2 year old standing sleeping in crib
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| My daughter turned 2 at the beginning of the summer. She has gone through all kinds of issues with sleeping since she was an infant but we had gotten to a point where she would go to sleep relatively easily and sleep through the night and was taking a 2 hour nap every day. We brought home our now almost 4 month old and our 2 year old was totally fine with her for the first 3 months. I should say there is no problem at all with her interaction with our infant - i dont think it could be any better but her sleeping has gotten awful. In the past couple of weeks she has pretty much stopped napping in her crib which is a whole other problem. She has also more recently gone into her crib at bedtime (not happy about it but also not screaming). She stands there in the crib for hours. I'll see her on the monitor slumped over, sleeping but still standing. Sometimes she'll wake up, cry a little and fall back asleep still standing. She usually does not eventually lay down. She stands there for hours and finally starts screaming and crying between 1 and 3 in the morning which is when we finally get her out of the crib, bring her into our room, give her milk and she sleeps in our bed sometimes until 10 because she is so tired by the time she gets into our bed. This is obviously not working. She is not getting enough sleep, we are not getting enough sleep (thankfully our infant is a fantastic sleeper so far and she has not yet been affected by this. She is sleeping in our room still though - eventually the plan is for the 2 of them to share a room but that obviously can't happen until our 2 year old is sleeping better. It has never helped to go in to her room and enourage her to lay down or comfort her - she just gets madder - although i havent tried this since she was a year old. Would love to hear some advice, approaches etc. |
Anonymous
| Have you considered moving her to a regular bed? |
Anonymous
| Have you considered moving her to a lying down position while she is sleeping standing up? I mean without waking her. Also, many children move to a bed at this age. Have you considered trying moving the crib mattress to the floor and trying things out that way? Or, you could put a twin mattress on the floor and lie down with her until she goes to sleep for both naps and nighttime. Some people are really against doing this, but I found it to work well with both of my kids. Finally, I think having naps not in the crib and then trying to make the crib work at night is pretty tough. I think I would probably ditch the crib altogether if I were you. |
Anonymous
|
Second DS did this as a baby (between 8-12 months old). It was kind of funny, actually. He fell asleep standing up, sitting down, and everything in between.
If he didn't lay down on his own, we would go in and help him lay down. I'm assuming, like with our DS, its a stage and it will pass. |
Anonymous
|
OP here - she also did this when she fist figured out how to pull herself up in her crib. The problem was she didn't know how to sit or lay back down. Obviously since she is 2, that is not the case this time.
In terms of moving her out of a crib - I was under the impression I should keep her in a crib as long as possible until she tries to climb out which she hasn't - but I guess if its no longer working for her I could try to move her out of her crib. Any advice in doing this? Set up the toddler bed first or mattress on the floor first? |
Anonymous
|
If she is only standing, I wouldn't move her to a bed at this moment.
Give it some time to see if this phase will pass. Also, ask your pediatrician about melatonin. |
Anonymous
Sorry, OP, but the visual of your 2 year old sleeping while standing up has me giggling. I hope you can record this somehow. 
|
Anonymous
| I moved one of mine at 18 months because she hated the crib, not because she was climbing. I did a twin mattress on the floor and it worked well. I don't like toddler beds because no one bigger than a toddler can fit in them. You could try the crib mattress on the floor first if you wanted to avoid putting any money into it before seeing whether it might work. |
Anonymous
| Stop getting her in the middle of the night and bringing her into your room! You're just encouraging her behavior. You will have a couple of bad night CIO and then you will be done. |
Anonymous
OP here - I totally agree with this. It's just she is crying on and off for the entire night. For instance last night she cried, fell asleep standing, cried some more, some more sleep and this went on until 3 or 4 in the morning when we finally decided letting her cry wasn't working, she was screaming by this point. Would you just let the crying continue all night long until it is "time" to get up in the morning? |
Anonymous
| If you lay her down shortly after she falls asleep what happens? |
Anonymous
| If I try to go in to lay her down after she falls asleep standing, she'll start screaming. We learned the hard way that going into her room without taking her out of the crib makes her go nuts. It always has. |
Anonymous
| Well if you put her in a bed instead of crib she can get out but she can't sleep standing up. Looks like cry it out is your only option, unless you don't mind her sleeping with you, if you keep her in the crib. Might be a tough couple of nights but it will pass. Does she sleep with a pillow and blanket? If not maybe that will get her to lay down. Make it cozy. |
Anonymous
| Tried going in and laying her down once she was sleeping (standing up of course). She popped up immediately, actually kind of struggled so much i couldnt easily lay her down and went crazy as I thought she would. Asked the pediatrician today what to do and she said to continue to lie her down as soon as she's up. She said it old take 150 times but I couldn't let her sleep standing up. I tend to think she is so stubborn, it would take over a thousand times. I don't know - still feeling kind of lost with this. It seems to be a common problem with kids who are just learning how to pull themselves up but not for 2 year olds. |
Anonymous
|
Assuming her room is child proof, why not just try it with the crib mattress on the floor tonight? You can even go in and lay "next" to her (i.e you lay on the floor, next to the crib mattress) and explain to her that big girls sleep in a bed without a crib and this is the first night she is going to try it, that you'll lay with her while she gets comfy, but then her job is to sleep all night and if she does, she can get a new big girl bed. If it fails, back to the crib and other options
|