Just having a moan. Our boy has always been a fantastic sleeper - we put him down awake from anc early age and he slept through other than when he’s sick or sleep regression.
But the last 6 months have been hell. At bedtime he requests more and more things - more teddies, books etc and finally goes to sleep. He also now demands a night light. He then wakes at 4-5am or sometimes 2am because a teddy las fallen out of his cot, or something else and we go in and sort it. That used to be the end of it, we would pick up the teddy or give him a drink and say it’s still night time and he would go back to sleep.
Now it’s gone downhill even more, for example tonight he woke at 4 shouting mummy, this then turned to crying. I went in and he said his teddy fell out the cot so I found it and put it back. I gave him a cuddle and said night night and he got really angry saying no I want another teddy, I was saying no you already have 3 teddies in your cot and it’s night time etc. he’s now hysterical so I say night night and go to the toilet (I’m 6 months pregnant). My husband comes in to deal with it, ends up showing him videos on his phone. That’s still not enough for him and he screams when put back in his cot. It’s now 5am and we’ve both tried. We’ve tried explaining it to him, telling him he has to stay in his cot until morning as everyone is sleeping, tried saying ok one video then sleep but he still gets angry and wants more.
he actually makes me so angry that I end up speaking to him in an angry tone and when I leave the room I scream in frustration. Tonight I even threw my phone and went downstairs and screamed in the kitchen.
this is followed by lots of self loathing that I can’t keep it together, but I’m just so tired and scared about having a newborn soon with this going on. I just need it to end. I feel like I just want to leave the house and not come back as his crying makes me so angry.
He’s an intelligent boy I don’t know if explaining it to him in the day will help or something.
we have tried bringing him in our bed and he NEVER sleeps, just wriggles around and gets annoyed and wants to go downstairs.
it’s now 5.30 and I can still hear my husband dealing with him. I said we can’t give in to this but honestly what else can we do? He goes hysterical and cries for hours.
It doesn’t matter whether he naps or not. It doesn’t matter what his bedtime is. He just wakes up and doesn’t feel tired and therefore makes us do things with him.
At the moment it feels like life is hell. I have to go to work in 2 hours. I hate myself for getting so angry but in these moments I just hate him. I feel like the extreme anger I’m feeling probably comes from my childhood. My mum has told me that from about 1 year old I wanted to get up with my mum, one night she left me and I cried until the morning (for like 5 hours). I wonder if it’s history repeating. I feel like a terrible mother because I have always been quick to anger and can’t calm down, I mostly keep this in check and I’m very gentle and understanding with him, but when this happens at night I really struggle and I lose it and hate myself.
When he’s not doing this he is a wonderful, kind, gentle and sensitive child, not in any way crazy like some toddlers.
He is overtired from today because he was back at nursery after a holiday and I know he is over tired but how the hell do you get a toddler to just bloody sleep at night when they are over tired?!?! At my wits end