I need some advise or reassurance from a parent who has gone through the same thing, my son used to sleep 13hrs solid a night up until 2.5yrs old then it all went tits up from there! At the time we moved him to a big boy bed and he had become afraid of the dark.
My son has to fall asleep with either DH or myself in the room with him with the main lights on (he has a bright night light too for when the main lights go out) every night is the same, he wakes up crying up to 2x a night sometimes running into our room with every excuse he can think of where we mostly take him back to his room to get him back to sleep but he screams if we try to leave and he can take up to 1.5-2hrs to fall back to sleep and we’re TIRED. He has night terrors too about 2-3x a week where we go in to settle him whilst he’s still in the dream like state.
we’ve tried magnesium, cutting off screen time 2hrs before bed, sitting on a stool outside his room, bribery, BEGGING, speaking to a sleep consultant, cutting out sugar. From the day he was born he’s had a bedtime routine but he’s become VERY anxious at bedtime and i don’t know why?
one night whilst he was falling asleep at bedtime i noticed he was mouth breathing and would have periods of sleep apnea which alarmed me, i took him to the dr’s where they confirmed he has polyps in his nose and enlarged tonsils so i think this is playing a massive part in why he’s waking up so we’ve been referred to the ENT department to get it sorted.
i went to speak to a dr again the other day to say that we haven’t had a full night sleep in 2.7yrs, we’ve tried everything to get him to sleep and its affecting everyone, my son is tired in the day and lashes out sometimes because of it and im also concerned because he’s starting school next week, the dr could sympathise and has also referred us to paediatrics because he believes melatonin is the best solution.
i just want to add also, we have tired the gentle and tough approach (apart from during night terrors), nothing has worked. He’s an extremely determined strong willed intelligent little boy and will not give up the fight no matter how hard or long we try. To try and reassure him, we told him that if he wakes in the night he needs to lie down and go back to sleep and not wake mummy and daddy but if he’s poorly or has wet the bed in his sleep he can call for us. That’s where i messed up though because there was a period of time where he was waking up and wetting the bed on purpose just so he had a reason to call for us. I realised he was doing it on purpose when i went in and he was completely awake not distressed and the wet patch was where he was sat up by his pillow, i asked him if he did it whilst awake and he smirked like he realised he’d been caught and said yes. I told him if he did it again on purpose he’d be wearing nappies to sleep in (which i did have to do on a few occasions) when he realised that wasn’t going to work anymore he stopped wetting the bed.
we’re desperate for some advise!