2 YR OLD STILL NOT SLEEPING THROUGH - AT END OF TETHER

[twotimestrouble]

HELP! DS2 is 25 months. He has never (and I mean NEVER) slept through the night. He doesn't sleep in the day either unless we happen to go on a car journey, where he nods off.

At 22 months he moved to a bed and being mobile he now wants to come in with us. He is a nightmare to settle down at night. Then when he wakes, if we ignore him he hangs onto the stairgate across his bedroom door and bangs his head again and again, and gets more and more hysterical. CC doesn't work (we tried it at 10 months and recently again - but he can go on for hours. DH says no more). He still has a bottle in the middle of the night and we have tried everything to stop this. If we pick him up and he comes to bed he goes straight to sleep.

It is really impacting our lives. We are so tired. His GPs won't have him to stay. We can't go out for the evening because he wakes at 11pm more or less every night. Even if I get him back to bed at this upset, he'll wake later to try and get into our bed. He wakes at 6am every morning.

He is an incredibly lively little boy. Very very boisterous against his peers. So he is exhausting in the day. I need to do something about nights. Or can someone tell me they do grow out of this?

twitimetrouble - am so glad you mentioned tis as your DC souds exactly like my DD who is 26 months. She goes to bed at 9:30pm and always wakes for milk at around 3am and then sometimes she settles straight to sleep and other times she is awake for ages. We've tried replacing milk with water, but it didn't workand the problem is as she is daddy's girl she wants my DH to sleep next to her, which is hard for him as he has to wake early as he has a demanding job. I think ~I'm defo going to speak to a GP about a sleep therapist.

amani let me know how you get on because I am going to do the same!

my little boy is exaclty the same hes 18 months and has not slept through a night of his life...never.

he'll wake at 2 if im lucky and for the rest of the night he's in with me.

he cries for milk (strawberry milk at that) and will not settle untill he gets it

so think imgoing through pretty much the same thing at mo

im preg with twins and the tiredness i am feeeling is crippling me. i am desperate for a night of full un interupted sleep...

argh babies... i bet the twins sleep through before my ds xx

It's exhausting april isn't it?

Have you tried reducing the strawberry ,ilk or making it less flavoursome.

We are now on night five of no milk and last night he accepted it without quarrel so beginning to make some inroads.

Just posting a note to sympathise fully with you. My DD2 is 22 months and very rarely sleeps through the night in her own bedroom. My DD1 was an extremely alert baby and never slept in the day and apart from a period between 6 - 9 months when she woke up and we used CC techniques she always slept through the night....so we could definitely handle the day thing because we slept. Since DD2 came on the scene we are constantly exhausted...I went back to work before she reached 4 months (a big mistake with hindsight) and I really don't know how I got through that year. I resigned last July due to being so knackered all the time and therefore feeling unable to cope. We have good and bad nights now...We haven't got the problem of the milk in the night though, but she wakes and wants to be with us in our bed. Funnily enough we took her to Greece when she was 5 weeks old and this week has been the best of her life sleep wise she slept soundly every night in a portable moses basket by our bed and only woke at 7am. We have never had another week like it.Would love to know how you get on as it may give me things to try with her.

I'll keep you posted keeva.

Out of interest, is DD in a cot or a bed now?

Still in a cot. She is very small for her age so I think we can get away with it for a while. However if I thought it would make a difference to her sleep, I would swap immediately...

No, it'll make it worse LOL

Sadly last night after 5 successful non-milk nights we had to give in (DS was under the weather) and so back to square one. Still tonight we'll try again.

Louie ended up in our bed at 5 am last night, quite a good night for her but still would like it to be all night.

I dont have a lot to add but this.

PLEASE PLEASE try a cranial osteopath. I am certain they will adivse you that ds is unable to settle for long periods because his brain is being stimulated from the inside (birth itself is a horribly traumatic event).
It helped loads and loads with my ds who had trouble sleeping