I have a very active 2 year old. He used to sleep wonderfully. I would lay him down at 7:30 and he would sleep till 6 or 7. Now I am lucky if I can rock him to sleep by 9 or 10 and then he is up rather quickly after putting him to bed.
Example the last few nights he fell asleep at 9 and I would take him to bed at 9:30. No problem. Then around 11:30 he is up and crying. I let him cry and sometimes he fell back to sleep but then up again around 3. I am good about his night routine and tried benadryl which worked on my older son at this age, to get him in a routine. No such luck this time around. I am tired of letting him cry for hours and days, it just isn't working.
So I am open to all suggestions because I am starting to go to work, and my husband will be home with him till he goes to work at 3 am and he needs to go to bed at a reasonable time, so he can get up and function.
Any ideas for the two year old????
The doctor recommended trying the benadryl, but it hasn't work on this baby, so I stopped. We take a bath, he wrestles with dad, we drink milk and brush our teeth, then we read books. He is good about one nap a day, which is normal. It is early enough not to bother his sleep. Nothing in the schedule has changed. I am very good about making sure because he is more out of control during the day without a schedule. Thank you for the suggestions. Any other ideas???
Please stop giving your child Benadryl unnecessarily just to try to get him to go to sleep!
It sounds like your son is overtired, which is why he's waking so often after falling asleep. Is he napping during the day? If not, that is probably the cause for the nighttime sleep disturbances. When children are overtired, they do not sleep well, but children who nap regularly sleep better at night.
Is he still in a crib? Have you tried white noise in his room at night? Maybe something (house noise) is waking him up like the furnace, garage door?
Ugh, sleep issues are the worst. As soon as you think things are settling, something else starts up.
I find if my daughter is waking at night and crying, it means she's very overtired. Usually means that a long nap and a good night's sleep a few hours later is in order to reset her clock.
How long has this been going on? It also sounds to me like it could be teething, with the frequent waking. Or maybe ear problems? When they lie down it's painful and they don't always pull at their ears so you'd never know.
I'd suggest you keep any activities for the couple of hours before bedtime very low key, nothing that will excite him. No wrestling. I agree you should tire him out, but do it earlier in the afternoon, not right before bed.
You both need your sleep, so i really hope it works out.
The red flag I saw in your question is that you are rocking him to sleep and that he falls asleep at 9 & you take him to bed at 9:30. I think you will see a big improvement if you can transition him to falling asleep by himself in his own bed. Everyone, including adults, wakes up periodically during the night. Most of us go right back to sleep and don't even remember it. But if conditions are not what we are used to - hotter or colder, strange lights or sounds, a pillow we are not used to - we may not get back to sleep as quickly & we will remember being awake. As adults we have learned to soothe ourselves back to sleep when we wake. Kids need to learn that skill. If your son is used to being rocked to sleep, when he wakes at night, he may not be able to soothe himself back to sleep without more rocking. The trick is to teach him to fall asleep in his bed so that when he wakes, he knows how to do it again without needing your intervention to get him back to sleep. I really recommend the book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Richard Ferber. He has a method to teach your child self soothing that really works. It involves some crying - but not crying without end - just a few minutes at a time. It can take some effort initially, but within a week or two it will pay off forever. Good luck!
I don't know what your bedtime routine is, but I have found it to go more smoothly by a fun bubble bath with a wash down in bedtime bath soap and reading stories until my son falls asleep. Does he have all of his teeth? My son is 16 months and already has all of his, but I know some toddlers teeth like to wait. When my son was teething, he was doing the same sleep pattern as your son is doing right now. Only other thing I can think of to suggest is chase him around the house or find an activity after dinner that will tucker him out. Lately my husband has been chasing and doing tickle attacks haha and our son has been going to bed without a peep within minutes of laying down. Good Luck to you hun... I know these times can be trying!
Has anything in your daily schedule changed recently?
