HELP! 20 month old EW and bedtime issues - all started 2 weeks ago!!

[WendyW]

Please help,

It all started 2 weeks ago when my ds got chicken pox. He went from going to bed fine at 6.45pm falling asleep by himself to needing us in the room with him to fall asleep. He also started waking earlier and earlier. This all led to him becoming overtired. We thought it would sort itself out after he got better. Unfortunately we had a holiday booked which we went on - quite relaxing really to friends house in France, but he was still recovering really and all that improved was that he had longer naps in the day and became a little less overtired. We thought that maybe things would improve when he got back to his own bed.
We've been back now for 4 days and if anything it is now worse.

He wakes at 5am
Needs a sleep by 11/11.30 (I've tried delaying it till 1)
He'll sleep for about 1 1/2 hrs
We start bedtime routine at 6.15 to be asleep by 6.45 but he has been screaming and eventually falling asleep by 7.30/8.00 exhausted.

I need to try and fix both ends of his day. I did wake to sleep this morning at 4am but he still woke up at 5 am(I will try again for next few days) I've tried limiting his nap to 1 hour but no change. I've done WI/WO. And TBH I'm knackered (and pregnant) and out of ideas.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Is this just an age thing?

Wendy

[3babies]

I'm looking forward to your replies because we've had 2 weeks of crazy bedtimes and early mornings with DS (23 months). It started when he learned to open the bedroom door

[deckchariot]

It could still be some of getting back on track from the illness and the holiday - it can take awhile sometimes.  At 18 mos, sleep needs change - so it's about 1.5 in the daytime and 11.5 at night, so i wouldn't limit his nap to 1 hr - that may just add to your OT problems.  I would even move bedtime earlier.  His screaming at bedtime may be because he's already OT from waking at 5 - you may need to do a bedtime as early as 6 (asleep by then) to try to help him catch up.  Or you could try a late pm catnap to catch up and then go with your regular bedtime and see if that helps him wake later so you can push the nap later.

If the waking at 5 continues still, I'd keep doing w2s - going in at 4 or 4:30.  It can take a few days for w2s to eliminate the EW. 

hth
michelle

[WendyW]

Thanks for the advice.

Well after a EW at 4.00am and another at 4.20am, I decided to try limiting the nap even more and put him to bed really early to try and break the EW. Yesterday he only had 20mins sleep after waking at 4.20am (craczy I know) and he was fast asleep at 5pm (unsuprisingly). BUT he slept till 5.30 which is still ealry I know, but he had 12.5 hours which compared to his usual 9 is a big change. I'm going to see how today goes, but I'm hoping that another early night will help to get him back on track. I had tried the big nap but it didn't really work. I generally feel a lot more positive now so thanks for the help.

I do think that he doesn't need much nap time. He went from 2-1 nap at 10 months so has always needed less sleep than recommended, so I think I will keep flexible on this but keep it minimal and see how he copes.

Cheers,

Wendy

[deckchariot]

If he's generally been on the low need for sleep, then he probably doesn't need much more than 1 hr 15 - 1 hr 30, so I'd limit it to right around that.  Glad the early bedtime worked - that long night should help, and if you do another early bedtime, he may get caught up and you can get back on track.  Let me know how you get on!