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Original poster

2 year sleep regression?

150 replies

Anne8888 · 30/11/2022 20:56

HELP!

My toddler who is 23 months has suddenly started refusing to sleep. He’s always been an amazing sleeper and would self settle no problem until 3 days go..

Every time I put him in his cot he is screaming for mummy/daddy.. last night it took him 2 hours to go to sleep but he woke up at 02:30am this morning screaming for us and we just ended up putting him in our bed because we were so tired 😴

Tonight he was screaming again and after about 40 mins my partner rocked him to sleep because we just don’t know what to do for the best… will probably get a wake up call early hours again 😫 he is also refusing to nap.

Any advice? Is the 2 year sleep regression actually a thing? How long does it last?

OP posts:
iloveyankeecandle · 18/12/2022 19:04

@Anne8888 still the same unfortunately. Needs us next to him to fall asleep on an evening. Then wakes at least twice in the night and needs us again. He's so so sad. We did have some stuff in his room which I did wonder had upset him but that's all gone now and he's still the same. Though last night he woke up and was just babbling. Then he started crying. I went in to him and he struggled to get back to sleep. It was 430am!! He eventually went off and woke at 7. Naps are all over the place. Normally on an afternoon but will be long or short. Just depends. I'm really at a loss now. Im thinking it might be developmental too as his speech is really coming on at the moment. He'll be up with Father Christmas at this rate!!

AnyLightAtTheEnd · 19/12/2022 08:30

Dropped the nap, but still refusing to go to bed. I've just accepted that she's going to sleep in my bed for the near future, although she's still waking multiple times even with me next to her.

Happycroc · 19/12/2022 09:29

Another bad night, we’re now exactly 2 months on from “the change”! She was awake just once and settled fairly quickly but she was awake and ready to start the day at 4.30am. I lay in her bed with her for just under an hour (I’d been awake since DS came and announced he needed a wee at 3.15) by 5.30 I’d had enough, handed her an iPad and went back to my bed and had a cry!

BabyBuddy · 19/12/2022 10:31

We have had multiple middle of the night wakes ups on alternative days this week. Better than last week’s waking up middle of the night everyday.
But I’m dreading today. I work evening shifts twice a week. I finish work at 11pm and get home only at 12am. My son started having sleeping issues in August after he started waiting for me to go to bed. He would stay awake till I reach home.
I then called in sick at work and have been off work for past couple of weeks after I started having migraine due to no sleep.
I need to return to work today and will finish work at 11pm. Pray for me.
Im having anxiety and I feel like I’m never ever going to sleep again.

iloveyankeecandle · 19/12/2022 18:19

What is going on with these kids? It's mind blowing. Had mine in bed with me last night. But he was awake for ages in the night. I just don't know what to do. Dh says accept it and move on. I think I'd cope better if he went down ok like he used to. Now I'm having to stay every night. We're into our third week now.

CupidStunt24 · 20/12/2022 22:27

Oh I've just started my own thread about my 23mo sleep going to shit all of a sudden! Should have read this first...

So it seems a general theme that this age is a bugger for sleep!

KangarooMay · 20/12/2022 23:09

Just here for solidarity. My DS is almost 2.5yrs and it's been going on for 3 months now so I was reassured to see another 2 monther! Usually sleep phases don't last this long so I feel at the end of my tether waiting for this one to end.
Def coincides with nap dropping, we've also just moved house which doesn't help. Just feel so desperate not having easy answers and a strong willed child screaming and refusing to sleep.
Grateful to find the thread though and be reassured that it is just one of those things....🙏🙏🙏 It will pass.

LGBirmingham · 21/12/2022 09:29

Hi all, I hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread but I'm wondering if this 2 year regression is us too? Just reposting this from another thread -

We're also having nightmarish sleep with our just turned 2 year old. You have my sympathy. 2 months ago he was sleeping through or waking once and easily going back to sleep. Occasional early starts but all very manageable.

Then he started to get his back molars so we inevitably had bad sleep, pretty sure they're through now but it'shard to tell. But now he has ear infections which are not shifting. So obviously that is also causing sleep disruption. But it's not just that.

Yesterday they let him have a longer catch up sleep at nursery (we've been capping naps for some time) he went to bed fine and he woke up in pain (screaming and poking his ear) 2 times last night so gave pain killer and went back to sleep fine. But at 4:40 he just wouldn't go back to sleep at all! Was happy though. That's an abnormally early morning for him. I'm pretty sure it is the longer nap?

It's so hard to tell with the medical issues but do you think the nap could be causing us issues? Sometimes in the night he's been waking but not sounding distressed and in pain, just saying mummy and wanting me there, going back to sleep OK and then waking again 15 mins later for more of the same.

iloveyankeecandle · 22/12/2022 20:52

This is getting worse. Not better. Thinking of speaking to a sleep consultant!!

Original poster
Anne8888 · 23/12/2022 00:01

Just to update you all I think we have turned a corner… don’t want to speak too soon! But he’s back to self settling and slept through last night 🤞really hoping this is the end of a very draining 3 weeks!

OP posts:
iloveyankeecandle · 23/12/2022 06:57

@Anne8888 I'm
So happy for you and so very jealous. Last night was the worst. Won't settle without us. Constantly waking in the night. Took him in bed with us and also didn't settle. I don't know if this is regression or not. We are just over 2.5 weeks in. He's very upset at bedtime and through the night when he wakes and also getting up very early. We're done in. Just greatful I don't have work today.

iloveyankeecandle · 23/12/2022 06:58

@Anne8888 can I ask if you were still putting him in your bed during the regression and helping him back to sleep?

Original poster
Anne8888 · 23/12/2022 07:26

@iloveyankeecandle its awful isn’t it, I really hope you’re out of it soon 🤞I was putting him in bed at first but then I stopped, he’s horrible to sleep with such a wriggler! So when he woke in the night we would go and lie on the floor next to his bed. We also decided to change the cot into a bed.. not sure if that helped

OP posts:
iloveyankeecandle · 23/12/2022 08:04

@Anne8888 I'm thinking of taking the side off the cot too. If I knew it would be back to normal soon then I'd just get on with it. But it's not knowing and then wondering if we're making a rod for our own back

Original poster
Anne8888 · 23/12/2022 08:09

@iloveyankeecandle yes that’s what we thought but we just decided to take the risk and took one side off.. I honestly thought it was never going to end 🙈 we also introduced a bed time story and he will happily walk upstairs now if we tell him it’s story time and as soon as I turn the last page of the book he gets up off my knee and gets into bed by himself, I honestly can’t believe it! Whereas before as soon as we carried him into the hallway to take him up he would be screaming!

OP posts:
iloveyankeecandle · 23/12/2022 11:44

@Anne8888 that's where we are. With the screaming and crying. He's always had a bath pjs story and into bed fine. Now he won't have a story as he knows what's coming. I think I'm going to have to take the side off.

AnyLightAtTheEnd · 23/12/2022 15:08

Taking the sides off now is a good idea as you have nothing to lose. You don't want to get them back into a good sleep pattern then take the sides off and have to start all over again.

Happycroc · 23/12/2022 15:51

if you take the side off you can put a baby gate on the door frame so that the door is still open but they are contained, and obviously make sure everything they can get to in their bedroom is toddler friendly! A couple of times we’ve found DD playing with toys/ reading books in the middle of the night!

we’ve done two nights at my mum’s, 4 to go, then 6 nights at the PIL straight after. The kids are having to share a bed here and there which they have never done before. Night one, DD snuck into bed with DS (6) and they both slept through to 5.50am. Night two, she had a little cry at some point in the night but went straight back to bed and sleep and again they were up at 5.50am. I feel sorry for DS as he usually doesn’t get up until about 6.30 and he is very grumpy but he and I also have this horrid cold that is going round so the grumpiness could also be that.

if they both start sleeping well whilst we’re away I might make them share when we get home!! Don’t think DS would be up for that though!

iloveyankeecandle · 23/12/2022 20:08

@Happycroc aah. Hope you have some good nights away!

iloveyankeecandle · 24/12/2022 09:11

Bars were down. It wasn't a problem at all really. Still multiple wake ups but went back to sleep quicker

iloveyankeecandle · 28/12/2022 10:07

How's everyone getting on? We had a longer stretch last night but he's also got a temp!

Original poster
Anne8888 · 28/12/2022 23:21

@iloveyankeecandle we are all good now at bedtime 🤞it’s just nap time that I have to lie next to him for him to go to sleep

OP posts:
Happycroc · 29/12/2022 08:18

I’m not going to lie, Christmas has been hell, we all came down with a virus in the days leading up to Xmas day and that made sleep even worse! Bizarrely DS and DD having to share a room hasn’t been the bad part!! Both kids now have a horrid cough which is waking them multiple times a night, not sure if I can still blame the sleep regression entirely!

I got a watch for Xmas which tracks sleep… I think it better depicts how out our nights are going:

2 year sleep regression?
iloveyankeecandle · 29/12/2022 20:32

@Happycroc I'm so sorry. It's awful when they're poorly. We had a bad night again last night. Had to have him in bed with us. But his temp has been up and down. I'm just riding it out until he's better than I'll focus on what real sleep is looking like.

BabyBuddy · 30/12/2022 15:04

@Happycroc same with us. My 23 month old had a high temperature for 2 days and on Christmas Day he was sneezing and coughing and everything. He still has a runny nose and wakes up coughing in the night. I’m still congested too. It’s been 9 days for me today.
I wake up coughing too and coughing throughout the day. Just hoping my boy gets better.