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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Help!! Losing my sanity!!

6 replies

Kaboomba · 07/01/2020 21:57

I’m honestly at my wits end and I’ve no clue what to do.

My 3.5 year old son has started refusing to go to bed. It’s escalated from story cuddle sleep on his own, to needing an extra cuddle, to needing the light on and now to full screaming tantruming and keeping himself awake. Won’t stay in the bed, literally runs at the door as your trying to leave the room. Even if we lie with him to let him fall asleep, he won’t sleep. Today he’s come off the back of not going to bed until 10pm (with me in tow) last night and then waking every hour ( no exaggeration) to make sure I was still there. He tried to go to sleep in soft play today he was that tired but come bed time he refused to go to sleep, DH lay in bed with him for an hour and son decided he was getting back up and just climbed right over the top of DH and downstairs.

We have tried what feels like everything and short of tying him to the bed we’re at a loss at what we can do. We are all exhausted and grumpy.

He has had quite a lot of change recently and we know this has caused it. We had our second son nearly 10months ago, they shared a room (Baby currently sleeping in a travel cot at the bottom of our bed due to this), he’s also started a new nursery this week but we didn’t have any choice with that one, although this has been happening for the past 3/4 months but doubt it’s helped!

Please can someone suggest something we can do to try and help him. I’m quickly losing my sanity!

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MoonlightMistletoe · 07/01/2020 22:06

My toddler has been doing the same and I've been close to breaking down!

I've stopped giving him anything sugary / juice after 4pm, also I've limited he's afternoon nap to an hour however I have ended up with him sleeping next to me because he usually shares a room with his 1yo brother who he keeps awake or ends up jumping on. Also my eldest goes to school.

I am hoping this is a phase!

Kaboomba · 07/01/2020 22:18

We too have limited sugary things etc. It seems to be seperation anxiety as he has been clingy and not wanting us to be away from him too much. I actually wouldn’t mind him sleeping in with me but he doesn’t sleep for hours, I can see him blinking his eyes to keep them open and when he does finally fall asleep he’s waking back up after an hour without fail to make sure your still there.

It’s awful, I don’t know how much longer I can cope with it.

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Turquoisetamborine · 07/01/2020 22:22

No answers but my 4yr old is still the same. He's driving me insane. I just want to watch telly for an hour before bed and I can't even do that as he's up and down constantly til I go to bed with him.

Kaboomba · 08/01/2020 07:37

Bump

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VaguelySensible · 08/01/2020 17:47

If he's waking every hour to check you're still there, maybe you need to accept his intense separation anxiety and just sleep with him for a few weeks until he relaxes. Once he feels safe and secure again you can address the issue from a good place rather than from a desperate place.

You have my every sympathy BTW. Two of mine have been Klingons at various times. One (the toughest one!) when he was a good bit younger than yours, the other was older but not as severe.

Kaboomba · 08/01/2020 20:18

Thanks. We have been taking turns sleeping with him the last two nights and have bought a blow up mattress to lie beside, hoping having us near by will be enough to settle him.

I actually don’t mind sleeping with him but it’s the not having ANY down time, I’m with him constantly at the minute and I’m not sure that’s helping matters either 😭

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