What happened to my great sleeper?

[* Paula *]

Over the past few days we have been having some problems with our DS and his sleep, and slowly things have just spiralled out of control.

Our routine used to look like this:

7:00am ish - Wake
12:00-2:00 - Nap - sometimes only 1.5 hours (in nursery)
7:30 - Bed

Our DS would go to sleep by himself no problems and would just settle downa nd fall straight to sleep within a few minutes.

Now we are experiencing early wakings - this morning he woke at 5:00am, and eventually settled back to sleep at 6:30, but then had to be woken at 9:00am as he was still fast asleep.  He slept for an hour and a half in nursery today so slept from 12:15 to 1:45.  He started acting tired and rubbing his eyes around 7:00pm and we had a bit of quiet time and put him to bed at 7:30.

It is now 8:30pm and he is still awake.  He is constantly throwing his bobo (blankie) and Barney the Dinosaur on the floor and then starts crying for them to be put back on the bed with him.

I have tried the approach by not saying a word to him, going into the room, picking up his bobo and Barney, laying him down again, covering him up and walking out.  This does not seem to be working - he will either smile at me or he will be sitting up before I am even out of the room, or he will have thrown the stuff back on the floor.

I have tried going in and telling him sternly that it is bed time, and putting the stuff back on he bed and tucking him in, and this does not seem to be working either.

He just started crying again and I went upstairs to find him stripping his PJ's off and sitting with nothing on.

He is doing this for attention or what?

I seriously do not have the energy to be going up and down the stairs 60 times a night to try and get him to sleep.

What am I doing wrong?

[Layla]

Hey Paula,

Did anything change at all recently that could have thrown his routine off?

Isabella is going through a phase now of throwing her teddy on the floor as soon as I leave. I just walk in, put teddy back and leave (with no words at all). If you have to, keep doing that. It will get boring to him eventually and he will get the idea that he won't be getting attention from you at this time of the night. If he's undressed, quickly dress him and leave. Again, no words, just in and out.

The EW I suspect are from overtiredness, still if he falls asleep after waking up (like 5am), I would wake him up at 7/7.30 (the latest) so that his internal clock is re-set for the mornings. Try not to let him sleep in past 7.30am. I would bring bedtime to 7pm (the latest) for about a week to help him catch up on some sleep

I would also bring the bedtime up to about 6.30-7pm for a few days to let him catch up on some sleep.

You're not doing anything wrong. Toddlers go through these funny phases, sometimes triggered by something or who knows why....

If you are comfortable with wi/wo, I would do that for bedtime and morning wake ups. But if he's not crying and just chatting to himself, let him be.

hth
Layla

[* Paula *]

Hi Layla,

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it.

He finally settled off to sleep at around 10pm last night 

Things that have been different, yes he has been sick recently - had a few things one after the other over a period of about 5 weeks, but he is feeling better now - maybe he was just relying to on the extra fuss that was made of him while he was ill.  He is also teething cutting his 2 yr molars at the moment.

He did wake up at around 11pm and started crying.  DP was home by then, and got him back to bed, and I did not hear from him until 5am this morning.  I think the reason he may have woken this morning was cause his blankets had come off him so he might have been a bit chilly.  I settled him twice and he went back to bed.  He did sleep until 8am this morning, I was planning on waking him earlier, but overslept myself, so that did not work.  He did wake up a lot happier and was in a great mood.

He had a decent nap in nursery today, and I put him to bed usual time as I did not get a chance to read your reply until now.  He threw his stuff off the bed once, I walked in the romm did not say a word, gave it back to him and laid him down again and went down stairs.  10 minutes later I went to check on him and he was fast asleep.

I am hoping that it was the fact that he was overtired and that was why he would not settle well.

We are going on holiday on Saturday early hours of the morning - 8 hour drive, so am hoping that he will catch up on some sleep on the drive down.  Fingers crossed that it does not throw our routine too far out the window.

Thanks again for your advice, I will definitely try earlier to bed over the next few nights and see how we go.

Will keep you posted on how we get on.

Paula