Sudden NWs and EWs - almost 2.5yrs

[Shellha]

I have an almost 2.5yo DS who has (thankfully) always been a wonderful sleeper .... till now! He has been a dream come true as my DS1 was an absolute nightmare on the sleeping front for the first year of his life.

My Dad died 6 weeks ago and my DS2 was very close to him, so I am sure that this is somewhat related but it only really started to get really bad about 10 days ago, and is escalating.

He has always slept with the door closed in a dark room, but has started to get out of his room. We locked his door but he figured out how to undo the lock! He is taking ages to get to sleep some nights, constantly trying to get out of his bed, then others he will wake up during the night and try to get out (like he did just now at 11pm!) and he has woken at 6am and then 5am the last 3 mornings, after always sleeping well past 7am.

We have tried going to him to put him back in bed when he starts to try to get out, have tried telling him to go back to bed thru the door (he starts to cry) and this morning we let him out of his room at 5.30 and he went and read books for an hour at the top of the stairs.

I am at a loss and we are all sleep deprived. I am letting him sleep alot longer at lunch to help him catch up (usually does 2 hrs but I am giving up to 3.5hrs - I have always had to wake him up) but it doesn't seem to be helping??

Any suggestions are welcome. DS1 and I are wasted as a result of a lack of sleep

TIA

Shell

[~*Nicole*~]

One thing I would say is, don't let him sleep that long at lunch!!!! He's probably getting himself to the point where he's not tired enough to sleep through the night and later in the morning b/c he's getting too much daytime sleep! At 2.5 he likely needs 2 hours of daytime sleep MAX. So I would def. cap his nap and see how he does after that for a few days.

The other thing you can do is look into a gro-clock or some other way to indicate that it is wake up time, so he learns to wait until that time. You can consider allowing him to have books in bed or near bed so if he wakes up he can do that quietly. Possibly, allow him to have a dim nightlight as well. He may have some more fears now that he's a bit older.

If he's taking long to fall asleep at night and waking early, he may be OT in general. You can try an earlier nap and bedtime to compensate as well. I'd keep bringing him back to bed with very little interaction if possible and just remind him it's time to sleep. Don't talk to him or argue with him, just be very matter of fact and very consistent. Hopefully that's all he needs to get back on track!

Best of luck! Hope some of this helps!

[anna*]

I'm really sorry about your dad

I agree with Nicole. My LO used to sleep 2.5-3hrs for his nap every day (and needed to be woken up), at 2.5years old he SUDDENLY needed way less daytime sleep. Now, if he gets more than about 45 mins he needs a later bedtime. With an early waking, I would give an earlier nap, but not let him sleep more than 1.5hrs.

With leaving his room all the time, I would recommend getting a stairgate up at his bedroom door, so he can have his door open if he wants, but he must stay in his room. He can have a reading light which he can control, and Nicole's suggestion of a Groclock is exactly what I would suggest too, so that he has some visual cue which lets him know if it is morning or not. He is allowed to stay quietly in his room and look at books, but he's not allowed to come out of his room or make a fuss.

[Shellha]

Thanks girls.

The reason for the excpetionally long nap was that a few nights he didn;t sleep till 11pm, and then woke at 5/6am! I did the earlier naptime and bedtime and this morning we had a normal/late wakeup of 8.15am. He did however wake at 11pm and 3.30pm, both times put back to bed with little interaction. We also added a nightlight last night and I think this may have helped.

It is so difficult as his 4yr3mth older Brother still sleeps 1.5hrs every day! But they are all different so maybe I need to cut from 2-1.5hrs. I have always had to wake him from his naps as he would sleep all day, so mayeb I just need to do that earlier.

Thanks again

[~*Nicole*~]

No problem, I hope it helps out and he's back to sleeping like an angel in no time!