. We’ve been reading stories to him as a family and doing quiet activities before bed time. I hate the “cry it out” method, but I do think that we have to allow for Arden to self soothe a bit. Due to his medical needs, he is very used to us running to his every need. He used to only cry when he really needed something. But as we head into him becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby, he’s discovering that he can also cry in an attempt to get things that he doesn’t necessarily need.
I’m hoping this is just a phase, and that we’ll get through it. My mom has informed me that my brother and I fought sleep until we were nearly 10 years old (yikes) … so we may be in for the long haul! Wish us luck!
XO, Rayel