Hi
I'll start at the beginning - this may get a bit long, sorry.
For the last month or so our 21mo has been waking around 5am and ready to start the day - no going back to sleep. He has also been very difficult to put down for his after-lunch nap. I stupidly got into a routine of rocking him to sleep (he used to self-settle). Bedtime was not too bad - he was either exhausted and fell asleep drinking his milk or would self-settle after a nice cuddle.
We had planned to move him to a toddler bed w/c 6 June as we had the week off to catch up on sleep! He was able to climb out of his cot.
So we moved him to the bed after leaving it in the room for a couple of nights for him to get used to seeing it. He didnt sleep that well in it but not really any worse than he had in the cot so we perseveered.
Now:
He is very difficult to get asleep at all. We just pray he is exhausted and falls asleep drinking his milk as he won't allow us to rock him to sleep even. He fights and kicks if I try to cuddle him. 3 nights this week he has refused to sleep until 9:30-10pm. He just lies there eyes wide open saying "mama?" every now and then to make sure I am still there.
I dont want to give him the wrong idea by letting him get back up and play. Taking him out for a drive isnt practical as carrying him from the car wakes him again.
We havent changed his routeine, only his bed and it is in the same position as his cot was.
Last night I perseveered with the 'Super Nanny' thing of just silently putting him back in bed every time he tries to leave his room. To start with he thinks its a game, them realises what I'm doing and get a bit cross. He is getting out of bed again before I've even left the room! After an hour (9.15pm) I put him in bed and stoked his head a few times and he fell asleep quickly. He woke at 1:15am and came to find me but fell straight to sleep when I put him back in bed. He was up at 5am this morning.
Why wont he go to sleep? I can see if he goes to sleep early he has had enough sleep by 5am but he gets plenty of exercise in the day - I dont understand why he's so awake at 9pm! He sleeps for around 90mins at approx 1pm.
Any advice please?