How do we get out of this cycle of overtiredness?!

[brokenmummy]

DS is 14mo. Has been sleeping roughly 7-630 for a fee months now thank god. Regular routine is 20-30min nap at 10ish, and 1hr15 nap at 130ish. Was going really well, bags of energy all round, good eating and a very happy little chap.

Last weekend he had a couple of 8pm bedtimes followed by 6am starts, then on Monday we skipped the am nap as an experiement. Since then, sleep gone to pot. He is having short naps in the day, difficult to settle at bedtime and waking at 4.30-5ish for an hour or so before going back to sleep til 730. I have gone back to feeding him at this time as he screams blue murder and just won't settle for anything less. Yesterday he wouldn't resettle past 530, ugh.

He is teething molars but I think it is overtiredness overall. He is grumpy and grizzly all day now and clearly exhausted.

How do we get back on track? Am struggling to keep him up in the morning much past 9am which is too early and I imagine enforces the early waking. We tried 630bedtime last night but still up between 445 and 6am .

Hope someone can come along with some tips! Getting him to nap any longer is so hard - he has always been a bit of a catnapper.

No advice but Bump. Was about to post same in relation to my 6 mo. Travel has left us completely up the spout and in an over tiredness hole. Frequent night wakings to add to early wakings. Ugh.

Just an idea - could you try putting your DS down earlier than 7 for a while to try and get out of overtiredness cycle? Say 6.30? or even 6. I did that with my 8mo just this week and where as she would sleep 11 hours max if I put her down at 7, she slept 12 hours 6.30pm - 6.30am without waking at all. Before that she had been waking early in the morning and 4-5 times at night (overtiredness I think).

Hope this idea is helpful.

I suggest deciding what is your. Preferred bedtime, and sticking to it. Bed time and nap time are the only things you can control, so make them start when you think is best to. Then stick to them. The trouble you have seems to have started from an interruption to an established routine, so I would say that you need to re-establish a routine. good luck!

Thanks both. I think in our ase we need to catch up on sleep before re-establishing routine so will try early bed plan next week when my parents are around to help with older DS. Madallie - are you on 2 naps or 3, and did you have to adjust for early bed? Sorry for hijack broken

Yep, we also definitely need to reclaim some lost sleep. I tried 630pm bedtime last night and he still woke for an hour at 430, but maybe it will take a few days. 3early bedtimes and back to the old routine.

Hi Sychanamateur - we're on 2 naps. She dropped the 3rd one naturally but since she's go older and more physical she actually could prob do with re introducing it, altho am reluctant to do that now as hopefully soon she'll be better on just 2. It's just hard juggling it and getting it all right.

Well it seems the early bedtime helped, combined with a return to the proper routine - he slept 12.5hrs last night and is in a great mood so far this morning!