My 4 m/o was awake for over 5 hours at daycare

[facebook]

What can we ask them to do?

At home, she puts herself to sleep in the crib about 75% of the time. She will cry for a few minutes, but typically if she’s put in the crib awake, she’ll fall asleep eventually.

They rock her to sleep then transfer her, and she wakes up during the transfer. Even when she does transfer, she wakes in 10-15 minutes.

Can I ask them to put her in the crib awake & allow her a chance to fall asleep on her own? I know that would be disruptive to the class for a bit, but this feels like a crisis.

For reference, these were her naps. She was at daycare from 7:30-3:30

8:50-9:00
2:15-3:00

 

[nhuluong]

@facebook Did it get better? My 15 week old has been staying up for 4-5 hours at daycare and I feel horrible for him! I’m tempted to start exploring other options. It’s only week 2, but I feel so horrible for him. Like they are torturing him with sleep deprivation

 

[smed]

@facebook How long has your LO been in daycare? It can take a few weeks for babies to adjust. We’re also 4M and now three weeks into daycare, my LO is taking four 30-40 minute naps a day. But at the beginning, he got maybe 30 minutes of napping. Taking Cara Babies also says that daycare naps shouldn’t impact home naps because babies can tell the difference (if you were worried - my LO also goes down awake at home and I didn’t know how daycare would impact that).

 

[nhuluong]

@smed 30 minutes total in the beginning? Yesterday our 15 week old only had 23 minutes total all day! Please tell me it gets better! And any tips welcome!

 

[smed]

@nhuluong Yes, 30 min total! LO is now almost 8 months, and some days he’ll sleep upwards of 3.5 hours at daycare, though most days he sleeps ~2-2.5 hours at daycare. Still a little less than I’d like at this point, but he comes home and is ready to play with us for an hour before we start bedtime, so it works!

Editing to add: part of it was just time for him to get used to daycare, and part was his teachers learning more about him and how to help him sleep.

 

[nhuluong]

@smed Prior to daycare (and still at home) we contact map. I tried to get him to nap independently before he started daycare but was unsuccessful. Now moving to independent naps in a new place means no sleep. Only one nap today for 30 minutes and that was it!

 

[smed]

@nhuluong I imagine this isn’t the first time your daycare has had to work with a baby like this. Talk to his teacher/the director about how you can approach together!

 

[nhuluong]

@smed That’s our plan. They say he’s happy all day there, I just feel bad for him

 

[smed]

@nhuluong He’ll get there! Starting daycare is so hard. Sending you strength and it will get better.

 

[nhuluong]

@smed Thank you!!

 

[might]

@facebook Mine was in daycare from 12 weeks to 6 months and never took a single nap. They wouldn’t accommodate a sleep sack bc they said it was against regulations. I ended up pulling her out and putting her in a small in home setting where she can nap in a dark room with a sound machine and a sack.

 

[ancientbrotherbass]

@facebook My daycare won’t eat then cry because it wakes the other sleeping babies

 

[katrina2017]

@facebook You can ask but in the daycares I’ve worked out licensing said we could not allow baby to CIO for more than ten minutes in their crib.

It’s a hard adjustment to daycare. Depending on the center, nap time environments can be bright and loud. We also weren’t allowed to have white noise louder than 20 decibels (do you know how quiet 20 decibels is) or have it very dark. Just not super cohesive to a good sleep environment unfortunately.

 

[apmercer]

@facebook No advice just solidarity! Our daycare is great and does their best but baby sleep is so hard to manage when there’s so many of them, and with different sleep needs. We’re 3.5 months in and still haven’t figured out how to navigate it adequately

 

[facebook]

@apmercer Yes, same here! Definitely a no-fault situation. It just feels like a crisis!

 

[texasvolunteer32]

@facebook No advice Just here to say, I would drop my baby off at my moms to go to the gym for a bit. It was 2hrs usually. My baby would never fall asleep at my moms house either. Everyday we just went home to take a super long nap and just adjust. It definitely stinks if there is no other option, but even if there isnt, know it will be ok!

 

[facebook]

@texasvolunteer32 Thank you for the solidarity! We spend all evening trying to catch up on sleep. I hope she grows out of it soon

 

[texasvolunteer32]

@facebook Thats what happened with my baby. Shes 5 months now, we sleep trained her and she falls asleep at my moms pretty easy. But it was at least a month and a half of all that nonsense

 

[nessofonett05]

@facebook You can’t do much . You can switch daycares. Try to find an “in home” one. Do early bedtime

 

[benjamin213]

@facebook Our daycare did what we asked while our youngest was in the infant room. She struggled with napping longer than 15 minutes. We found what helped was putting her in the crib and then just tapping her booty. At home she fell asleep independently and stayed asleep no issue, but daycare she just struggled with naps. Eventually I stopped stressing about it but it took like 4 months of the nonsense for me to let go