I'm very close to delivering my second child and after a very tricky first eighteen months of waking every hour, my three year old seems to have regressed in his sleeping patterns. He is both having anxiety and reluctance about going to sleep and waking in the night.
I'm rather anxious about it because his sibling is likely to disrupt his sleep even further from a practical and emotional point of view.
When I talk to him he's not consistent about what is bothering him and does seem to be starting to have a bit of uncertainty about the addition of a new baby. He's clingier than usual in the day and seems to have lost all his ability to self soothe at night.
I'm really worried because my last labour was insanely hard and long +48 hours and at the moment I am up all night trying to get him to go to sleep. There's also the worry of the disruption of two inconsolable children at night and how that will work on a practical level once my partner is back to work after paternity leave.
I've tried reassuring him about the new baby, keeping daytime and nighttime routines the same, upping activity levels, lowering and cutting out naps but I'm guessing this is an emotional issue as no practical measures seem to have an effect.
Has anyone else had and solved this? It seemed to happen all at once , pretty much in line with my due date week so I don't know if he's somehow sensed this or if people around me have been fussing about the new baby too much?