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Behaviour/development

3 year old stopped sleeping through. Everyone at end of tether :-(

2 replies

NeedlesCuties · 08/02/2013 18:19

5 months ago I had DC2. DC1 was 2 and a half years old. Up to that point DC1 had been a fine sleeper, usually going 7pm-6:30am although he dropped the daytime name at age 2.

Since DC2 came along it's been a mess. DC2 sleeps ok, nothing different from the usual new baby wakenings and night feeds.

She's fully breastfed, has a co-sleeping cot beside our bed and I usually feed her during night when she stirs and before any crying starts.

DC1 got into a habit - not sure if it was envy - of wanting his daddy to sleep in his room and for a bit of peace my DH did that. But now it's every night and DH has ended up getting the blow-up mattress and sleeps on DS's floor. If DH sneaks out when DS wakens he will cry and be upset.

At the start we thought he'd settle down and it was just him getting used to having a sibling, but it's been 23 weeks now and he's getting worse :-(

He's now wanting one of us to lie on his floor or sit on his bed while he's falling asleep and what used to be a quick night night and self-settling at 7pm is now screaming crying and pushing boundaries till 8:30pm!!

Then he's awake again usually from 1am and can be up 3 times on average unless DH camps out on his floor.

We've got to the end of our tether, can't relax in the evenings, can't go out in the evenings as the mere hint of a babysitter at night sends him crazy (though he's ok with gran or aunt during day).

I'm a SAHM and just finding this bit so tough. He has an active life - playgroup in AM, trips out most afternoons with me, so he defo is tired.

Any advice, encouragement or wisdom would be great! Sorry it's been an epic rant! I posted this in Sleep section too, but sometimes not much traffic there.

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TheBeanAndTheBee · 08/02/2013 22:39

We had problems with DD1 after Christmas. She's almost 3. Over Christmas she was ill, so we let her sleep with us if she woke up. When she was better, she still wanted to be in bed with us when she woke up. This also coincided with her throwing herself out of her cot! So we did the following:

  1. Moved her out of her cot into a bed. Big fuss about it being a big girls bed.
  2. Got a gro clock. The best 20 quid I ever spent. Now she understands when its time to get up.
  3. We got tough. This is the important bit. We spent 2 nights (took it in turns) simply putting her back to bed every time she kicked off. Quietly and calmly. I used to sit outside her room waiting for her to come out and make a fuss, and I'd just put her back again. We did this A LOT over 2 nights. But we were very consistent. After 2 nights of hell she just 'got it' and has been back to her normal good sleeping self since then. Good luck!
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jenduck · 11/02/2013 15:46

Have you tried a reward chart? DS1 (4.2) is generally an excellent sleeper, but will occasionally go through spells of about a week or so where he wakes repeatedly through the night. This happened a couple of weeks ago, so I created a sticker reward chart with him, where he got 1 sticker for each night he stayed in bed. When he had 5 stickers, he was then allowed to go to the charity shop & choose a new toy. His sleep pattern is now back to normal, no need for the chart any more Smile

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