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Parenting

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Original poster

Did your DC go through a 2 year sleep regression, and if so, what did you do?

11 replies

melisma · 22/02/2014 07:43

Just that really! Our DS is just 2, and for the last two weeks there seems to have been some disturbance of one kind or another to his sleep-e.g. either resisting going to bed, waking early, or most frequently waking in the night shouting for mummy/daddy. He has slept pretty well since around 6 months and falls asleep by himself. I'm aware this could be teeth, but it feels like a resurgence of separation anxiety, as he seems so desparate that we are there with him while he goes back to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice? Praying it will pass!

OP posts:

mintyneb · 22/02/2014 07:56

No advice, but my DD started having broken sleep at about 2.5 yo and started getting up to me once a night. I would just get up and put her back to bed and assumed it was just a phase she would grow out of.

Fast forward, she is 7 next month and still hasn't outgrown it :-(. She gets up anything from once a night, every night. At its worst she was getting up 6 - 10 times a night. No real reason!

I think this is an extreme case but would love to hear what other people have done to break the habit

teacher123 · 22/02/2014 08:46

DS is nearly two and we've had some rubbish nights recently. There's definitely a separation anxiety component to it, he's been very very clingy with me recently and is going through some sort of language explosion-it's like living with a parrot! He has self settled since 6mo, won't sleep if I'm in the room with him, and won't cosleep. There's not much I can think of to do to be honest apart from comfort him and ride it out!

Original poster

melisma · 22/02/2014 12:55

Thank you both for your responses-sorry to hear you have both experienced this, but good to know we're not alone! mintyneb, hopefully someone will be along with some other ideas soon, but fingers crossed it passes eventually when they are teenagers and we can't get them out of bed at all. teacher, our DS sounds really similar to yours, so I think just offering comfort however we can and keeping our fingers crossed sounds like the way forward for now.

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fryingpantoface · 22/02/2014 16:59

Ds1 is 2.5 and for the last month has been waking multiple times a night. I assumed it was because ds2 was born last month.

good to know its a thing. He's being really clingy with dh. All we've been doing is putting him to bed early when he hasn't had a nap (about 6.30) then when hr wakes in the night keep putting him back to bed. He keeps coming into our room.

Then he's been having a morning nap. Sadly it means he's up at 5.30-6ish, naps at 9.30-10, then nothing after which means another early night. We tried not putting him to bed early but he wakes up even more.

awwwwmannnn · 24/02/2014 21:01

a month after DD turned 2 she turned into a nightmare at night - would take ages to fall asleep, and we had to stay with her for that to happen. trying to leave the room when she was half-asleep would lead to hours and hours and hours of crying which upset us both, so stayed with her me and DH did! then she would fall asleep ok but wake up anything from 2-7 times a night wanting to come and sleep in with us. a few months of this and we were hanging from lack of sleep!!

we caved in and let her sleep in with us, that way we all got a good night's sleep! one thing i did insist on was that she always went to sleep in her own bed, and whatever happened after that we just dealt with.

fast forward a year yes i'm sorry to say it lasted a whole year and she now goes to sleep straight after her story, and sleeps all night long. she'll wake up and come into our room about 6am, cuddle up and go back to sleep until half 7ish, which we are more than happy with

no advice really, just hang on in there and know it doesn't last forever, although it feels like it at the time. just do whatever you need to do to make it easier for you all. separation anxiety is awful for such a young one bless them!

Ihavemyownname · 24/02/2014 21:15

Ds is 2 and for about a month has been waking more times than he did when he was a newborn and is waking up at the crack of dawn.
He seems to have stopped napping too

KatyN · 25/02/2014 15:46

My boy had trouble sleeping when he was about this old. we dropped one of his daytime naps. it was a bit of a nightmare for a few days but then he was happy as larry.
It's starting again so we might have to drop his last nap!!

Rangersandfairys · 26/02/2014 11:15

This is normal at this age. My DS & DD both done it and i've no doubts that my DC3 will do it too.

The trick is - don't pander to him. You have to be a bit tough im afraid. I think they work out that there is ways to keep you there at bedtime or get you to come to them in the night.

I was nearly fooled by DC1. I was nice and pandered to him for weeks and weeks then I lost it. I told him if he shouted me again I would have to take his teddies away. It is sleepy time now go to sleep (firm voice).

It worked after a few nights and me getting pretty horrible!!
When DC2 did it I didn't mess about. After 3 or 4 days of it I recognised the pattern and dealt with it quickly.

Basically the trick is, you have to be so horrible in the middle of the night they'd rather have a visit from a monster than you !

MiaowTheCat · 26/02/2014 11:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mrsannekins · 06/03/2014 14:23

OMG this is me....DD settled herself and has always slept through, until the day before she was 2 and it all went a bit wrong...

Currently, she goes to bed in her own bed, takes about 30 mins to get her to settle, and I'm very gradually retreating, but she will wake at some point between 12 and 2, and I got an camp in her room until wake up time. We were letting her come into her bed at first, but she wriggles so much that none of us were getting any sleep. Me going into her room seems to work much better all round. And I've been really pleased to see that she understands her gro-clock and knows that it's not 'up time' until the sun comes up. If only it was 7am not 6, but we can't have it all!

I keep telling myself its a phase and it will pass, but it's been a very steep learning curve over the last couple of months. When she was younger, we used CC (I say in hushed tones, but it worked perfectly), but I know for sure that this new behaviour is definitely due to horrible separation anxiety so we had to go for a softer option.

RSC0105 · 14/01/2021 07:59

Oh I am there with you and massively struggling. My DD turned 1 in August and since October has been a nightmare. She has been a dream sleeper since weeks old but now she is waking 2-6 times a night coming in our room wanting to be tucked back in. She’s not always upset but just wants us to put her back into her bed.
I’d be a little stronger and make her go back oh her own but we have a 3 month in our room and I don’t want her to be woken! I’m worried she’s now got used to us running in and putting we her back into bed.

Any advice would be amazing, the lack of sleep from a newborn abs 2 year old is bad!

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