I have 2 DS. DS1 is 2.5 and DS2 is 1.1. Both go to daycare 3 days a week.
DS1 dropped his daytime nap about 6 weeks ago as it was taking up to 2 hours to get him to sleep every night. DS2 has been a shit sleeper from day 1 and despite CC to encourage self settling, and a strict routine, he still manages to wake for extended periods during the night. He was on a 6am - 7.30pm routine with a long nap in the middle until recently. For information, if it matters, he's still in our room. This is hopefully going to change in next month with both DSs in their own rooms, though I am totally open to them sharing a room if anyone thinks it might help.
So after months of disastrous nights and mistakes at work, we paid £50 to a sleep consultant and she advised DS2 was most likely overtired. This made a lot of sense and so we changed his routine to the following;
Non daycare days
Wake at 6am
Nap for 30 mins at 9.30am
Nap for 2/2.5 hours at 12/12.30pm - up by 3pm at latest
Bedtime at 7pm absolute latest (consultant actually suggested he should be in bed by 6.30pm but that would mean DH wouldn't see him during weeek at all so we aim for 7pm).
Daycare days the routine is as above but without the morning 30 minute snooze as he's just not interested there.
It was bloody awful for the first week or 10 days. DS1 was great and really responded to the earlier bedtime, while DS2 screamed the house down and then woke twice as much as usual during the night. Encouragement from the sleep consultant kept us going and for a week or so DS2 slept 7pm - 6am without waking, putting himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime without a problem.
Until the last 2 nights. DS2 has had no issues with naps at home, though he is only sleeping one hour tops in daycare at lunchtime. Bedtime hasn't changed, but we've had significant night wakings and DS2 was awake for 3 hours from 1.30-4.30 last night, then up again at 6am and apparently has only slept for an hour today.
DS1 is all dark shadows and grumpy and I don't know if thats because he's been disturbed by DS2 (though if he's being woken up he's not letting on). DS1 would wake occassionally for a drink anyway, but he's easily settled and now sleeps 7 - 6/6.30pm. I fear that might be an hour or two less than he needs?
DH is great and we're sharing the load but it does mean there are 2 tired, grumpy adults in a house with 2 tired, grumpy toddlers so you can imagine it's not the funfilled happy family we envisaged.
Foodwise they're both great eaters. If I thought it was hunger, I'd just feed them more but I know that's not it. DS2 doesn't have any bottles at all but is offered cups of milk, though not before bed (constant cold + phlegm = vomiting up milk which isn't pleasant, so we dropped bottles on GP advice at about 11 months).
Can anyone suggest or detect what might be the problem? We'll perservere with the routine, sticking to a bedtime that's as early as possible. There are blackout blinds in all our bedrooms and both DSs have their own comforters. Bedtime routine is well established and includes bath, pjs, stories and cuddles before into sleeping bag/bed and lights out. All suggestions or advice welcome, and my sincerest apologies for this long post!