2 Year Old Suddenly Not Sleeping At Night

[VixenAndCub]

Hey Guys,

My 2 and a half year old son has always been decent with his sleep. We put in a routine since he was 3 months old, he hit a couple of regressions but has otherwise been decent.

But now he is waking up in the middle of the night, every night. He normally wakes up and starts babbling or calling out for me or my partner - so it's strange that nowadays he is waking up around midnight every night and SCREECHES. He's like a banshee up there!

The first time it happened I went in because it freaked me out and it was so unlike him. But he was fine, not hurt or distressed. But refused to go back down for ages. So I try not to go in anymore and see if he'll self-soothe but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he's still up, babbling and loudly talking to himself even if I cave in and go in and try and soothe him. Also had the neighbours complain to me so I really can't have him doing this every night.

He's started completely rejecting his mid-day nap. To be fair, he's been fine in the day. Gets sleepy and ready for bed at 7, and the second I leave after story time, he's out. Until midnight when the banshee shows up... It made me wonder if not having that nap has made him overtired. I literally try and get him down for over an hour in the afternoon and he's just not able to sleep in the day anymore.

He started playgroup a couple of hours on Weds/Thurs mornings last week, but this started happening just before that. So I don't think it's to blame?

Is this normal for 2.5 year olds? Is there another regression I just haven't been told about? I'm keeping to a 7pm-8am pattern because that's all my health visitor advised me to do when I asked her at his last check up. "Stick to your routine". Yet it's been over a fortnight and he's still doing this.

Don't think I can take much more, it wakes me up and keeps me and my partner up in the early hours. My neighbours are going to officially complain to the Council as well if I don't sort it out apparently...
Any tips/ideas? Thanks in advance!

Is still encourage the afternoon nap but move bedtime to 8pm and see if that helps.

Could he be cold abs that's what's waking him? I know I've awoken the last few nights abs had to put another layer on the bed.

@DominicRaabsTravelAgent
Thank you for the advice

Sometimes I've got him to snooze on the sofa for about half an hour to an hour, still wakes up around the same time every night. His room is always warm so he still just has a thin blanket with long sleeve PJs on right now, whenever I've had to go in at night he's been a comfortable temperature, but I'll certainly keep an eye on it. Moved him to 8pm bedtime starting today so I'll see if that makes a difference over the next few days.

Has he finished teething? If I remember rightly the last few teeth are doozies; coupled with major leaps in developmental disturbances it can make sleep a tricky period to navigate.

I’d try him with a dose of nurofen (I personally always found that best for teething) before bed and see if that makes a difference.

Firstly, I can't believe your neighbours are willing to complain to the council about a child in the night. I get it's not ideal but he's a child!?

Tbh I would get rid of the nap if he's rejecting it, power nap of 20 mins no later than 3 if he needs it to power through, but on the sofa etc not in bed.
I would also try white noise and/or a night light.

@Cornettoninja
That's a good shout. I completely forgot there was another set of molars to go. (Can you tell this is my first child? 😆) I'll check his mouth first thing, see what's going on in there. Thank you!

@RoseGoldGlasses
I know right. You can tell they've never had children. I get along really well with the neighbours on the other side - who confess they have also heard him from time to time, but like...they just shrug it off? They understand he's still a baby and isn't doing it on purpose. They're kids have long since grown up and moved out so they understand completely.

But yeah, they have apparently put a complaint in since he hasn't stopped since uploading the original post. So just waiting for the damn phone to ring, a letter or a knock on the door now.

My partner has been able to get him to kip on the sofa for a short cat-nap (he refuses to sleep with me around though, but his Dad is able to get him to sleep instantly for a nap. Figures.) but he's still waking up.
I'll put the nightlights back in, see if that helps. Before, a few months ago, it used to keep him up and he'd be there for hours staring at them going "wow!" every few minutes to keep himself awake. But worth another try. I'll bring back white noise too. It worked wonders when he was tiny, could get him past this spell.
Thank you!!

Yeah it's pretty heartless tbh, and I'm sure the council will just laugh at them because what exactly can they do!

They are worth a try, we still use white noise for our nearly 3 year old!
Also if you need to adjust bedtime do it, sometimes things just need abit tweaking.