2 yr old waking in the nite and then up at 5am

[jackfish1979]

My ds has been waking up once every nite the past couple wks and then up around 5/530. On a few occasions he has woken at 430. Ive tried everything to get him back to sleep. Ive even resorted to giving in to his milk demands in the hopes that maybe he just needed something in his tummy. That only works earlier in the nite. Once it was past 430 he figures its wakeup time. Ive changed his bedtime to 8 becuz he fights me to go to bed. So he is barely getting 8 hrs sleep, which means Im getting even less.

How do I get him to sleep longer? Im losing my mind with so little sleep! It was one thing when I was on maternity leave but now Im back working 11-7 shifts. Pls help!

[clazzat]

I'd say that there are 2 main culprits for this sort of sleep disruption at this age - OT and teething.  In the first instance I'd be inclined to bring bedtime quite a lot earlier - even if he wasn't OT before the short nights started, he will be on 8h sleep a night.

Secondly, I would give pain meds when he wakes after 4.30 to see if that makes any difference.  I wouldn't try feeding him - at this age he definitely doesn't need a night feed, and if you create the habit it will be very hard to break.

[jackfish1979]

Thanks. I agree with the nite feeding. I didnt want to create a habit but Im afraid I may have. Hes at the age where he literally loses his mind if he doesnt get his way. Normally Im very diligent with not giving in but I havent slept much in weeks. He has a cold so that hasnt helped cuz he wakes up coughing.

I should add that he has never been a good sleeper. He started sleeping thru the nite more regularly at 18 mths. He still woke on occasion but not this often. I also recently changed daycares so maybe shes putting him down for a nap too late. Ill discuss that with her. Im so desparate for sleep and I know hes tired but he fights it. Hes gonna go for a nap very early today and maybe thatll reset him back into a better sleep pattern. I can deal with 6am wakeup but anything earlier is frustrating. I already go to bed at 9pm as it is just to get some sleep.

He also tends not to eat well at dinner so he usually wants to snack b4 bed. I try yogurt and cheese for extra protein and he has a sippy cup of milk. I try not to give him anything to drink during the hr b4 bedtime cuz his diapers get so wet. I use huggies nite diapers becuz he will leak thru no problem. In the morning they are pretty full regardless.

[clazzat]

Can you post your routine as well?  There might be something in there that needs a small tweak.

[jackfish1979]

Usually on my days off he normally naps around 1030/11 and sleeps anywhere from 2.5 - 4 hrs. Not so much the 4 hr naps anymore. LAtely its been 2.5 hrs. He has lunch either b4 or after his nap, depending on when he goes down. Then he normally goes to bed at 8pm. I try to give him a bath b4 bed every nite but sometimes its not possible. I would prefer he go to bed earlier but he fights it.

Ive been picking up a lot of 11-7 shifts lately so we dont get home till 730. By the time we rush thru our nite time stuff its 8. Im a single mom so I dont have that second person to help out.

[jackfish1979]

I talked to his daycare girl. She said he goes down at noon and sleeps 2-2.5 hrs. So if he is up at 430 and refuses to go back to sleep, what time should he be having a nap?

[mmom]

Hi, I am going to move you to the toddler sleep board, so you get more eyes.

[clazzat]

Okay - if he is having really long naps in the middle of the day then there is a significant possibility that it is robbing from his night sleep.  I'm not sure that I would expect much more than about 12.5-13h total sleep in 24 from the age of 2 (not sure exactly how old your lo is - obviously the older he gets, the more likely it is that he needs less sleep).  So if he has a 3-4h nap during the day, he only really has the capacity for another 9-10h night sleep - which seems to be what you are experiencing.

One of my los is very high sleep needs and I would still never have let her sleep more than 2h by the time she turned 2 - because even a high sleep needs lo is going to struggle to sleep well at night with too long a nap during the day.

So to start with, I would say that you need to cap the nap at 2h to see how you go with that.  I think that by this age you can get away with setting his nap time - given that you are going to struggle to do an early bedtime on your own, you don't want to be bringing it too early and giving him a very long afternoon (which is likely to lead to OT even if he is getting enough sleep in the 24h period).  I would work back from his bedtime - which I think you say basically has to be 8pm? - and have his nap end at that point (which I think would be somewhere between 2 and 3pm - 5.5-6h A is fairly typical for this age).  So again working backwards from that, his nap would have to start between 12 and 1pm - I think that he is likely to get back on track more quickly if you try to avoid moving his nap too early in the day to compensate for his EWs.

[jackfish1979]

Ok so ds had a nap from 9-1130. Hopefully thatll help with putting him down earlier tonite. I have tried to wake him but he gets soooo crusty! Ill try that over the next week and see how it goes.