Its 2am and once again our DS is wide awake and likely will be for the next few hours.
DS is 17 months old and has never been a great sleeper (its a good night if he only wakes every 2 hours...), but in the last 6 weeks he has just been killing us.
About the time he started to walk he started waking between midnight and 2am and being wide awake wanting to play. He has been co sleeping with us since about 12 months (when we had to lower the crib my DW could cope with lofting him in and out - bad back) so wide awake means him writhing in the bed, head butting us (accidentally i keep reassuring my DW...), poking, screaming etc. So any of could get som sleep i started taking downstairs so he could wear himself out and we could finally go back to sleep. His wake up were an hour or so to start with but have kept getting longer, peaking at 5 hours but more usually 3.
I thought it mist be sleep regression, tough it out for a few weeks and we will be back to manageable. Its bow 6 weeks and i have no idea what to do.
Ive stopped taking him downstairs to watch telly as i was concerned it was too fun for him and would just lead to more wake ups. Now we shit ourselves in the spare bedroom with a few non exciting toys (books, blocks, nothing electronic or noisy) and i try and wait it out with him while I pretend to sleep mostly hoping he gets the idea.
We try to get him up at 8am but when we are both exhausted and he will sleep in (he is up all night so left to his own decices happily snoozes till 10-11) its hard.
He was on a single 2 hour ish nap at 1pm before this recent nightmare. Now he tends to have a nap mid day and then another a out 6pm. Then goes to bed 10-11pm. This means we get no evening to ourselves but have found over the last couple of weeks it's the best chance of him not waking i. The night. If he goes to bed earlier (not having had the second nap) hes woken up every time.
Im really at a loss for what to do. My DW suffers from depression and the thought of getting up in the night for several hours and then having to function the next day is enough to trigger a breakdown. So i do every time and try and try to manage on a few hours and what naps i can sneak in around work.
Any ideas? I just don't know what to try and don't know how long this can go on.