I have a highly spirited, full of energy 3yo boy. He can sleep 1.5-3hrs per day for his lunchtime nap. I find if I wake him up before the end of the nap he is seriously grumpy.
His bedtime is. 7.30-8pm and he is an early riser but we have a gro clock so his get up time is 6am everyday (very rarely 6.30).
Anyway recently he has started waking up much more in the night - initially this was to have a wee and we were considering taking him out of night nappies but now he seems to be waking up for no reason other than to scream blue murder and tantrum. The other night he screamed at me for 50mins, refused to get back into bed, wanted the light off which was then too dark, wanted the light on which was then too bright etc etc. I'm pretty certain he is awake as I have to reason with him to get back to bed I.e. father Xmas won't be happy with how your acting, your brother isn't well and you must be the big boy to help me by getting back into bed etc. last night he was awake 3 times before 1am with increasing unreasonable requests. His younger brother is actually ill and so I am exhausted.
Do you think I should drop the nap to see if that helps? I'm not convinced it will be that is what people have suggested. The reason I'm not convinced is that he seems tired all the time and I usually find the more sleep he has the better his behaviour - I also love the lunchtime nap as I also have a 1yo and them napping at the same time is my lifeline.
I'm so confused - what do you think? Less sleep, more sleep needed? Night terrors? Anyone else toddler tantrum in the night?