Sleep routine issues for toddler

Basically, I am at my wit's end with trying sooooo hard to establish a normal slwep routine for my son for 1.5 years. He is just about 21 months now. I let my amxiety go about this for almost the entire first year as terthing was bad and kept him up and thank goodness for bf to soothe but now almost all his teeth are in (hooray!) And I cannot get him to go sleep at a decent time for kids....

Ok so he does have a nice pattern...i.e. Once he wakes up he can go about 5-6 hours before his only nap for the day....then after nap again about 6 hours before bed...ideally nap time would be about 1.5 - 2 hours but we get this wavering sometimes 3 hours and when he is a bit under the wearher or teething would do even 4 hour nap....

But so ok all that is manageable BUT now almost without me being able to control it like one night a couple months ago he had one of those long naps and it went from 2-6 pm meaning he wouldn't now sleep for the night again until after midnight...baaad...
Now I can't get him out of this destructive pattern no matter what I try..... Like he will then wake up in the morning after only like 8 or 9 hours sleep, meaning I can't get him out midday for playing etc anyway....then nap is pushed to 3 pm which even with a nice 2 hrs only still gets us to 5 pm then it repeats with him not sleeping till after 11 or midnight....

I cannot.....this is too much because my anxiety is mounting as I know medically the best sleep for LO regarding melatonin is between 7pm-midnight and he is missing all that....im.super stressed too as Im so damn tired (single mom) at end of day and if its after midnight i just pass out next to him instead of staying up to finish household chores (my house is jow always in constant disarray and it gets so stressful and I end up feeling ovwrwhelmed and stressed i just sit for a cup of coffeee at 5 am and then feel guilty and wait for him to wake up in 2 hours never enough time to finish all laundry or cook so it gets done with him watching "shows" in high chair)

You see....i had a nice 3 day stretch couple months ago where he went down for sleep at 8 and woke up nicely at 7 am then nap at 12 to 2 and then nice nighttime by 8pm again and I was so pleasant and got my stuff done too and he was way less fussy...then that dreaded out of the blue long nap or fighting sleep and we got totally off track....i dont get it why did I get shown a scene of what heaven is like to have it taken away....

I just dont know how to get him to sleep now properly as this has now becoke his new "norm"

And trust me because I never had good sleep routinea and I see how much that has impacted me as an adult I want and need so badly to get him to sleep at a correct time.

I'm so desparate, thought I'd ask on here for some advice or see if anyone else gas ever had this happen.

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

What time is he waking now? 7 am ?

Nope 9 am

Or even 10 am if he slept at 12:30 or 1 am!!!

Ah ok well maybe it would be worth waking him up at maybe 8 am? I know he would be narky and they say never wake a sleeping baby but I think if you do it gradually, he would just get used to let say the 9am start.

So I would wake him early and then try to get him down by 11 initially and if he has 3 hrs then he could be in bed by 7/8 depending on how it is. I know it might not be good initially and maybe a transition period is better but that's what I would try to do! X

I don’t know but think read somewhere to change a habit move their clock a little every day.
So if he’s waking at 9 now then

Day one - wake him at 8:45. Nap 1:45. (Maybe try and limit this to hour and half?) then bed time as you say 6 hours later would be 9:15pm

Day two. Move again 15 mins. So wake at 8:30. Nap 1:30 bedtime 9pm

Then keep going until the times that suit. If a day is a struggle do a couple of days on that time then adjust the next day.

We are no way experts lol. But my LO is 19 months and she wake between 7/7:30. Naps between 11/12 for 1.5 and bed time 7:30ish
This isn’t strict and can vary on a day. I don’t let her nap after 3pm as this effects bedtime.

Try not to stress though. You’ve got this mumma 😘

Wow thank you everyone....i will definitely try to wake a bit earlier slowly....

in our community

Breastfeeding

So I see that a lot of moms on here are exclusively breastfeeding and I wanted to know was it hard for you the first little bit and I assume it eventually gets easier and at what point is that? I’m 4 wks pp and some days I feel like I’m getting the hang of it but other days I’m like maybe I should just pump or give formula and nothing wrong with that a few months in I did that with my first. But I really wanna give it a proper shot this time

Please give me all tips and tricks that worked for you sometimes my baby keeps falling asleep at the breast every 4-5 m so I feel like I’m constantly feeding her. Nothing wakes her up not diaper changes, not tickling or applying cold she just wakes up like half an hour later and I’m feeding her again. So for times like that I get so frustrated she’s not getting a full feed at the boob

Anyways just wondering if it ever gets easier, less painful, faster and you become more confident because I’m already 4 weeks and don’t feel that

Early mornings

Hi! My 6 month old has got into the habit of wanting to start the day at 5am instead of 6:30 - what is the best way to manage this?

No sleep

So my 5 week old won’t sleep in her crib.. everytime we put her down she will start to cry then eventually scream. She is fed and changed so we are not sure what the issue is… but maybe it’s because she is used to being held? any tips or advice? pls help

Advice for baby sleeping not on me at night please 🙏

Baby is only a few days old but refuses to go into basket over night. During the day he doesn’t seem to mind but no matter how long I hold him for after a feed at night he screams the second I put him down.
My husband tried to take him for me just now so I could get even an hours sleep but he screamed until back on me again straight away.
Even though again day time will happily have cuddles with Dad.

Any advice at all as I don’t know how my body will actually recover if I’m up over 20 hours a day 😵‍💫

Laundry

Hey there!
What do you guys use to get those yellow poop stains off clothes? I’ve been trying a bit of everything but nothing seems to work well for me
Thank you!

Ready to scream why won’t this child sleep

Yet another night of constantly being awake. I’ve now been trying to get him back down so long it’s time for another bottle. I’m so exhausted from being up all night every night I don’t know what else to do I’m awake more than I sleep every night. Currently had 1hrs sleep tonight. Anyone sleep trained yet? That’s what I’m trying next as nothing works to get him to sleep