What to do?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Yesterday he woke at 6:30, the usual. He napped at 12:20 again and napped for 2 hours. The problem is, he then wouldn't go to sleep again until 8:30 and was a miserable OT mess. He woke up at least 5 times in the night and was upfor the day at 6:10. He napped at noon today and is still napping (1pm here).

[sianie]

I guess it might come down what's the lesser of 2 evils.......shorter nap but (hopefully!) better night & less NW's or vice versa.

Maybe cap at 1.5hrs to day so you can get a decent BT?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Yeah that's what I wasn't sure about. It kind of seems like I am going to get one or the other.

[sianie]

I think so! Personally I would rather have a longer night but it's up to you!

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Definitely would prefer longer night with a better bedtime! Now if I can actually get him to do that...

Last night we had him in bed at 7:30 after a nap from 12-1:40 and he still didn't go to sleep until 8:30. Ugh. We will try again today.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

I cut his nap to 1.5 hrs and I definitely think that's the shortest he can handle right now. It got us to bedtime on the brink of a meltdown ( an OT sign for him). He fell asleep at 7:45 and only had one NWing. So that's definitely better.

So right now I am having to sit in his room until he falls asleep. He is in a BBB. Any suggestions for weaning this? He has a baby gate at his door and if I leave he will get up and stand at it screaming his head off. He literally will keep getting up a million times. For hours on end. Not really sure where to go with this...?

[sianie]

So right now I am having to sit in his room until he falls asleep.

Is this a new thing?

When I went through something similar with DD I gradually moved further away from her cot to towards the door & used my voice to re-assure her.

Have you tried a slightly earlier BT to see if he'll go down any easier?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Sitting in his room has probably gone on for a month now. I just sit in a chair and do nothing, say nothing, but if I get up and leave, he freaks out. I think it's become the only way to actually get him to stay in his bed. Otherwise he is just standing at the door for hours. Like i guess instead of it seeming like he's scared or anything anymore, it just seems like the only way to actually get him to stay in the bed.

I'm going to try and earlier bedtime tonight. I am trying to slowly work us back down to a better bedtime.

[sianie]

He might well have got used to you being there & needs that reassurance for him to go to sleep.....try gradully moving away from his cot & see what happens.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Ok I will try that!

So yesterday he woke himself after a 1hr 20 min nap and he was fine. We put him in bed for 7pm and he didn't fall asleep until 8:30 He was so OT by the end of it. Honestly don't know what to do with this child!

[sianie]

I know at the beginning of this thread his 2nd yr molars were bothering him....are they still coming through?

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

None came through ad try appeared to stop bothering him. I mean, it's always possible. I think he was starting to get sick at the start of this thread. I don't know! I can't figure this guy out!

[katie80]

(((Hugs))), Jenn.  I've just seen this thread. 

FWIW, we've gone through some developmental stages, coupled with some OT, that has led to that LOOONG time to fall asleep at night. 

Are you sitting in his room at nap time too, or just bedtime?  I was just thinking that maybe you need to work on getting out of the room before you do any major schedule tweaking, as if that's different for him, it might be a factor in the length of time for him to fall asleep? 

Another thing I noticed was on the day he took a 1.5 hr nap, he fell asleep at 7:45 pm, but then on the day he did 1 hr 20, you had him down for 7 pm.  Maybe 7 was just a tad early and he ended up missing his window and becoming OT?  Just throwing out some ideas for you.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Hmm that makes sense Katie. We are really struggling. Some days at naps I have to sit in his room and other days he goes down just fine. Of course last night he seemed to be bothered by his teeth right after I said he wasn't I do think we had him in bed too early that night Last night was perfect.....except....we left the room and he was quiet for 10 minutes so we thought perfect! Haha never trust a quiet toddler for 10 minutes. He came to the door and says mommy poop!!! Yep, he took his diaper off and smeared poo EVERYWHERE in his room. Yuck! So by the time everything was cleaned up, he was way OT and we had to sit in there forever. He woke all through he night an super early this morning.

[katie80]

Oh no! I have a good friend that went through lots of poop smears with her son. 

We had a similar experience with molars, some days they seemed awful, some no problem at all.  Just continue to be as consistent as possible would be my best advice.