2yo. Last night had around 6 hours of broken sleep. About an hour 8:30-930pm, awake until after 1, then woke again for half an hour at 3ish then up at 6ish.
This was a particularly bad night but he's always bad. Occasionally sleeps for 3 hours but usually up every 1 or 2 hours.
He's running around the house happy as Larry and I'm on my knees.
How is he doing this?
I don't expect any answers, just need to tell someone else how shit my life is since I probably won't speak to another adult today.
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Wtf is wrong with my son?
47 replies
TychosNose · 26/05/2016 07:27
OP posts:
ApplesinmyPocket ·
26/05/2016 08:09
Poor Tycho. It really starts to feel like torture, doesn't it. The kind where you have to pretend all day you're OK and being expected to Do Stuff, but then it starts all over again the next night.
It IS just a phase and it WILL end - sometime between now and the teen years your littleTycho will sleep all night, every night, or will know not to, or not want to, wake you. That's for sure. I know that's not much comfort when you want it to end NOW. 
But every day could be the last day (bar illnesses) of this torture and the start of his maturing sleep patterns, because one day it will be. Maybe even today... hold on to the hope!
When he starts school he will likely be tired out and sleep better, though that probably seems a long way off to you in your exhausted state. I see he already has a lateish bedtime, 8.30? - many say 'sleep breeds sleep' and that putting them to bed earlier helps. That didn't work for me, and I had to keep my little sleep-haters up till a time I'm not admitting on MN 
and rigorously not allow daytime naps, though that cuts down a bit on one's free time, but I traded it for one long-ish stretch in the worst hours of the night. But they are all different and I'm sure you've tried everything.
I really feel for you and hope things get better soon. It must be so hard not having another adult to talk to today - that brings a little bit of normality to the sleep-deprived craziness. At least there's MN 
.
cuntinghomicidalcardigan ·
26/05/2016 08:24
My 19mo is similar and it does feel like torture. Last night I had an hour and half of him sat on my bed saying 'mum, mum, mum' and crying. It's not cio (I don't think) because I'm there and trying to comfort/settle him, it's just that nothing works until he eventually sorts himself out. No words of wisdom other than you're not alone. We start most days at 5am, today we got a lie in til 5.50! My only consolation is my older daughter is a fab sleeper 7 til at least 7 so I know that it's not me, it's just how he is. I'm looking forward to the day when he's old enough to put the TV on and get himself a drink and breakfast! If it happens before then, it's a bonus 
SlightlyperturbedOwl ·
26/05/2016 10:51
sympathy, sleep deprivation is the worst. DS2 didn't sleep through reliably until he was 4, and even then he woke at 5.30 everyday for a further year or two. In the end we would just let him have 20 mins in our bed then return him to his (often several times) and waited until he outgrew it, DH also made it a mission to properly wear him out on the weekends too by playing football etc which did help. Hang in there it will come good- he's 7 now and it feels like a distant memory
InTheSandPit ·
26/05/2016 11:15
Well, my son was obviously "not normal" either, as we spent what felt like years, but was probably only 3 months, awake from 1-3, and up for the day at 5.30.
The only way I could deal with it was to sleep (haha, doze if lucky) on his floor. I'd start off in our bed, but when he woke up, ld basically make a nest on his floor, force my wrist through the bars, and pray tonight would be a 30 mins night, not a 3 hour session.
Not sure what changed things. Just time I suspect. Not helpful, sorry.
It does get better. Not because he sleeps better, but because when he wakes at 4 am now, he knows to read, and not to wake anyone else. He's 7. And apart from being happy on 8 hrs a night max ,(if we fly home, he will do 2 hrs on a night flight, and be fine all the next day) and atrocious at spelling, he is a perfectly lovely 7 yr old. There is hope. And until then 
Try And to him. It did have some affect. DS, Mummy is tired. She needs a good night's sleep if she is going to manage to go to the park/swimming/ other excitingish thing tomorrow. Please try and stay quietly in your bed all night. The had some affect, sometimes, from about 2.
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Zaurak ·
26/05/2016 11:25
I sympathise. It's incredibly hard. Sleep is such a basic need and when you've been deprived for so long everything starts to fray around the edges.
My son is nearly eight months old, so I've only got months under my belt not years like you. He sleeps so lightly, will not sleep alone, and wakes every 20-40 mins. I haven't had more than an hour or so in a row for months and there have been days I've honestly thought my sanity was in danger. Through it all, ds is a ball of energy,
Ignore the Advice (I know, this is advice) because you've probably tried everything and it you're like us, nothing bloody works. The idea of gently popping a hand on them until they fall asleep? Laughable. Controlled crying, after which they just drop off after a few hours? Nope.
It's incredibly hard. The hardest bit about parenting in my experience.
Sleep consultants? Well, I've seen plans they've drawn up for friends and there's nothing revolutionary there. It's the stuff you're likely doing anyway - routines and then some variant on pick up put down, cc or gradual retreat (none of which worked for us.)
The only thing that's keeping me from a breakdown is dh, who takes him at 5-6:30 am before work so o can have a sleep, breakfast and shower.
It sucks. Have a virtual internet hug, and try not to murder the 'oh yes mine still wakes once a night' crowd. They know not what they say and and
Schwabischeweihnachtskanne ·
26/05/2016 11:38
Tycho my youngest was the same - he never slept for more than 2 hours at a stretch until he was 2.5.
It altered my mood and personality eventually - you can't moan to people as they think they have solutions, but you will have tried them all and they outright won't believe that what worked in 3 days for their child doesn't work on yours.
What worked for my youngest was just him getting g to the age where he could be told and understand that it was over - I was no longer going tosit by his bed for 4 hours every evening, he was not gping to wake me in the night unless ill or the house on fire. One day when he was nearly 3 I told him that - he was too old, mummy can't manage, you have to stay in your room at night, the end.
I don't know why it worked then - I think he was just old enough to understand.
Story CDs started helping before that and softened the transition - he'd started having story CDs on at bedtime in return for not actually holding my hand and trying to crawl up my sleeve to fall asleep at about 2.5 - initially I still sat in the room otherwise he came out or howled without end until he vomited.
He's 5 now and no longer disturbs my sleep - sadly I don't think he sleeps through, as I hear him putting CDs on in the night, but I'll take it. You can't actually force a child to sleep. .. He does now fall asleep alone and sleep long stretches, and is usually asleep when I cautiously peek at him (all my kids are light sleepers - no idea how some people can go into their kid's room without waking them). He has vivid dreams which he recounts at length but also sometimes tells people he never sleeps 
:o
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