Help with 3 year olds sleep 💤

Does he give any indication as to what’s causing the wake ups? Is his bed big enough? We struggled with our boys sleep from birth to approx 2.5 years but when we replaced his cot with a toddler bed, it almost overnight improved things. Still occasionally have wake ups for covers falling off/wanting water etc but overall he sleeps far better in the bed even though the mattress is the same cot one! If there’s nothing specific causing the wake ups, a little bit of tough love also worked for us. Being firm with him explaining that it’s sleep time but always offering a kiss and a cuddle to go back to sleep etc Unfortunately I think some kids just find sleep harder than others!

I feel you and I’m right in the same situation as you, our youngest is 20 months now our 3 year old just keeps getting up constantly looking for us and shouting to come waking up the youngest, I just hope it’s a phase because I’m exhausted 😴 Following to see if anyone has any tips 🤞

A Tonie box worked for us (if he wakes in the night he puts a tonie on to help him go back to sleep (his issue is she doesn’t like the quiet at nighttime). It does mean I wake up to paw patrol blasting through the house 😂. But I just quickly go and turn it off.

My 5 year old has never slept through the night so i have no help😂

We had night wakings that would last 2hr. He would just lie there awake. Some nights he would be easy to settle but would wake 3/4 times. I don’t know if it was just a stage and that it’s a coincidence that this worked but we started giving him mighty kids magnesium. Which is magnesium biglycinate. Not the cheap stuff from boots. We weren’t using it for his sleep more for school and his anxiety but now he sleeps through. Bad nights he wakes up for a potty and a back rub but it’s no longer 2hrs just 5 min. It all could be a coincidence though as we started giving it him after he left private nursery to go to school as he was not happy in a private nursery setting but he actually likes school. Xx

@Laura Thanks Laura! He’s in a single midi sleeper bed as his toddler bed was and I quote “too uncomfortable for him” haha 😂 He slept in a single bed at my parents house and that was it. He sleeps better in the midi bed than the toddler bed. He loves his room as he happily plays in there during the day (he asks to go up there haha). It varies what he wants - usually it’s his favourite cow (which is almost always under him or under his armpit) other times he doesn’t really say what’s wrong he just says he wanted Mummy or he isn’t tired whilst rubbing his eyes and yawning. It doesn’t always take long to resettle him to be fair. It’s just tough with the tiredness! Getting a bit worried as I go back to work in September and I just don’t know how I’m going to function with the severe sleep deprivation 🙈

@Natalie I’ll give this a go - thank you so much 🙌🏻 Do you have any recommendations for a brand we can buy? I have thought about moving him to a school nursery setting - did your son move to primary school or a school nursery?

@Naomi I’ve thought about a tonie box! Think I’ll give this a try ☺️ Thank you!!

@Jasmine I really feel for you! How are you coping with the disrupted sleep? ☺️

My son also has a Tonie box, and switches between wanting to listen to that after a bedtime story or having Alexa play lullabies. We also have the Gro Clock that changes colour when it’s “morning” although that’s losing its novelty now the mornings are so light. Honestly I think you could drive yourself mental and spend ££££ trying to “solve” it. If he just wants you and a bit of comfort, it’s hard to say what might help other than you! But I totally sympathise, and hope it sorts itself out soon!

@Tori we use mighty kids, we add the mango flavour in his tea time squash which is orange flavour so works quite well. The best thing we did was move him to a pre school in a primary school. We were having a lot of trouble in a private nursery. They ended up with 50 kids in a space that’s the size of my downstairs (I don’t live in a big house. 3 bed square new build) when the free hours came in. Since going to school, his behaviour has improved, his sleep and he can now write his name. It’s more structured to get them ready for F1 and I find this works really well for my boy. Xx https://mightykidssupplements.co.uk/product/magnesium/

@Natalie Thank you!! Will definitely look into a nursery ☺️ xx

@Tori use to it. Doesn’t bother me. She still needs me during the night and I will continue to be their for her until she’s ready to sleep through 🥰 luckily my 17 month old sleeps lol xx

My 3 year old who has always been a brilliant sleeper started waking at night again when we had our second (now 8 months). The only thing I can put it down to is that his world as he knew it turned upside down with the new arrival, and he just seemed to need the reassurance that someone would go when he called. He was dead easy to settle but would just call out a few times a night. He does seem to have settled down massively over the past month, so I think it’s just a case of waiting it out. At least we didn’t find any magic tricks to resolve it anyway! Good luck - from one tired mama to another, I hope you get some sleep soon!

My daughter used to wake between 5 to 25 times a night! I kid you not!!! Its hard to tell with your boy as don't know the reasons. What worked for us was 1. Oat cookie before bed to fill tummy or yoghurt before bed. 2. No more milk at all except during the day in a cup 3. Red nightlight instead of blue or dull yellow which we used to have. 4.This playlist to help them fall asleep. Its meditations which means they sleep much deeper than normal. Once weve made these changes, she now wake up between 0 and 2 times max a night. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66Np1EGOCdMxlgZUq3p1hk?si=9A7btY1IQbSeO81V9rvaSQ&pi=aYil68WLRBSms Good luck. Hope it works. Keep me posted! Ps. Personal opinion. I think the stars and lights might be too much. Are they moving as well? Just my opinion. My Lo falls asleep with projector moving lights but then we dull it. Stop the motion and turn it red. We got an amazing dinosaur egg.