I'm back (again!)

[exhaustedmum]

Hello everyone,
I'm back on this site after many months. I have just learnt that I am pregnant with my second child and am still having NW's with my 3 year old. I guess I had just got so use to them I had given up trying to implement any of techniques I had previously learnt here ( and on reflection that was a pretty stupid thing for me to do  )

Now that my second child is on the way (I am 8 weeks so far) I am more than determined to try and tackle these nw's once and for all, to be fair to DS and to his new sis or bro. My DS has managed to sleep though the night (approx ten hours) on and off for the past 6 months. He seems to go through periods of sleeping well for about two weeks then the nw's start again for about 4 weeks. more often than not there is usually just one night wakening around 1:30am. (although this morning it was 6:20am and he then went back to sleep after a drink of milk until 9:15am - this is unusal but as it was the weekend I thought it would have been best to let him catch up on his sleep).

He has dropped his daytime nap completely and his routine is normally like this:

Wake: 7-7:30am
Breakfast 8:15 (he wont eat any earlier than this)
Day care (9am until 6pm - both myself and DH work full-time)
Dinner 6:30pm
Bath/Pj's 7-7:30pm
Bed 8pm (sometimes it is near 9pm before he is alseep as he has a story).

At the moment I am having to resort to sitting at the end of his bed whilst he first drifts off to sleep.

When he wakens in the night, he normally needs to go to the toilet and then asks to come into our bed. He also asks for a drink of milk or water. Some nights he just goes straight back to sleep after the toilet and sip of water/milk. Other nights he can twist and turn before appearing to get comforty and go back over and yes i do give in depending on how tired I am and bring him into our bed some nights.

DS has such a full on day at day care he is normally tired before he gets home and gets his dinner. But unfortunately because of the hours both myself and dh work, its impossible to get him home any earlier and ready for bed.

Any tips and advise would be greatly appreciated
x

[~inbalance~]

Hi there!  Congratulations on your pregnancy!    Don't worry, a lot can and will change before the baby comes so I'm sure you can get his sleep sorted.

Ok, I think that he is majorly OT with no nap and long days, especially if he is at daycare.  If there is no way of getting him in bed earlier, can he not have a short nap at daycare?  I suspect that when he is restless and unable to fall back asleep at night it is due to OT.

TBH I think at this age waking to use the toilet or need a drink is normal.  My DS1 (though not potty trained) does wake often at night and more than he had previously.  Usually for a drink or he needs me to turn on his nightlights.  But I don't consider it a problem because he goes right back to sleep.

Can you leave a sippy of water with your DS by his bed so if he is thirsty he can get it himself?

The other thing is that if he is allowed in your bed some of the time, you can expect that he will continue to wake and ask to sleep there.  So if it is something you want to change, you will have to stop letting him in.  So that is something to consider as well if you want him to sleep all night in his own bed.

[sianie]

Hi..

I agree with Martina that your DS sounds really OT. FWIW, my DD (also 3 yrs old) has recently dropped her nap & I'm still finding it very difficult to keep on top of OT, partly because when she was napping at least she had an opportunity to catch-up a little on her sleep if she was really tired, but now she's not napping I've found the only way to keep OT at bay is by doing an early BT (6/6.30pm).

Does he have a Gr0-clock or something similar? Are all his teeth through?