Help! Sleep issues with a 2 year old!

[spencersmommy]

My 2 1/2 year old DS is having sleep issues. He has always been a good sleeper, but the last 2 months have been hard. He has been resisting bedtime, normal I know, but how long will this last? He cries and yells out for us and lays awake for sometimes 2 hours. We have his door closed with the childproof handle on the inside. Otherwise, if we leave the door open, he gets out. We have talked about it, tried to give rewards. but no use. It's 10:00 now and he's yelling out every few minutes and we started putting him to bed at 8:00! We don't have a problem with CIO (I used Dr. Weissbluth's method for sleep training him as a baby), but that's not really the issue here. He is still taking a 3 hour nap in the PM. Could that be a problem?
As a side note, he takes a nap at his babysitter's house 4 days a week and goes to sleep fine on the floor with the other kids and the TV on.
Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

[kedss]

Do you have any music or sounds to put him to sleep with? He may be too awake to go to sleep if he has a long nap every afternoon. It also may be that he is used to going to sleep with other people around that its hard for him to get to sleep on his own.

We have the same problem getting our 2 year old to sleep if his afternoon nap is too long.

HTH!

[Jen841]

Jude is waking regularly in the night now, and is starting to resist his naps at home. This won't be much of an issue I hope ones he returns to Daycare after my leave.

White noise was suggested to me since they sleep so well at daycare. I got an alarm clock that make noise for a bit. A friend plays a noise machine for the entire nap.

Not sure of a cure, but will be checking back on this for my own benefit! Ironically I swear the boys have radar. One will wake than the other. Last night I had DH up with Jude while I was nursing Evan. They rarely overlap, it is normally me heading back to bed and hearing the other.

I need sleep!

[Momof3Labs]

I'd definitely trim that afternoon nap - bedtime got much harder and longer when our DS was napping like that in the afternoon but was close to dropping his nap altogether. I'd suggest keeping it to 1-1.5 hours. Also, you may want to go back to the crib if you can (I saw your post in another thread about that). He may not be ready for the big boy bed, particularly in the midst of so many other transitions (new sibling getting older, long naps, etc.).

[mominma]

I would definitely shorten the nap time. When my 2.5 year old is home with me she does not nap but when she is at daycare she sleeps for 2 hours. On those days, I cannot get her to sleep at night before 10:00. I know it sounds crazy but my husband and I gave up going up and down the stairs and found it easier just to let her stay up later when she has taken the long nap.

Also, when baby number 3 came home my 2.5 yr old started waking in the middle of the night only wanting Mommy! I think this was due to the transition of the baby and looking for so extra mommy time.


Melissa
DS 9/00
DD 3/03
It's a GIRL 8/30/05

[JacksMommy]

We had this problem for ages, ever since I stopped breastfeeding Jack to sleep at 18 months. Finally at 3, he started going to sleep after only (!) 45 mins to an hour of being awake.

Shortening the nap is definitely worth a try - he may not be tired enough to fall asleep.

The No-Cry sleep solution for toddlers has lots of great suggestions. We used a combination of music and books-on-CD before bed. A big hit was "Jack's bedtime book" which I made with pictures of him in every stage of his bedtime routine.

As for his yelling for you, I told Jack he could call me up to three times and then I wouldn't come back, then gradually lessened the number of times I was willing to come back in the room. Now he doesn't call out for me at all unless it's important. Pantley also has a suggestion of making mommy passes (can't remember what she called them) but the idea would be giving him three cards or tickets and when they are used up, you won't come in the room anymore.

As you say, CIO won't work at this point, but you could try offereing leaving the door open as an incentive to stay in bed.

Pantley has lots of good suggestions - I'd check the book out and see what you think will work for you.

Laurel
WOHM to Jack, 6/4/02
Baby Madeline 12/14/04

[spencersmommy]

Thanks everyone for some great ideas! I think I will shorten the nap time. Today he went back to daycare after a week off and he was a little mad at 8:00 bedtime, but he cried for about 2 minutes and was asleep pretty quickly. I know he only sleeps about 1.5-2 hours at daycare, so I guess the long nap time is over..
I think i will check out Pantley's book, though. THanks everyone!
:-)

[lisams]

I wonder if the 3 hour nap is making him stay up later and not be tired at the regular bedtime. I remember DD's bedtime getting later and later around this age, and then when she started dropping her nap or taking just 1 hour naps bedtime was easier (and earlier).