2y10m old and sleep...or lack of!

[misspiggy17]

Hi,
My little one has never been a fan of sleep...ever! However wondering if anyone has any tips.
Getting him to nap at all now is impossible. He simply refuses and if I put him in his bed, he sings and dances around usually waking his 1yo sister. If he has a nap, he ALWAYS wakes in a foul mood - I mean screaming, shouting monster mood. If he doesn't have a nap, he is in a foul mood later too - so basically nap or no nap, he's grumpy in the afternoon and evening.

At nighttime, if he's had a nap he will not go to sleep until past 9, 9.30 pm - again singing, dancing, jumping around (he doesn't have toys in his room). If he hasn't had a nap, he falls asleep quite quickly.
Whether he naps or not, he always wakes in the night shouting and wailing. If we leave him, he just continues - the most I've left him is 2.5h so I have REALLY tried to not go into him. If we go in, sometimes he just wants a kiss and to go back to sleep, sometimes he just wants to scream louder.

Essentially, there is no method to his sleep madness. He seems cranky in the evenings and wakes multiple times in the night. I believe all this is overtiredness but I've put him to sleep earlier and it has no effect.

Help and ideas please from a very tired, very teary mum! X

I would have a read here for some ideas. www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/night-awakenings.html

I would stick to no daytime nap as an easier bedtime sounds better if he's going to be grumpy regardless.

Also, the only thing that jumps out from your thread is consistency. Make sure you stick with the same plan of attack for 2 weeks at a time before giving up.

I would wear earplugs and ignore him for two weeks if it was me and I was sure that he was warm, dry etc. I expect that it's a habit. My DS got into this when we were staying with the in laws and i HAD to respond to every whimper. He got very used to it and liked to hang around with Mum or Dad in the middle of the night. 3/4 nights of being ignored and he seemed to give up.

Oh I feel your pain! MY ds will be 3 in August and as soon as he hit 2 it was like 'no need a nap mummy'. Meanwhile mummy was pregnant and exhausted! Great timing! I tried for months to put him down and was up and down the stairs to him like 20 times and like yours he is mega grumpy/overtired whether he has a nap or not. So I basically accepted it was easier for him not to nap and it gave us more freedom if there was a day we had an outing or something.

However I introduced 'quiet time' instead where he could come and lie down with me, or play quietly while I had a rest. He usually only lasts about an hour max, but at least it keeps that sort of after lunch routine going. It's great now that my ds2 is here too as it would have been impossible to get them both to nap at the same time in between feeds etc. and I would have been running up and down the stairs like an idiot most of the day.

Of course it means I don't get a minute to myself for about 14 hours a day! However it is a natural progression and the mega grumpiness still exists which is a real pain, but he does fall asleep really quickly at night and I guess he'll get used to it in time.

I agree you have to be consistent and we had to be really firm as he would try every excuse under the sun not to go to bed. We now use a Gro Clock and he knows he's not to get up/shout on us until the sun comes up and that usually works. Good luck!x