32 months and problems with wakings! Please help !!!

[J & J's Mum]

Hi,

Our DS is 32 months now.  He's waking up in the night a few times and waking early (5.30am!!)  I try to get him back off to sleep, but he's not falling for it  now!!  I'm 6 weeks pregnant and need my sleep!!!

This is his routine:

5.30 wake
6.30 - 7.00 breakfast
9.15 play group (4 mornings a week)
(snack at play group)
12.15 pick him up from play group - offer him a sandwich in the car on the way home - he generally throws it!
12.30 - nap
2.00 I have to wake him from nap
2.15 Big snack if he hasn't eaten his sandwichin the car
Play/go out
5.30 - Dinner
6.00 - Bath
7.30 - Bed + 3 stories.

He does go straight to sleep after his stories, but wakes anytime from 2.00am. 

I'm walking around like a zombie!!!

Do I need to reduce his nap? Or cut it out?  Sometimes, when he gets home from play group, he doesn't look tired at all and he's running about, but I still put him to bed, he sings for a bit and will eventually go off.

I really don't know what to do!

Please help!
Rachel xx

[andibig]

I would say he still needs his nap even if it is just for an hour.is there any way of picking him up early from playgroup as his nap is very late given that he has been awake from 5.30am.

I'd aim for the nap around midday so he is not getting OT which could be causing the early wakings and night wakings.

What do you do when he wakes early in the morning and at night?

[J & J's Mum]

Hi,

I can't really pick him up earlier from play group.

When he wakes in the night, he does go back off to sleep, when he wakes early in the morning, sometimes he'll go back to sleep when I tuck him in, but recently, he is just absolutely wide awake and ready to start his day.  He will not go back to sleep!!

[andibig]

Can you try an earlier bedtime and see if he tags extra sleep on?

iF he is not crying i'd be tempted to leave him in the morning until you think its time for him to get up.

[Layla]

Rachel,

Isabella dropped her nap altogether & its been like that for the last 2-3 weeks or so. I actually noticed that regardless of the length of her nap the hours jut didn't add onto nighttime & she was waking up 9.5-10hrs later. So for example she fell asleep in the car on saturday at 1.30 & I woke her up at 2pm to protect bedtime. She fell asleep at 7pm but woke up the next morning at 5am. Before saturday's siesta in the car she was doing 11.5-12hrs at night (her total sleep has gone down to 12hrs).

Before all this she was sleeping 1hr during the day & about 10.5hrs at night.... so you might want to try shortening the nap even more to see if that extra 30mins will add onto night sleep. Our day before the nap dissapeared looked something like this:
6am - wakes
b/n 12.30-1pm - nap
b/n 1.30-2pm - woke from nap (she actually woke on her own 99% of the time)
7pm - bedtime (would fall asleep around 7:30-7:40)

So total sleep was about 11.5hrs but for some reason now that she's not sleeping during the day its almost always close to 12hrs.

I dont know if Jacob is doing what Isabella did??? If you are not comfortable waking him from nap then perhaps consider pushing bedtime closer to 8pm so that he can start waking up closer to 6am? Or maybe even try w2s.. so stir him around 4.30am in case its purely habitual waking!

Layla

[J & J's Mum]

Hi Layla,

Thanks so much for replying.  I've started reducing his nap to 1 hr and he does tend to be sleeping a bit longer in the mornings.

Thanks again,
Rachel