Crying It Out If Child Wakes Up Early From Naptime?

[Unregistered]

Everyone here takes a 1.5-2 hour nap. If a child wakes up earlier than the 1.5 hour nap, they read a book on their mat. I have a 12m old and a 14m old I am transitioning to afternoon naps. They 12m old does great, takes a 1.5-2 hour nap during our rest time. The 14m old wakes up at 45 minutes and screams till he is picked up. If he is brought to the area with the napping children he bothers them and talks loudly till they wake up.

I moved his pack and play into a room of his own (he wasn't a fan of the change). My goal is to have him napping 1.5 hours - the shorter naps make it so I don't get much of a break after cleaning up toys and lunch stuff. I feel its reasonable he does nap that long and mom agrees - says he naps 2 hours easy at home, but doesnt nap more when he gets home if he only sleeps 45 minutes here.

I need a solution to keep him from waking up the other children as we work on extending nap time for him. If he wakes up after 45 minutes is it bad to keep him in his pack n play in the separate room? In the past if I let him CIO, he will go back to sleep after 10 minutes or rest quietly in the pack n play - the move to the separate room is to keep him from waking up everyone in that 10 minutes of screaming. What if he doesn't self soothe in a reasonable amount of time? I believe he will adjust as he is young and relatively new to my care :/

I have read through lots of crying/naptime threads and I still wanted to ask the question of whether it is ok for him to cry it out till nap time is over if he wakes up early. Thoughts?

[taylorw1210]

What I have done with my DCK's who wake up before the 90 minutes of required nap for the younger ones is go in and check on them (make sure their diaper is clean), "tuck them in" again, and walk out. After a few days of crying they will get it and eventually put themselves back to sleep when/if they wake up. At 14 months letting them cry is not harmful, in my opinion. At that age they are well aware of what they are doing to try to get the reaction they want. And 45 minutes definitely is not enough for a 14 month old and would make my day very stressful in the sense of not getting enough of a break during nap time and having a cranky kid on my hands for the rest of the day.

[preschoolteacher]

I agree with the previous poster. I had a similar thing happening with similar-aged kids. Going in, checking on them, and tucking them in again--helping them to actually lay back down--and saying, "It's nap time" really helped. If the child still cried, I'd repeat the same process every 10-15 minutes. It took a few days, but they all sleep for 1.5-2 hours now.

[coolconfidentme]

I had a DCB like that. I moved his PNP away from others, only check to assure he was safe & then let him CIO. The first few days I made no eye contact when I checked on him. If he was standing I laid him down, covered him & walked away w/o talking. After that I just peaked in on him. It took him about a week to figure out it wasn't going to work here. He is now back in the room with the others & goes right to sleep.

[TwinKristi]

Yep I agree! I had a DCB who did this and sometimes he would go back to sleep, sometimes he wouldn't and he'd cry. But I wasn't going to let him get up and wake everyone else who slept at least 2 hrs. He isn't in a PNP anymore when he stays here on a drop-in basis, but he still wakes up before everyone else. I'm guessing his preschool has him lay quietly on his mat until it's time to wake up because he did well last week. He didn't wake anyone up like he did last month.

[Shell]

I have this child. He rests on a mat now because he would wake up early, scream in the pnp, and drive me insane. He co-sleeps at home, and screams at the mere sight of a pnp. When he wakes up too early, I lay him back down, and sit with one hand on his back until he falls back asleep. I usually read a book so it's not too bad.

It is a bit of a challenge, because some days he wakes up earlier, sometimes later, and I usually have to bolt over to his mat before he screams and wakes the whole house. Consistency at home helps, too. If mom is giving one nap, and so are you, the child will eventually get on board.

If I could let the child cry it out, I would, and have with other children.

[taylorw1210]

I have this child. He rests on a mat now because he would wake up early, scream in the pnp, and drive me insane. He co-sleeps at home, and screams at the mere sight of a pnp. When he wakes up too early, I lay him back down, and sit with one hand on his back until he falls back asleep. I usually read a book so it's not too bad.

It is a bit of a challenge, because some days he wakes up earlier, sometimes later, and I usually have to bolt over to his mat before he screams and wakes the whole house. Consistency at home helps, too. If mom is giving one nap, and so are you, the child will eventually get on board.

If I could let the child cry it out, I would, and have with other children.

I think we have similar kids. I have a 13 mo. old DCB who co-sleeps and was the worst child to get to take naps I have ever, ever encountered. It was awful. Finally, after 5 months of working with mom (mostly her realizing I will not lay not with him and her being okay with it, because she doesn't change her sleeping with him at home...) on naps, I have him falling to sleep on his own and sleeping 1.5 - 2 hours at a time. It was an awful 5 months, though - I almost term'd a few times.

[Shell]

I think we have similar kids. I have a 13 mo. old DCB who co-sleeps and was the worst child to get to take naps I have ever, ever encountered. It was awful. Finally, after 5 months of working with mom (mostly her realizing I will not lay not with him and her being okay with it, because she doesn't change her sleeping with him at home...) on naps, I have him falling to sleep on his own and sleeping 1.5 - 2 hours at a time. It was an awful 5 months, though - I almost term'd a few times.

Yeah, I consider it a victory if I can get him down for 2 hours without intervention. Last daycare provider did actually term over screaming, but I'm pretty sure she rocked him to sleep and held him (against regulations) which only made it harder on me!

[Unregistered]

Thank goodness. I was so worried that I was in the wrong here - CIO to go to sleep is an easy yes but when they wake up early... thats new ground to me.

Sure enough, 45 minutes on the money he woke up today, screaming. Just got done with my second 15 minute check on him, changed his diaper and as soon as I turned to leave the screams started.

Knowing you guys have all either had this child or a similar child and CIO got you results makes this an easy call now. Thank you *hugs*

[taylorw1210]

Yeah, I consider it a victory if I can get him down for 2 hours without intervention. Last daycare provider did actually term over screaming, but I'm pretty sure she rocked him to sleep and held him (against regulations) which only made it harder on me!

Harder on you AND the poor kid!

[taylorw1210]

Thank goodness. I was so worried that I was in the wrong here - CIO to go to sleep is an easy yes but when they wake up early... thats new ground to me.

Sure enough, 45 minutes on the money he woke up today, screaming. Just got done with my second 15 minute check on him, changed his diaper and as soon as I turned to leave the screams started.

Knowing you guys have all either had this child or a similar child and CIO got you results makes this an easy call now. Thank you *hugs*

Hang in there - it does get better! :hug:

[KiddieCahoots]

Yeah, I consider it a victory if I can get him down for 2 hours without intervention. Last daycare provider did actually term over screaming, but I'm pretty sure she rocked him to sleep and held him (against regulations) which only made it harder on me!

Omg! I'm so sad for the provider that gets the one I just term'd.
Didn't hold him or rock him. Ain't nobody got time for that.....::, but THREE weeks of shot nerves, (both me and the other kids), and a bottle of Tylenol later, and I was done!

[TaylorTots]

Ain't nobody got time for that.....::

I wish somebody was BBQin.....

[austingwendell]

Hang in there - it does get better! :hug:

Yeah, it does get better. Hang in there.

[Play Care]

Thank goodness. I was so worried that I was in the wrong here - CIO to go to sleep is an easy yes but when they wake up early... thats new ground to me.

Sure enough, 45 minutes on the money he woke up today, screaming. Just got done with my second 15 minute check on him, changed his diaper and as soon as I turned to leave the screams started.

Knowing you guys have all either had this child or a similar child and CIO got you results makes this an easy call now. Thank you *hugs*

I had a child who would sometimes wake after 45 minutes and start calling for me - and this was a child who normally slept 2 1/2 hours...I checked on him and saw his diaper wasn't dirty, and nothing was wrong. So I did the "shhh, friends are sleeping, it's night night time." And then would wait outside the door. Almost always he was back asleep within 15 minutes - and woke at normal time happy and ready to go. Hope you are able to get the child in a good routine!