Sleep 🙁

My 3 1/2 year old sleep is a nightmare. I can’t cope anymore. He wakes up every night and is up for HOURS! We have tried everything and I am at the stage of taking him to the doctors as there must be something wrong. Last night he woke at 10pm and didn’t go sleep until 2am and then woke again at 3am for 15 mins and now awake at 7am. It’s been over a month of this now. Last night I was with him for 2 hours before i had to say I’m going back to my bed now and all hell broke the screaming the stomping it was horrible. He has always been up and down with sleep. For a few weeks we think we’ve cracked it and then it goes back to waking for hours at a time. He will not go back to sleep even if I am with him. Health visitors just say it’s normal for his age but the lack of sleep affects him daily. He can’t concentrate, he’s moody. He will start napping again as he’s had no night sleep! I feel there is always an excuse for his sleep. It’s always development, maybe too long of a nap etc etc. Please note he eats so healthily, has A LOT of outdoor time (10 hours yday) and no screen time so I can’t even improve on these to see if that helps. I have recently had a baby (3 weeks old) and I thought maybe that’s why but it was like this before I gave birth. I am at a lost what to do, tried co sleeping, later bedtimes, earlier bedtimes, Gro clocks, night lights, bedtime routine is the same as it’s always been and set in stone. I just cried and cried last night as there was nothing I could do. What have I done wrong? I feel like a failure of a mother 😭😭

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You’ve done nothing wrong, some children are terrible sleepers despite everything. Anyway, at what time does he go to sleep? Any naps when he started having sleep nights? Normally split nights are sign of too much daytime sleep or too early bedtime. When you say you’ve tried different things, did you stick to the same change for about a week? It takes time to adjust the sleeping patterns. This might not be correct but even if it started before you had a baby it could be linked to that, especially if you’ve tried to prepare him to the change (which was the right thing to do anyway), as if we know something is about to change, we can be affected by that even before the change happens, if it makes sense. It may have caused a rise in separation anxiety which deeply affects the sleep.

@Simona 7-7.30ish. He is trying to doze when eating his dinner! 🙁 No I wouldn’t put him down for a nap but as soon as we go out in the car he’s out for the count which is so frustrating as I feel I can’t go anywhere as he will fall sleep and it’s just not do able to not leave the house. Yes gave them a good go. It probably is down to the new baby. I’m not sure how much I can do it. He’s up for four hours, I BF my LG twice in that time and she was up after that to feed so I’ve had no sleep. Then my son is up at the crack of dawn not tired at all until he crashes 😭

That sounds so hard 😩 Have you tried letting him nap for a little bit (under an hour) just before/after lunchtime (Depending on what time he eats, I’d probably try to let him nap between 12-1 pm) to give him the energy to not get to bedtime too knackered and then maybe postpone the bedtime until 8/8:30 pm, so he has enough sleep pressure but not too much, as it feels like he’s almost taking the bedtime like a nap as he’s awake after just 2/3hrs. If it’s linked to the arrival of the baby, maybe you could give him extra 1to1 time without the baby if it’s possible? Just to make him feel even more special? Idk it’s just theory at this point 😩

I might try the nap to see if he can come round! Just seems to be going backwards having naps all the time and not sleeping when they should 😂 I expect the odd night but every night for months becomes the norm. Yes been doing the 1on1 time. Super hard when BF on demand 😢 my hubby spends lots of 1on1 time but think he wants me all the time x

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