My poor two year old - please help us!

[Mjaz]

My two year old is acting really strangely.  There is a lot going on in our lives, but I don't know how to help him.

Here's what's happening:
-we've moved out of our house and are on day 5 of staying with my inlaws
-we'll be moving to our new home and town in a week and will have another huge transition
-I am due with a baby in 2.5 weeks
-his two year molars are coming in

Here's how this is seemingly affecting his sleep:
-terribly restless at bedtime.  Off the walls at first, then just unable to physically stop moving.  Usually takes an hour to fall asleep
-up 5-10 times a night.  Sometimes crying, mostly just moaning or chanting "mama mamma"

And naturally he wants to take these solid three hours naps every day! We've tried capping them, we've tried letting him catch up - no difference.

We are all sleep deprived and stressed.  We don't know what to do for him.  My husband ends up sleeping next to him in a twin bed almost every night, just bc it's more convenient with all the NWs.

Please help.  What's going on?  What do we do?

[Buttonbobs]

(((Hugs))) you and your LO have an awful lot going on at the moment, you must be exhausted.

It seems a lot of people go through sleep disturbance of this kind with 2 year molars, but what with you being in a transitional state between houses and with DS probably aware that something big is about to happen with the new baby he may be even more disrupted.

If you are medicating for teething I think you have only two real options:

1. Stick with your usual routine and usual sleep training methods to reinforce independent sleep at his usual times, in the knowledge that you'll probably be up with him quite a lot; or
2. Go with APOPing through this time to reassure DS that you're all there for him as everything else is changing, but being aware that you will probably have to work on his independent sleep again at a later stage.

More ((((hugs))))

[HenaV]

Hi Mjaz,

I agree with Naomi. We went through the same thing at this age but without the upheaval of a move (or two) and the worry for a new one. For us it was down to a developmental leap and molars. I tweaked and tweaked until i could tweak no more, it made no difference, save for I was an OT mess as well - not great. In the end, i took a deep breath and decide to ride it out. We stuck with our usual routine save fro offering slighter earlier naps and for a tad longer on short nights with a slighter earlier BT. So as a genreal rule of thumb it was something like:

NTS = 10h or less, Nap and 12.30 for 2.5h and BT and 6.45
NTS - 10.5+ hours (very rare at that time!) =, Nap: 12.45 for 2h and BT 6.45-7pm

My DD seemed very frightened at night and going to bed (but not nap time) but it wasn't night terrtors, I don't know if it may have been the molars pushing and the poor little mites just don't get it. It must be scary. I stayed with the where necessary and then to get back on track once the  worst had passed used WI/WO. Having always slept independently, it didn't take R long to get back on track. Once the NW had stopped and we just had EW left to contend with, we introduced the o'clock - amazing bit of kit!

I know that you will be worried about your DS. I was so so concerned for R but having read lots of similar posts and BTDT myself, I can see now its just something that a lot of LOs unfortunately go through. It may take sometime to come out of the other side but if you remain consistent so you DS has some normality and stability, you will get through it I am sure.

HTH xx

[Mjaz]

Thanks, ladies.  I feel so badly for him.  All of this happening at once was not our intention - it all just sort of happened.  I'm going to medicate and try an early BT tonight.  B/c he wants to take these longs naps I was thinking the resistance at BT was UT.  But maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe it's OT.  Since I am so pregnant and tired right now, DH has really been dealing with his NWs and he thinks sleeping with him for the rest of this week is really all he can do.  Who knows what will happen when we're in a new house in a week.  Ugh.  TY!