My 4.5 Year Old "Can't Sleep"

Coach Patrick

 Okay wise ones...time to give me some serious advice. 3 x in the last 7 days, my 4.5 year old has woken up at like 2 am and says she can't sleep. Won't go back to bed as she "doesn't know how" to fall asleep. Last night we had her up/down on sofa/in room for like 2 hours before we capitulated an put her in our bed (bad!). 

Any thoughts on how we can manage this? 

Sleepy in Boston,

P

Carrie Chavez

We tried telling her she can get up and play in her room but she cannot come wake us up. That was of no interest to her so she would just lay in bed with her beanie babies playing in the dark until she fell asleep again.

I think allowing her to sleep in your bed is not horrible. Jeesh, you were exausted. It obviously offered her some comfort. Sometimes my friends go cuddle in their child's bed until they fall back to sleep.

Heck- I am no help. So sorry you are all not getting good rest.

She is not fighting a cold? Having to go potty? Scared?

CC

markg11cdn

My 5.5 year old goes to sleep every night listening to children's audio books played through an ipod docking station (at a very low volume). If he wakes up in the middle of the night (< 1 per month), then one of us goes in there starts up the ipod again with some audio books. He likes listening to the books so it works well for us. Our local library has a bunch of kid's audio book CDs, including Robert Munsch and Marc Brown (Arthur) that he likes.

cheers - mark

Keith Wick

This happens very rarely in my house as the only one that gets up is my daughter (4.5 y.o) and it's usually to the bathroom and then to bed. However, on those rare occasions we do tell her she must stay in her room and she can either play with something quietly or read her books. Sometimes we'll turn on some classical music on the radio. With the books and games though, we don't turn on the overhead light in her room. We'll turn on the hall light and leave her door open, which lets in enough light to see, but also keeps it dark enough where she can still fall asleep----When that doesn't work the mean daddy comes out and threatens to take toys if she makes too much noise.

Steven Ford

1 word Nyquil solves everything

Okay so my real advise is like everyone else, quite room play and you can not wake mommy and daddy up.

 

 

 

tuckerm

Patrick,
My daughter, just about 4, went through a run like this off and on for the past 2 months. Some nights she would come into my room around 2AM and others around 5AM. Usually we would let her sleep in our bed but that didn't help with our sleeping. Killed me as I don't get enough sleep as it is so I know where you are here. Sometimes I would bring her back to her room and sleep with her there. Not to worry, my daughter has a full bedroom set while my wife and I have nothing.

Small rant. Wife has since rectified this bedroom set situation with a trip to Ethan Allen. Goodbye to my new bike. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

So basically we didn't have a solution. Then a friend gave us a toddler bed for my other daughter to use eventually. My older daughter has now been sleeping in it "protecting" her little sister. It has seemed to work quite well. I have been watching them solo the last 4 days and they have napped at the same time, gone to bed at same time, and they wake at the same time. Seems like a good fix for us. Probably short term but hopefully it will get her through.

We have used the music on an ipod dock as well. That seemed to work well. Not sure why my wife took it away though. Good luck P!

Coach Patrick

This is all so useful....thank you Team! We have given her a special set of books to read and a little flashlight...fingers crossed!

filarl

I'm in a similar boat with my 5 and 3-yr olds taking turns being difficult at bedtime or during the night, or nightmares at 3AM, frequently being sick (daycare ) or needing help with the potty 5 times during the night etc.  Aside from the issue of trying to get them sleep better, is there any sort of guideline on adjusting the training if you're someone who has to get it done super early, no chance to nap, do the workout later or sleep in ever?  I've just started week 20 of the OS and sometimes tweaked the workout days around as I found that I could load up on expresso strength coffee on Tuesday and Wednesdays mornings to get it done but by Thursday morning insufficient sleep + another day of hard bike intervals was a bad combo and so would sometimes do it Friday morning or even combine with the Saturday bike rather than not doing it at all.  Thankfully I'm training for SC/Olympic distance A races, but putting the swim training in on Monday and Friday (at 5AM) starting in a couple of weeks means that somethings gotta give whenever I go more than 2 consecutive days without quality sleep.  I'm thinking that the swimming goes first and re-jig the bike and run workouts to get them in, but would really appreciate some advice on this problem!

 

Thanks! 

Linda

dotcatlin

Hi Linda,
It's so hard to manage it all, isn't it?! I am mom to a 5yo, 3yo and almost 8mo and work full-time, but so far I have managed to stay on track in the JOS. I am currently in my 11th week of the plan and have only missed 1 workout! These are my tips:
1. Go Day to Day. I do look at the week ahead, but generally I figure out the night before if I can do the next day's workout and then figure it out then, when. If I can't get it done, then I switch it out with a day off or rotate two (like if I had to do a run, but am home with the baby on that Sunday then I'll switch it for a bike on the trainer inside while she's playing, then do the run another day without the baby.) It's too stressful and overwhelming to try to fit everything in the way it's written. It's just impossible and stressful.
2. Just get it done. There are plenty of times when I haven't wanted to do the workout or I am tired, but I just get my butt on the seat or into my shoes and I start moving. More times than not my body responds and I get the natural high and get a move on, and am happy and fulfilled afterwards.
3. With that said, if you need to take care of your family-do so. You'll be fine. I had 15 more minutes on my bike last night, but the baby started wimpering and I went to her--of course! I gave her a bath, read to her, put her to sleep, then finished the last 15 mins. No longer was my heart rate up/warmed up, but it was only 15 mins. I put the time in and forgot about the rest.

This is my first time with EN and the improvements in the testing are so great. I really do trust them when they say "get the MS in". Maybe just cut back on the rest of the stuff after the MS on those days when you are just too tired. At least you'll get some of it in!

Good luck! I know it's so great that us moms take some time to do things for US, but it is hard to fit it all in and sometimes people make you feel guilty. I hope you feel rewarded most of the time. I always hope that my children notice my active lifestyle and will enjoy being active themselves too. Good luck!! Stay in touch too. We could help each other out re: staying on track and motivation.

filarl

Thanks so much Dottie! I can't believe that you're doing this as a working mom with an 8-month old ! You ROCK! Now I feel like a major wimp since NOTHING compares to having a baby to take care of at night, EVERY night... I'm a EN newbie too. I've pretty much been doing the same as you in terms of the OS plan, just trying to get it done somehow at times, focussing on the MS and thanking my lucky stars that I'm not allergic to caffeine! Thanks for the motivation - I'd love to stay in touch and hopefully will be able to return the favor!