What the hell has happened to my 2 year olds sleep!!!!!

[GrumpyOldBagFace]

2 year old has had a bedtime routine since he came home from hospital: bath, (in the early days) milk, story, teeth, bed. He's always had a cuddle for 20 minutes and then falls asleep. He transitioned into his toddler bed fine. I went back to work full time and we had a blip but then things went back to normal.

Then, last week, he decided he won't sleep and will never sleep again! He goes to bed but pisses around for at least two hours. This leaves him nackered in the morning and it's a battle to get him ready for nursery.

For the first couple of days we tried to be sympathetic and sit in his room, gently reminding him that it's time for sleep.

Tonight we put his sibling to sleep in our bed and we closed his door and left him to it. He called out for us and kept escaping his bedroom. Then there were tears, then more pissing about!! He's not asleep yet.

His bedtime is 7pm. This morning he was so tired I had to wake him at 7:45 so get him to nursery on time.

What the hell is happening!!!???

Help!!

2 year sleep regression.
We've been in it for a week now. Last night she finally gave in at 10.30pm.
I don't have any advice but and lots of it!

Another sleep regression?? You are shitting me!!!... sorry to be coarse but seriously.

What's the plan of action?

Gentle soothing and reminding him it's sleep time;
Allowing him to piss about with some quiet toys in his room;
Strict "get back to bed".

Or is it time to drop the daytime naps?

Last night was 11.30pm. DD has one long nap (1.5-2 hours) about 12.30 till 2.30. Thinking of cutting it to an hour or dropping it full stop. She won't stay in her room whatsoever- even with a night light, her favourite blanket or a teddy

I would drop the nap going by my experience. My 2.8 year old used to go bed at 7 and sleep til anywhere between 5-630am, then at around 2.3 she suddenly wouldn't go to bed, kept coming out her room saying she wasn't tired. She would finally settle around 9pm usually but was still up as early as 5! Then I dropped the nap and now she gets tired by evening so we actually had to push bedtime forward to 630pm and she goes to bed easy. She used to wake up as early as 5 for a while but now it's around 630am.

He only had a 45 minute nap at nursery today and went to bed at 7:15 with no messing around. I might ask them to limit his naps from now on.

However, the baby is now being kept awake by her teeth!! Oh the irony!!

We are in middle of this too with our DS who is 2 next month (we are also experiencing it at the other end, getting up before 6am and wanting to come into our bed) and our plan of action thus far has been quite strict (i.e. 'back to bed' or just silently taking him back to his room). It is pretty exhausting. Lots of tears and snotters (him, not us!).

IME this could be two things.

1. They are ready to drop their nap or have their nap shortened. For a while I thought this was the issue when my two year old started to have issues but actually in retrospect it wasn't and she still definitely needs her nap. Without her nap the afternoon is too much of a struggle and we have all kinds of meltdowns before bedtime. Also, I've noticed that without a nap she gets overtired and actually sleeps worse in the night.

1. It could just be a phase. I'm sure there is an explanation as to why these phases happen when they do but I have never got my head around the countless 'regressions'. I have always found though that the best way to get through each phase is to stick pretty strictly to the old routine (as long as you're pretty confident that it's still realistic and works generally for the child) and try and ride out the challenging behaviour. It's very hard in the middle of it all to see how transient some of this stuff is but looking back I can pinpoint quite a few random weeks where sleep went to pot for no apparent reason.

That classic counter intuitive Baby/toddler thing!! Sleep more during the day and sleep more during the night until one magical day when the daytime naps disrupt nighttime sleep but there's no way of telling when that is.

I'm putting him on a strict 45 minutes only daytime nap and see how it goes. He had 45 minutes yesterday and slept from 7:15-6:45 which is much more like him. It's only one night though so we're not being cocky.

Plus, the baby was up most of the night to take over the nighttime nightmare!

Yes you need to cut the daytime nap down, as your doing or cut it out soon. We had this with my daughter at about 2.5 where she wouldn't sleep till after 10. She was only having half an hour nap at the time. Once we stopped that we started going to bed at 7 / half 7 again. Made such a difference.
I know what you mean, so annoying as just suddenly starts!!

Day 2 of 45 minute napping and he went to sleep at 7:15 again. I don't want to get cocky but I did do a little (and very quiet) victory dance on the landing.

Fingers crossed!

I’ve just posted about my 2 year old and I had no idea about a sleep regression either. Might try reducing the nap time.