Ok shout at me if you feel the need but i am exhausted!!!

[TLESinChristmasStockings]

DS2 has gone from being a brilliant sleeper to a nightmare and for the last 4 weeks has not gone to sleep before 1.30am and some night he has been awake until 3.30am.

I am totally exhausted as I then have to be up at 6.30 to get DS1 up for school.

I have medised, phenergan and calpol in my cupboard.

I am sitting here wondering if it would, just so i can catch up on sleep, be ok to give him either medised or phenergan just for tonight.

I have tried so many methods to get him to sleep earlier but it is not working and now I am so tired that I am struggling in the day to stay awake.

2 yrs 2 m

is he in a bed or cot? is he upset or just awake? what would he do if you put him down then just went to your own bed saying 'mummy is too tired and needs to sleep'?

what if he was in your room and could see you (pretending to be) asleep? would he still wake you up?

He is in a bed, has been since before he was 1. He is not upset just full of beans tbh. His bed is in my room so he can see me. If i get in my bed he gets on and jumps every where. Its not that he wakes me up, because he just isn't sleeping.

If i cut his day time sleep out then he falls asleep about 7 and is wide awake and ready to rumble until 3-4am. If i let him sleep in the day then he is asleep any time between 9-12.

he is always up by 8am and full of life until 11am then naps for an hour and is on the go again.

If you asked my DH, he'd say go with the medised. I have been guilty of doing this in the past, though mainly when it's a cough causing the initial waking.

I reckon it depends on your situation really. The medised MIGHT work, and you will therefore get some sleep and feel far more able to deal with tomorrow (and the rest of the week) BUT it won't sort out the actual problem. Could you try putting him to bed at normal time and then ignoring him for a bit? See if he'll go off? He might just be going for the extra-attention-from-Mummy angle, and then developed a habit (I remember my twins doing this. The habit seemed to develop very quickly and take a while to break, but we got there in the end through just putting them to bed and then refusing to take much notice)

Good luck! Lack of sleep is the worst.

Does he sleep in the day? There must be a reason why he has suddenly gone from being a brilliant sleeper to not wanting to go off. Is he simply not tired in the eve as at 2 it should be easy to tire him out so that he is too tired to stay awake in the evening. Is he warm - try tucking a warm hot water bottle up with him and a story cd. I am a great believer in medised and my three lived on the stuff but I dont think it would be strong enough to knock him out if he is fully awake.

Riven nope not special needs just very active and always on the go....Iremember when he slept 7pm -8am.. then he got older arghhhhhhh lol.

I had phenergan for ds1 and it worked for him.....for a while.

I would say try it
but be warned medisad doesn't alwasy knock them

mine just get a clear nose and thats it

gecko still wakes every 2 ish hours even with a dose of medised to help her breathe through her nose

oops. Cross post. You could get him up earlier - 8 is late in the morning to start the day and by bringing it forward he will probably go off earlier eventually (wont help tonight though!). And allow 30 mins max sleep in the day (all three of my dds had cut out their day sleep by two as they didnt need much sleep at all). At 2 my children were rising at 4.30 in the morning, but would go off well at night. Some children seem to go through a stage of needing little sleep and perhaps you are getting the sleep period late in the night where I got it early!

I used phenergan once to try to get the twins to sleep on a long car/ferry journey from France to home. It sent them completely hyper and was a total nightmare. If it worked for ds1, then maybe try it. If you get even one night's sleep, it will make it so much easier to deal with.

Ok Admission time he will not sleep in his bed until he is in a deep sleep. I sit in the living room with him, have lights off tv off or baby tv on. If this is not on he doesn't sleep at all he just jumps and jumps and jumps and climbs and sing tinkle tinkle star and shouts mama burp daddy bed, and so on.

So my first port of call ATM is to get him to sleep earlier and THEN get him to sleep in his bed iyswim?

If he doesn't have his nap in the day its almost as if when he falls asleep at 7/8pm he uses this as his nap if that makes sense???

He only sleeps if he is snuggled up so the heating is on and he has his pjs and 90000000 blankets that we have to take everywhere with us lol.

He has had a lot of phlegm (sp) on his chest for a few weeks as well so wonder if this is a factor??

Found the cause for this as my chest (asthma) has been bad as well. It is all related to the damp in our bedroom.

errrr what else......

as I say its not an initial waking he just seems not to need the sleep.....I know how my mum felt with me now!!! she used phenergan on me and had sleep lol.

OOppss cross posted!!

Riven lol kids eh???

I got him up today at 7 when I had had a cigarette coffee and breakfast. he then fell asleep at 11 until 12 and been on the go since.

I think perhaps that as he has got older he is more aware and going to sleep on the sofa is not working for him. You need to step back and restart his bedtime routine, not using medicine to knock him out. There is no way that with another DS and DP that downstairs will be calm enough for him to relax in to sleeping now he is becoming more aware.

You need to get a good slow bedtime routine going, upstairs. Once upstairs don't go back down. Bath, milk and stories then in to bed. Even if you have to lay with him till asleep, it is easier for you in the long run.

He will appear to not be tired because he is getting too tired and getting excitable.

Sounds hard work. Personally I would use medised or something tommorrow night but only allow 30 min nap in day, and get him up early. Then give medised in eve and put him into his bed and do controlled crying. For your sake you must get him going off to sleep by himself in his bed. It will be hell for a few days but with a sleepy routine (lavender bath, story, hot water bottle), medised and tiredness you will crack it quickly I am sure. But then I cant talk as my children were dreadful sleepers! But I did learn by number 3!!

Am with the others here. Sounds very much like you need to start all over again with a proper bedtime routine. What worked when he was a baby and just toddling is not going to carry on working as he becomes more aware of what's going on and who's still up and so on. Unfortunately, all these things that made our lives easier when the DCs were tiny seem to have the opposite effect as they get older!

I'd go with making a big deal of "new" bedtime (maybe because he's such a big boy now??) - so upstairs, bath, stories, put to bed in his own bed, with his pyjamas and blankets then just leave him. It will be hellish for a while, but persevere. It will be well worth it in the end.

Thanks Ladies I knew I could rely on you!!!
AM going to start tomorrow night with new bedtime routine, will go and buy him new pjs and lavender smelly stuff.....

You absolutely need a proper bedtime routine.

To his mind, his bed and bedroom are not places where he goes to fall asleep. That needs to change, and it might be hard work for a while to help him learn that connection.

TV right before bed is a really bad idea IMO especially for very young children.

oh god.. if i were you i'd get into bed with him at about 8pm and probably be sound asleep whether he was or not

if you're really so exhausted you could try going to bed at the same time as him while you introduce the 'bedtime routine'.