21mth old - long NW

[jhs4ess]

Hi everyone,

My son has a consistent day and bedtime routine and has had phases of sleeping through the night but for the last month he has been waking in the night and staying awake for 2-3 hours. When it first started he was still in his cot in a small bedroom but I am expecting another baby in a few weeks so we moved him into a bigger bedroom and toddler bed. Probably not the best timing as we were already having issues but we wanted to try and get him settled before the baby arrives.

When he wakes up he doesn't cry he just comes into our bedroom. For the first couple of weeks we carried him back to bed but he'd either get up again 5-10 mins later, 2 mins later, or cry instantly. This went on for 2-3 hours until he finally fell asleep. We tried a couple of nights of sitting with him while he fell asleep but every time we tried to leave the room he would wake and we'd have to start over again. We have now started putting him into bed with us when he comes in but apart from a few nights where he has gone back to sleep straight away, he is still staying awake for 2-3 hours, tossing and turning or chatting to himself.

My dad is bringing a single mattress for us to keep in my son's room so my husband can sleep on it in there when the baby arrives but I just don't know what is the best course of action. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any idea what could be causing it or how we can help him? I'm exhausted now, I can't imagine what it will be like when we have a newborn too!

This is his routine:

06:00ish Wake Up
06:30 Breakfast
12:00 Lunch
12:30ish Nap 1-2hours
17:30 Dinner
18:30-19:00 Bathtime (he tells us when he wants to go up)
19:00-19:30 Bedtime (used to go down on his own but now we have to sit with him until he's asleep)

 Thanks in advance!

[ginger428]

hi!
His daytime sleep may need to be cut down. 
There are a few ways to do this which you can find here:
The 1-0 transition...Advice and Tips to help you through.

I DON't think he's necessarily dropping his nap, but the tips on here help with the process before dropping really starts.

The chatting, delaying bed time in any other way, and needing us to fall asleep were all signs for reducing daytime sleep (in a way to make A time to bed longer) so that he would be tired enough for bed. You have a great routine so I would start by capping the nap at 1.5 most. Try that for a few days and cut back another 15 mins for another few days. Do you find that he goes to bed more easily on 1 hr nap days? If so,perhaps start there at 1hr nap max, and bedtime the same.

Wrt the bed transition, a lot of reassurance, a night light, a lovey for comfort, and consistency helped our son with staying in bed. I bet he's also processing all the changes and combined with  the developmental leap around2yo, it might be keeping him up when he wakes.  We can address this more if the shorter naps don't help him sleep through. But I would probably address this before new baby comes as it will be harder to have the energy to do so afterwards right?! Hope that helps!