OK, I have posted before about my DD's sleep "schedule", but now it is completely out-of-wack and I am at a total loss. There MUST be some way to train this child, but I am so sleep deprived I cannot even think clearly. Here's the story (sorry if its long...)
I am a teacher- DD was on a decent schedule at the end of the school year last year. Then I was off for the summer and her schedule just kind of evaporated into thin air. My fault, I know. I was not strict about sticking to it- boy, do I regret that now!
So now, I am back to work. My schedule is 8:30-3. I come home for a 45 minute break at 11. DH watches DD at home until 11:45, then DD goes to MIL until 3.
Tell me if this theoretical sleep schedule makes sense to you.
7:30 am> wake up and eat
9:30-11:30> morning nap
11:30> eat
3:00> eat
3:30-5:30> afternoon nap
6:00 > eat
9:00> bath and eat again
9:30> bedtime
Is it too long for her to stay awake from 11:30-3 every day?
I know the bedtime is fairly late, but she is currently going to sleep even later than that and I dont think she will even know its nighttime if I put her to sleep earlier than 9:30. She would probably sleep for an hour and wake up ready to party. This has happened.
Btw, I am not even working on getting her to sleep through the night at this point. I have no problem with her waking up once for a feeding. Anything is better than now- last night she was up straight from 3-6:30 am. SCREAMING. All she wanted to do was eat. I truly do not think she was teething or growing etc. She certainly wasnt hungry. I feel like all of a sudden, since she turned 9 months, something just clicked and she seems to understand SOOO much more. She realized that she can just scream and scream (no tears even! Just screaming!) and I will eventually give in and feed her because at 5 am, its hard to not give in!
So, HOW HOW HOW do I go about training her? I am not a fan of CIO, but I am ok with letting her cry as long as DH or I go in every 5 min or so to tell her we love her etc. That is actually what I am doing right now, she is SCREECHING in her crib as I type this.
For anyone who has read this far, you are awesome. Thanks so much! I'll take any advice you can offer!!!
Sorry this is so long and rambling- 3 hours of sleep kinda does that to me!