2yr old chronic overtiredness - running out of ideas; need help

[neuba]

My 2 year old son is typically a good sleeper, except when he gets sick or is getting teeth.  Prior to this whole situation he was sleeping 10.5-11hrs a night and napping for 2-2.5 hours during the day (1 nap).  He's always been an early riser 630ish (give or take 30 min), has had an established bedtime routine since he was about 6 months and goes to bed around 730-745 every night.

He got a cold at the beginning of September, which was aggravated by a cough.  This sickness obviously threw off his sleep, as he was stuffed up and coughing repeatedly throughout the night.  He's sleep was particularly bad in September with trouble falling asleep, multiple night wakings and early wakings.  Howevever, we didn't want to do any sleep training and went to him all the time because he was sick.

He started to get better - he went back to being able to put himself to sleep and the night wakings tempered.  However, he still continued to wake anywhere from 5-530AM every morning.

Then he got another cold - running nose; stuffed up nose - luckily there was no coughing.  Just as we were going to start sleep training from the first sicknesses he got sick again, so that stalled us getting him back on routine. 

He consistently falls asleep on his own every night.  Although the night wakings have returned (1-2 night) and his is still waking early 530AM - even worse now since DayLight Saving Time on the weekend.  Naps are bad too - only about 1-1hr and 15 min.  He sometimes falls back to sleep from nap, but only if we are cuddling with him - same thing with the early mornings.

We've tried putting him to bed at 630 and make sure his naps ar no later than 12noon, but with no results.

I've read the posts on the Gro-Clock - but  don't want to be completely reliant on this system - he needs to get rested up and I don't know what else to do. I know he is overtired - but I don't know what else to do.
To restate, his current schedule is as follows:
5-530 Wake
12-130ish (nap)
630 bedtime

Please help!

[clazzat]

Have you ever tried putting him to bed at 5/5.30? We aim for a roughly 12h day/night, so he might be ot at 6.30 bedtime. I know it is a bit scary putting them to bed that early when they are waking early, but when the ew is caused by ot then often an earlier bedtime leads to them sleeping later.

The other thing to bear in mind is that he might be teething his 2 year molars which often screws up their sleep. Maybe you could try meds to see if that makes a difference.

[neuba]

Clazzat:  I have read that before, and thought about it - unfortunately it becomes extremely difficult to manage that when I don't get home from work until 5;DH is at home with him, but only on MWF; on TTH he is at daycare and we all don't get home until 5PM.  Usually supper doesn't even get started until there is 2 of us at home to manage everything. We could try for 6PM.

I've always followed the rule of 13hr day, 11hr night (similar to yours) - so if he's getting up at 530AM, no later than 630 - but perhaps that only works when he is well rested.

We have tried a few early nights of 630 - but he only wakes up earlier or has more frequent night wakings....i.e. waking up at 11PM.

With him so overtired, I'm surprised he's still able to put himself to sleep every night when we lie him down - I'm thankful for that.

[clazzat]

Do you have the chance to do it at all at the weekend?  Perhaps if you managed to do it for a couple of days it might take the edge of the ot and help him sleep better. If you are going to try for an early bedtime, though, I think it needs to be properly early - not just a little bit earlier than usual.

[neuba]

I guess I just need to buck up and do my best to make it happen.

[clazzat]

It is so hard when they get into this kind of loop. I know that we had a similar problem with dd1 and it did take a while to unravel it.

[neuba]

Last night we put him to bed at 6PM - even though he had had a 3hr undistrubed nap.  We got home at 5PM and fed him supper right away (he was even indicating he was hungry) and he had a great supper.  With this early bedtime, we are going to have to forgo family dinners together for awhile until he gets back on track.

He slept straight through until 430, at which is momentarily cried out, and then eventually woke up at 5AM.  Still pretty early, but he is going to bed super early.  I think the intention is to get him to sleep undistrubed for 10-11 hours.

Since his normal pattern is a 10.5-11 hour night, I'm hoping we are back on track.  

We'll set his bedtime for 6PM again tonight and see if we get the same result.  If so, I'll move his bedtime 15 minutes later each night starting on Wednesday to see if we can shift him back to his regular time.

Plus, we've got one of those behavioural sleep/wake lights on order, which should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Fingers are crossed - although I'm still pretty skeptical that we are on the mend.

[neuba]

Last night wasn't great - put to bed at 6pm again and cried off and on for
45 min before falling asleep at 645.  Cried out at 11:15 but went back to sleep.
Woke at 4:15 this morning - definitely too early, so brought him to bed with us and he slept until 645.
I was hoping it would get better but he's waking even earlier.  Not sure this early bedtime is working.

Will continue with plan for a few more nights and see how it's going.  If it doesn't start to improve even a bit I'll need to consider other solutions.

So Tired!!!

[clazzat]

Have you tried a df of meds? Sometimes that can help if it is teeth bothering them in the early hours.

You should definitely give it a couple of days - these things don't just fix over night. How was today's nap?

[neuba]

Yesterday's nap was 2 hrs....he was over at a friends for the whole day and was super played out! 

We put him to bed as usual at 6PM - he went to sleep right away and didn't wake up until 545AM.  Yipee!!!!!

We keep going and see how things fair this weekend- perhaps if he continues to have good nights will start to move his bedtime back.

[clazzat]

Yay for the good night. I have to say that a night like that after a 2 hour naps suggests to me that he is just very ot and he needs to catch up. I would guess it would only take a couple of days like that to get him back on track. Good luck!

[neuba]

Argh!  Getting worse, I think?  Running out of ideas.

Thursday night - bedtime 6:20.
Friday
- woke 5:30
- nap 12PM - 2:20 PM
- bedtime - 6:30 - fell asleep around 6:45
- cried out every few hours throughout the night
Saturday
- woke 5:10AM; cuddled until about 540 and then got up.
- Nap 12:45 - 2:30
- Bedtime - 6PM

Sunday
- woke at 3AM and was awake until 6:15
- finally fell back to sleep and we slept until 9:50.

Not sure what is happening - he is not getting back on track at all! 

He was definitely doing well middle of last week and getting caught up, but still waking so early I don't want to stretch his bedtime to far off what he is used to, too quickly - but it seems to be backfiring on me.