I'm going to lose my freaking mind, due to the fact that a certain 2 year old has recently decided sleeping is optional.
This kid used to be the BEST sleeper on the planet. I used to smile smugly to myself when I could lay him in his crib awake and he would lightly babble for a few minutes before drifting off to dreamland. I gave myself a little pat on the back when he transitioned seamlessly from crib to toddler bed with nearly no issues at all. I practically printed out my own blue-ribbon certificate when his bedtime routine consisted of taking him to bed, singing a few songs, telling him goodnight and leaving the room, with no worry of him getting out of bed...because he never did.
Holy mother of crap, none of that exists in my world anymore. He is terrible to get to sleep to begin with and it is becoming less and less often that he even sleeps through the night. He will wake up around 1 or 2 a.m. and stay awake until 4 or 5 a.m., regardless of what we do. He isn't waking up scared or upset (I don't think its night terrors), he wants to play, watch movies, you name it. I have tried every trick in the book and IF they work, its only once or twice and then they no workie no mo'.
Things we have tried:
--Locking his door and letting him cry it out*
--Going in his room, singing songs, reading stories, holding him, etc
--Going for a drive (a last resort that usually works. Not tonight.)
--Very small doses of Melatonin
--Giving in and letting him watch a movie
--Letting him come in our bed (augh), which never works because he is always too hyper and wants to play
*His doctor suggested this method, because he (as am I) is a very strong believer in sleep training. We have sleep trained both our kids and both responded very well. The problem with letting him cry (scream) it out now is he is a much MUCH louder screamer now and will come and repeatedly kick his door, etc. If we let him keep it up for too long he will wake Maia up, and we also live in a condo and I feel terrible that our neighbors that share a wall with his bedroom probably hate us slash are ready to call DCFS on us for neglectful parenting.
Back when we were sleep training him as a baby, we would let him cry for 10 minute intervals, go in and soothe him, let him cry for 10 minutes, etc. It was extremely effective and as I mentioned, he has been a stellar sleeper since. If I try to let him cry in intervals now and go in to calm him down every so often it only seems to aggravate him more.
I'm seriously at a loss here. I have no idea how a 2 year old can stay awake for up to 4 hours in the middle of the night. I can barely do it. He has been up for 2 1/2 hours so far (woke up at 1:15, its now 2:45 but also daylight saving time) and he is showing few signs of slowing down.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of encouragement?
4 comments:
I just did a similar post to this one! Kycee is the same way, other then she will go right back to sleep when she gets up, but she is getting up 3 times a night. She never did this before and it started in one day! She was scared for me to leave the room, shut the door, or have it dark.
I was told when Koya went through this, that around this age they start thinking more things are real and they have a hard understanding on what is pretend or real. So with halloween just happening or some cartoons, they may cause him to start thinking things and not knowing that it is pretend..... I don't know what exactly will help, but does he watch any cartoons before bed that maybe you could change or cut back on? It is worth a shot, maybe something he is watching is triggering it now for him at night and thinking it is more "real".
I'm there with ya right now and good luck!!
Hi! So, I here I am blog stalking you. You seriously crack me up. And let me tell ya, I SOOOO feel your pain on this one. Eli had night terrors for a long time and after those subsided he would just wake up randomly in the middle of the night and want to play.
I finally just told him that if he woke up in the night and couldn't go back to sleep, that he could close his door and turn on the light and play to his hearts content BY HIMSELF until he fell back asleep. It worked for the most part. He would get up and play for awhile, but with no one else there he would get bored and just go back to bed.
Anyway, I wish I had an awesome solution to this problem. If I did I would have been much less sleep deprived myself! Hopefully he gets back to sleeping well soon!
Hi Aubrey--
You don't know me, but I know you. I grew up in Provo, my dad is good friends with your mom...and now so am I. :) Your mom gave me a link to your blog to check out. So here I am, jumping right in... :)
I'm no expert here. I have a 3 1/2 year-old that is driving me crazy these days too (in fact, at the moment he's goofing off in his room while he should be napping)! The cry-out/locked door method worked for us, but we put our 17 month-old in a pack-n-play in our bathroom when nights get like that (I figure the neighbors will recover). When we did this, it took three nightmarish days of screaming & then he was trained.
We also have taken naps away so he's really tired when the day ends, locked the door and tell him that what he does is "his choice, between sleepy time and quiet time" (he keeps quieter that way and eventually falls asleep).
Good luck Aubrey, and know that you're not alone with difficult toddler sons (I'm glad to know that I'm not either!). They are such cute, sweet, pains-in-the neck. :)
-Tiffany Norris
www.andrewntiffany.blogspot.com
did all the two year olds have a meeting and decide to change their sleep patterns??
Seriously, the last 2 weeks Carson decided he wasn't going to be the easiest sleeper ever. I held first place on best parenting in the sleep department. And then he stopped. I totally get the problem with waking up their sibling..arh!
We went thru hell trying to get him to go back to his normal routine. After 2 weeks (which was 3 nights ago) he went right back to awesome sleeper, easy to put to sleep, sleeping til 9am.
I have no idea what changed and I certainly have no idea if it's anything we did...but maybe there will be light at the end of your tunnel. My "favorite" trick was I slept in his room with him. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
GOOD LUCK!!
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