2.7yr old DS waking at 6am, won't nap but then can't make it until tea time....

[bohemianbint]

DS has slept from 7-7 for about two years with a nap in the middle of the day, but 2 months ago dropped the nap. This has been hideous as he gets too tired in the late afternoon and starts acting like Satan, and it's just when I need it most having DS2 (nearly 7 months.)

To make matters worse - this last week he's been waking up at 6am saying he wants his nappy changed every single day. If you change him he won't go back down, if you ignore him he won't shut up, he won't play quietly in his room or go back to sleep so that's us up from 6am. I know people are up earlier than that and it could be worse, but he still refuses to nap in the day (unless we're in the car around 1pm ish) and then by 5pm he melts down and is too tired to eat, but it's obviously too early for him to go to bed.

What can we do? DS2 is ill at the mo and the last few nights have been getting 3 hours broken sleep, and as soon as DS2 settles, DS1 is up at 6am. This lack of sleep is not sustainable, am fantasising about knocking myself out so that I can have a rest in hospital...

Ditto, but I don't have another child to deal with on topog that.
My DD slept from 5 weeks and always loved her sleep.
Now, if she has an afternoon nap she will be a child of Satan if you try and wake her after 30 mins. It actually is a task in itself and she ends uphaving 2 hours like she used to and it then messes up her evening routine!
I have to take her out of the house to keep her occupied and awake and like you from 4pm it is challenging!! She will go to bed without tea sometimes as she is too tired and doesn't want to eat.
I have found it helpful to take her out on the car when she will have a quick power nap enroute to the park or ducks etc. This is then enough to keep her going. Not so easy with 2 I imagine. How does it work if you try and go for a stroll before dinner? Will he walk or be that tired he will just make the whole ordeal impossible ?

My nephew is the same and he is over 3. He falls asleep in his dinner, literally! Yet his brother who is 4 now and started school would still sleep if you let him but is old enough to know why he can't!

Good luck x

Is he in a cot or bed?

I used to put DS into his cot with his books and side light on for some 'quiet time'. More often than not he'd fall asleep. His room as black out blinds though so its properly dark, and I think that helped. He'd never have settled in the daylight.

How about trying to give him a snack at about 10.30/11 then putting him in his room for half an hour to see if he'll go for that? If he's having an early start, an early 'rest' then he might then make it through til 7 pm.

I don't really know what else to suggest other than grit your teeth and remember "this too shall pass". Good luck

I too would try the darkened room option - both my boys have black out blinds and thick curtains. If my eldest is playing up I will give him a torch and a book and tell him I will be back in one minute...... 10 min later he is mostly asleep.

My CM snuggles on the sofa with a blanket and put's on the tv - that seems to work.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies. He's in a bed, and has also just learnt how to scale the stairgate that we had on his door to stop him wandering. So we literally have no way of containing him.

He does have a blackout blind but light gets in over the top - I might have to get the spare black out material and try and block out any extra that is getting in and hope that makes the difference.

I'd just got used to the no-nap situation but I cannot deal with no nap and 6am starts. Combine that with the fact that we don't get any sort of evening (DS2 not in any kind of routine and quite often is awake on and off til midnight, followed by thrashing about until 6am) I'm going totally mental.

DH has been getting up and and changing DS1 at 6am and trying to make him go back to sleep, but if he doesn't keep him up he just shouts for an hour and that's no use either.

Ah well. As you say foxsake - it will pass. I just hope it does before I do!

Right - have blacked out the windows, it's like the war's still on. Hopefully that'll help...

My ds is exaclty the same, 2/7years. He doesn't nap anymore , is a nightmare in the afternoon and has started waking at 6!! And I have dd, 14 wks who feeds all night. I just manage to settle dd after the 3rd feed of the night and then we hear ds's footsteps coming down the corridor! He usually comes into bed with us but he won't sleep, just chats to us and pokes his dd.
In the aft its tantrum central and he falls asleep in his dinner (i have this on video).
Sometimes he falls asleep on the sofa or has a kip in the car (I've taken to driving around alot, not v green) and it makes my aft so much more pleasant. I'm just hoping it'll pan out soon and he'll learn to be awake all day and asleep all night.