Nighttime noises

October 29, 2009 5:42 PM

Help us quiet our suddenly screechy-at-bedtime 19mo daughter! Difficulty: shares room with brother.

Our 19-month old daughter has suddenly decided that (a) she's not particularly sleepy at bedtime, and (b) it's fun to giggle and screech and make noises for at least an hour after being put to bed.

It would be cute except for that the fact the she's sharing a room with her (3.5 year old) brother, and she is keeping him up. And honestly, it's not that great for her, either; she really could use the sleep.

We're not entirely sure how do deal with this, since visiting the room and shushing her just confirms to her that being screechy and giggly is a good way to get a visit from The Parents. We've tried relocating her brother for a few days to another room, but that's not really a good long term solution right now. We were hoping that she'd forget about all the fun and excitement, but he's in his own bed tonight and the noise continues.

You'd figure that at some point she'd get tired! Maybe she just needs to go to bed a little later, but (a) she's never been a very good napper, and (b) she tends to be an early riser, which doesn't bode well for her getting enough sleep.

posted by larsks to home & garden (6 comments total)

Can she go to bed half an hour earlier and your son a half an hour later? Spacing them out a bit might help.
posted by Abbril at 5:45 PM on October 29

Same sort of situation, I don't leave the doorway to their room, but just stand in sight. At first it was like 20 mins standing, but these days only 3-4 mins. Then slowly fade/walk out without making it obvious that I left. Unsure if that worked, or if the little guy just "got out of it" on his own. Hard to tell with kids :)

The big guy falls a sleep in minutes generally though, which probably helps. Seems to be related to the young boy going from an afternoon sleep, to no sleep here (20 month boy). He can't quite making it without a sleep, and is not as tired as his older brother with a sleep. But every now and then he thinks he can do without an afternoon nap.
posted by lundman at 5:53 PM on October 29

Just wanted to add that with our 3 kids sound machines like these - we have four! - are a lifesaver.
posted by Abbril at 6:01 PM on October 29

I feel your pain! I've been going through this lately with my son, he's a 20 month old twin who sleeps in the same room as his sister. I'm curious to see what answers you get -- hopefully I'll be able to steal some good ideas. ;-)

Our problem is compounded by the fact that he gets a combined nebulizer treatment of xopenex and pulmicort each night before bed. The two medications act as stimulants.

So, here's what we've been doing: (These are all stop-gap measures that don't really address the behavioral problem....)

We've been:
* Giving him a shorter nap during the day. (This has had mixed results. Mostly he's just crankier in the evening, rather than fatigued.)
* Giving him more "fresh air" outside time in the afternoon. Usually supervised in our backyard. As the weather has been getting colder, this isn't going to last much longer.
* Experimenting with putting both kids to bed half an hour later than usual. He tends not to get up any later than normal.
* Wearing him out about an hour before bed with a little physical activity.
* Giving the kids quiet time, strapped into in chairs with the lights out in front of the TV for 20-30 minutes before bed. (They watch something slow-paced like Baby Einstein.)
This is when they get their last bottle.
* Heating that last bottle of milk to a higher temperature.

Since they were born, we've run a sound soother to drown out ambient noise, as well as a cd with Rockabye Baby or some other collection of lullabyes in their room. It helps my daughter sleep through the night. My son is an insomniac, who's up at all hours.

Up until about 2 weeks ago, this worked like a charm:

My kids have a nighttime ritual. We've found that by establishing a routine, they know what to expect when they are put in their cribs. (i.e., we do these things before we go to sleep.)

They are each changed into PJ's. My son is asked if he'd like to be Mommy or Daddy's helper, at which point he gets to turn on the sound soother and press play on the cd player. We lift him up and he taps the lamp shade. (We turn that light off at the same time.) The kids kiss each other good night and then we put them in their cribs. We ask them if they want to be covered with a blanket and then we tuck them in. And until recently, they would go right to sleep.

Anyway, good luck! I hope you find a solution!
posted by zarq at 6:05 PM on October 29

I'm in agreement with staggering bedtimes. For what it's worth, my son went from a fussy sleeper to a blissful sleeper almost immediately around that age when we did a few simple things, namely to ritualize the bedtime routine and make it consistent. Maybe she is getting some energy from the evening chaos, and changes could be made to make it more low key for the hour or two preceding bedtime. We noticed with our son that evening TV seemed to key him up. I'd also check to make sure she's not getting sugary stuff in the evening like juice.
posted by crapmatic at 6:32 PM on October 29

Hi all! Thanks for your thoughts. I should have mentioned that we *do* stagger their bedtimes (between 30 and 45 minutes, usually, depending on how fast the older one gets ready for bed). I like the white noise suggestions; we've talked about something like that before when our daughter was having "waking up too much at night" issues, so maybe it's time to try that out again.
posted by larsks at 6:49 AM on October 30