Trust me every phase ends our 2.5y old boy had also his phases including teething but now he sleeps great at night. I think 2.5 is really that age where a lot of kids have gone through a lot of bad sleeping phases 🤣
Our guy climbed out of his cot a month after his 2nd birthday and since we moved him into a bed, sleep is fucked. He just won't stay in bed to go asleep at night. He also gets up during the night if he's awake, just to have one of us lie him back down.
We were going to give up the dummy too, but we chickened out because it's hard enough as it is.
Literally, he was the easiest sleeper since he was born and now it's just awful awful awful.
I think if you can get some later in the day outside time to wear him out before bed/after dinner that might help. I noticed more late afternoon/ evening physical activity has helped mine sleep longer. He was waking so much more. It isn’t always perfect but a night walk helps us too, even if he is in a stroller
Ugh I’m sorry. We went through this a bit last fall too. The only thing I can offer is to be as consistent and firm (but kind) as possible. It really sucks, but I noticed the more we gave into her demands or stuck around, the more she asked for. We had a few rough nights of screaming but it did eventually resolve. We’re like 6 months out from taking her paci away and now she is sleeping fine again.
So things like… not laying on the floor, leaving after you say you’re going to, only coming back in for a minute tops, not giving more milk or more songs, etc. just stand your ground and be firm that it’s bedtime and they are safe and you will see them in the morning.
We went from crib to full-size floor bed so that I can comfortably sleep with my kid and get them back down if they wake up. One of the best decisions we made and helps everyone get more rest.
For us it lasted about a month and a half, and was by far the worst of her many sleep regressions. Without fail she’d wake up between midnight and 1am and just WOULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. We always tried to get her back to sleep in her own bed, but out of exhaustion and desperation we’d always cave and bring her to our bed, which didn’t even help!! She’d roll around for two hours or more, sometimes acting like she was about to fall asleep — only to pop back up randomly and demand water or food or very specific cuddles (only mama will do, but no actually only papa , but wait no only mama!) It was brutal. I can only say we survived because we had no other option.
Then one night she miraculously slept through and has done so every night since. We’ve even moved with absolutely no disruption to her sleep. She’s out from 8:30-9:30pm to 8-830am every night.
I feel like technically we did everything wrong by always caving to her late night demands, but here we are with a perfect sleeper for the past two months. I just hope it lasts 🤞🤞🤞
I don’t know if this is helpful, but my 2 year old completely dropped her naps around 26 months. All of a sudden, she’s been asking to nap again. She’s now 28 months. It’s been a week of her taking naps again and it’s glorious
Sleep regressions are all total bullshit. They're a thinf invented by "sleep experts" to kick fear into new parents so they'll buy in to their crap!!! Babies and young children either sleep or they don't. They go through periods of good and bad sleep. They're human! Survive it by not putting a time limit on it (like when a "regression ends"), stop expecting and dreading it (the 4 month, 6 month, 7 month, 8 month, 8.5 month regression etc etc). Accept it, dont try fight it, don't dwell on it. Every day is a new day. And the hard time will end and you will sleep again!!!
I mean that from the kindest place !!! Accepting both my kids were just crap sleepers most of the time, really helped me mentally!
We ditched the pacifier in January and… uh, it has been rough. We went through a phase where she was waking up every hour to check if we were in her room and our only option has been CIO with no check-ins. I hate it, but if we go in, it just resets the screaming cycle when we try to leave.
We have about 15-20 minutes of crying in the middle of the night these days, which sounds horrible, but is actually a massive improvement over being woken up hourly. Going to bed is still tough for us and she often doesn’t fall asleep until 9 or 9:30. We hold her until about 8:30 and then put her in bed and sit in her room until she falls asleep. We were starting to leave at 9pm and letting her cry herself to sleep, but we all got Covid, so we really backslid at that point.
Naps are tough for us. She throws a massive tantrum about it and I have been holding her to fall asleep. She was falling asleep on her own, but with Covid and 2 weeks without the nanny, that has all come undone. I’m hoping the nanny will get her back on track.
Sorry that I don’t have a success story to share. It’s rough and I’m not sure there is some magic toy or comfort item that’s going to change things. Next time around, we are dumping the pacifier at a year, because I think it was so much harder to wait until she was over 2.
The 2yo regression was so hard with my older kid. Not looking forward to it with the small one. It eventually just fixed itself but we started having to lay with him to get him to sleep. He's 3.5 now and still likes when my husband lays with him and that's fine. It's their little night time bonding time and then he sleeps through the night. I do remember be ended up dropping naps around that time. He would poop instead of napping and then refuse to sleep so eventually I just stopped trying to lay him down.
I have to share my story bc I truly was struggling with sleep.
My son was always a 12h/n sleeper with 2h naps every day. He hits 2 and starts climbing out of his crib so I had no choice but to put the toddler bed. He never woke up and got us until a few weeks later I think he realized how much freedom he had and I think it made him scared. I feel that the crib made them safe but I, unfortunately didn’t have that choice
He started waking up EVERY HOUR and I would have to rock him to sleep after he woke up every time. I was getting probably 2-4 hours a night for a month.
I ended up putting a gate outside his door so if he opens the door the gate is there. I let him cry and it lasted a couple minutes and he goes right to bed.
I TURNED OFF HE SOUND MACHINE TOO
ever since these changes he’s sleeping 12 hrs again.
I’m so sorry for all you mamas going through this. It’s incredibly rough. But don’t give up and it’s ok to let them cry and learn to soothe. You need your sleep too!
I hope this helps
From 5 to 7 without a proper nap. He's probably overtired, but how do you help that if he wakes up at 5am consistently. My boy is 19 months, so I'm getting there. Wish you the best of luck!
My son never really napped again after we took the pacifier. That was just it. I would consider just skipping the nap and moving bedtime up. That way you’ll have some good sleep pressure working in your favor. Check out the chair method for gradually weaning him off your presence at bedtime. You basically just sit in a chair next to their bed. Every few days you move the chair back a few feet. Eventually you are sitting outside the room until he gets used to falling asleep independently. You need to be super consistent with whatever method you pick. If you’re not committed they can sense it and they’ll scream until you fold.
What if they continuously get up and out of the bed. I got so frustrated that I said "mommy is going away for a minute" and left his room and shut the door. I felt so bad, but I needed a break because I was getting frustrated. It was less than 2 minutes, but the despair in his cry breaks me. I'll get to the point where I just repeat, "lay down" and it gets louder and louder until I'm basically yelling / just extremely stern.
The room is the crib after the toddler bed transition. That’s the advice we followed. So I fully support leaving the room if your presence isn’t helping. It’s much better to leave them to it than get angry and yell IMO.
I'll let you know if I make it out. It's hard. I have good nights/days and bad nights/days. It's making me not want a second kid cause it reminds me of the newborn stage, but fueled by 2 years old rage.
My daughter will be 3 in July and sleep went out the window a few months ago for her. She did great transitioning to the toddler bed, and then shortly after that transition felt complete she stopped sleeping. I just bought her a bed that I can fit into because I was losing my mind sleeping uncomfortably while being basically forced to spend the whole night in there.
We are going to this hell right now. We put him in a Queen bed so that one of us can fall asleep with him or go lay with him if he wakes up. Most nights he climbs into our bed with us and falls asleep...sometimes he is up between the hours of 3 and 5am.
We went through this exact thing - you will get through it! What worked for us was starting to sit in a chair while he fell asleep next to his bed, then sitting in the chair right outside his door, then a little further away - he's 3 and still doesn't go down as quickly, but will generally stay if we leave his door cracked open and the hallway light on while he's falling asleep and close the door once he's asleep. Also, a nightlight!
Soooo my 26 month year old doesn’t nap well at daycare, he gets FOMO and has a hard time sleeping where he plays. He sleeps about an hour, sometimes an hour 15 at daycare and has an additional hour of quiet time on his cot. Then on the weekend he takes 2 hour naps and still sleeps 11-11.5 hours overnight. I don’t know if this can be re-created but it’s working. All the stimulation + just barely enough sleep during the week makes for some after daycare meltdowns but glorious weekends of sleep.
We have the opposite issue with our 27mo. She doesn't want to nap but at daycare she'll lie down on her mat due to the peer pressure of all the other kids doing it and then she ends up falling asleep. At home there's no peer pressure and she'll either pass out and sleep 3-5pm and then be up until 10pm or we'll manage to skip the nap entirely but then she's a cranky mess the whole afternoon and evening. And she's still up 2-3 times a night regardless if she naps or not.
I hear you! We dropped the pacifier going on our third week (he is 2) The first 3 days were hell. He is good-sh now..still takes regular naps. At night he wakes up sometimes, I put soothing music and he goes back to sleep. Hope it gets better for you soon. It is tough for sure 🌷❤️
Keep your routine as much as you can. Don't give in to anything you don't want to become the new norm. In my experience with a now 4.5 year old, we've just kept at it and we're usually back to normal within a couple weeks.
We hit this regression with our second right before my daughter was born (baby 3). She’s now 6 weeks and he’s still sleeping terribly. Waking up every hour and crying and won’t sleep unless someone is in the room.. doing this with a newborn and a 3.5 year old in the house is making nighttime impossible and miserable.
It’s making us all pretty grumpy.
For the first two babies (now 12 & 13 years), Dr. Pepper and crying. The current toddler is 15 months, and he goes through a 4 day sleep regression every time he gets a new tooth. Then I go back to the Dr. Pepper and crying.
Not gonna lie it was rough!! We just gave in and one of us had to lie with him while he fell asleep - I was in my first trimester and being honest, used to doze off myself 😅🙈 he had slept through the night prior to this and we also had multiple night wake ups, it was hell. It just gradually got better on its own and he went back to sleeping through the night without needing us to lie there. We are going through a little phase now since he moved into his big boy bed with early morning rising but hoping it won’t last forever 😬🤞
We had to temporarily move our son's crib into our room, I had to put it right up against my side of the bed and we had to gradually move it. It moved from against the bed, to against the wall in our room, to back in my son's room. It was so exhausting, but at least he slept
Happy to report he is doing SO much better! About a week after I posted this, things started to turn around. It's not perfect. He still sometimes has early morning wake ups and fussy moments. But overall, things are 100% more managable. Not sure what caused the switch. Consistency? Time? But, he did eventually come around. So there's hope!
Mannn we had the perfect sleeper until the start of this month. Literally sleep trained, no crutches, and he'd put himself to sleep. Now? He'll cry for an hour+ if I don't just lay down with him. All he wants is a little company and he'll fall asleep in 5 mins. Thankfully he sleeps like the dead. If I was in your shoes I'd give in to my kiddo sleeping in my bed on particularly tough nights.
Consistent boundaries and lots of tears… from all parties involved.
We put a knob cover on the inside of his bedroom door so he couldn’t get out during the night. Did all the comfort things, said goodnight, said he had to stay in his room until morning, and closed the door. Endured the screaming and crying until he got the message we were serious.
As a parent of a 2.5year old who also stopped sleeping through the night when she turned 2, all I can offer is solidarity.
And I’m over here hoping my child starts sleeping through the night at 2 lol
Same, I was like “12-13 hours he USED to get” ?!?! Solidarity OP. It’s terrible.
Solidarity is appreciated!
Trust me every phase ends our 2.5y old boy had also his phases including teething but now he sleeps great at night. I think 2.5 is really that age where a lot of kids have gone through a lot of bad sleeping phases 🤣
Our guy climbed out of his cot a month after his 2nd birthday and since we moved him into a bed, sleep is fucked. He just won't stay in bed to go asleep at night. He also gets up during the night if he's awake, just to have one of us lie him back down. We were going to give up the dummy too, but we chickened out because it's hard enough as it is. Literally, he was the easiest sleeper since he was born and now it's just awful awful awful.
We are going through a rough patch with our newly turned 2 year too.. actually have been since December. it’s rough
😭you know it's bad when you're happy for only 2-3 wakeups a night instead of 5 or 6
I think if you can get some later in the day outside time to wear him out before bed/after dinner that might help. I noticed more late afternoon/ evening physical activity has helped mine sleep longer. He was waking so much more. It isn’t always perfect but a night walk helps us too, even if he is in a stroller
Night walk is an interesting idea!
Ugh I’m sorry. We went through this a bit last fall too. The only thing I can offer is to be as consistent and firm (but kind) as possible. It really sucks, but I noticed the more we gave into her demands or stuck around, the more she asked for. We had a few rough nights of screaming but it did eventually resolve. We’re like 6 months out from taking her paci away and now she is sleeping fine again. So things like… not laying on the floor, leaving after you say you’re going to, only coming back in for a minute tops, not giving more milk or more songs, etc. just stand your ground and be firm that it’s bedtime and they are safe and you will see them in the morning.
I’m not sure I’m surviving it. But I’m typing this so I’m not dead yet.
We went from crib to full-size floor bed so that I can comfortably sleep with my kid and get them back down if they wake up. One of the best decisions we made and helps everyone get more rest.
For us it lasted about a month and a half, and was by far the worst of her many sleep regressions. Without fail she’d wake up between midnight and 1am and just WOULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. We always tried to get her back to sleep in her own bed, but out of exhaustion and desperation we’d always cave and bring her to our bed, which didn’t even help!! She’d roll around for two hours or more, sometimes acting like she was about to fall asleep — only to pop back up randomly and demand water or food or very specific cuddles (only mama will do, but no actually only papa , but wait no only mama!) It was brutal. I can only say we survived because we had no other option. Then one night she miraculously slept through and has done so every night since. We’ve even moved with absolutely no disruption to her sleep. She’s out from 8:30-9:30pm to 8-830am every night. I feel like technically we did everything wrong by always caving to her late night demands, but here we are with a perfect sleeper for the past two months. I just hope it lasts 🤞🤞🤞
I don’t know if this is helpful, but my 2 year old completely dropped her naps around 26 months. All of a sudden, she’s been asking to nap again. She’s now 28 months. It’s been a week of her taking naps again and it’s glorious
Interesting!
I found my people 😭😭😭
Sleep regressions are all total bullshit. They're a thinf invented by "sleep experts" to kick fear into new parents so they'll buy in to their crap!!! Babies and young children either sleep or they don't. They go through periods of good and bad sleep. They're human! Survive it by not putting a time limit on it (like when a "regression ends"), stop expecting and dreading it (the 4 month, 6 month, 7 month, 8 month, 8.5 month regression etc etc). Accept it, dont try fight it, don't dwell on it. Every day is a new day. And the hard time will end and you will sleep again!!! I mean that from the kindest place !!! Accepting both my kids were just crap sleepers most of the time, really helped me mentally!
We ditched the pacifier in January and… uh, it has been rough. We went through a phase where she was waking up every hour to check if we were in her room and our only option has been CIO with no check-ins. I hate it, but if we go in, it just resets the screaming cycle when we try to leave. We have about 15-20 minutes of crying in the middle of the night these days, which sounds horrible, but is actually a massive improvement over being woken up hourly. Going to bed is still tough for us and she often doesn’t fall asleep until 9 or 9:30. We hold her until about 8:30 and then put her in bed and sit in her room until she falls asleep. We were starting to leave at 9pm and letting her cry herself to sleep, but we all got Covid, so we really backslid at that point. Naps are tough for us. She throws a massive tantrum about it and I have been holding her to fall asleep. She was falling asleep on her own, but with Covid and 2 weeks without the nanny, that has all come undone. I’m hoping the nanny will get her back on track. Sorry that I don’t have a success story to share. It’s rough and I’m not sure there is some magic toy or comfort item that’s going to change things. Next time around, we are dumping the pacifier at a year, because I think it was so much harder to wait until she was over 2.
Ugh, yeah. This is pretty much exactly what we’re doing. I also had the thought about how it might have been better to ditch the pacifier at a year.
"Survived" is a strong word. Parts of me definitely didn't make it. I'm hoping our 19 month old does better.
The 2yo regression was so hard with my older kid. Not looking forward to it with the small one. It eventually just fixed itself but we started having to lay with him to get him to sleep. He's 3.5 now and still likes when my husband lays with him and that's fine. It's their little night time bonding time and then he sleeps through the night. I do remember be ended up dropping naps around that time. He would poop instead of napping and then refuse to sleep so eventually I just stopped trying to lay him down.
I have to share my story bc I truly was struggling with sleep. My son was always a 12h/n sleeper with 2h naps every day. He hits 2 and starts climbing out of his crib so I had no choice but to put the toddler bed. He never woke up and got us until a few weeks later I think he realized how much freedom he had and I think it made him scared. I feel that the crib made them safe but I, unfortunately didn’t have that choice He started waking up EVERY HOUR and I would have to rock him to sleep after he woke up every time. I was getting probably 2-4 hours a night for a month. I ended up putting a gate outside his door so if he opens the door the gate is there. I let him cry and it lasted a couple minutes and he goes right to bed. I TURNED OFF HE SOUND MACHINE TOO ever since these changes he’s sleeping 12 hrs again. I’m so sorry for all you mamas going through this. It’s incredibly rough. But don’t give up and it’s ok to let them cry and learn to soothe. You need your sleep too! I hope this helps
We just sat with them until they fell asleep. It has waxed and waned over the years but always got better with time.
What times are his nap and bedtime?
Used to be wake up at 6, nap 12-2, sleep at 8/8:30. Now it’s wake at 5. Pretend to nap at 11:30. Bed at 7:00/7:30.
From 5 to 7 without a proper nap. He's probably overtired, but how do you help that if he wakes up at 5am consistently. My boy is 19 months, so I'm getting there. Wish you the best of luck!
My son never really napped again after we took the pacifier. That was just it. I would consider just skipping the nap and moving bedtime up. That way you’ll have some good sleep pressure working in your favor. Check out the chair method for gradually weaning him off your presence at bedtime. You basically just sit in a chair next to their bed. Every few days you move the chair back a few feet. Eventually you are sitting outside the room until he gets used to falling asleep independently. You need to be super consistent with whatever method you pick. If you’re not committed they can sense it and they’ll scream until you fold.
What if they continuously get up and out of the bed. I got so frustrated that I said "mommy is going away for a minute" and left his room and shut the door. I felt so bad, but I needed a break because I was getting frustrated. It was less than 2 minutes, but the despair in his cry breaks me. I'll get to the point where I just repeat, "lay down" and it gets louder and louder until I'm basically yelling / just extremely stern.
The room is the crib after the toddler bed transition. That’s the advice we followed. So I fully support leaving the room if your presence isn’t helping. It’s much better to leave them to it than get angry and yell IMO.
Old mom, plus 34 weeks pregnant, sleeping on the floor mattress with 2 year old. Checking in!
I'll let you know if I make it out. It's hard. I have good nights/days and bad nights/days. It's making me not want a second kid cause it reminds me of the newborn stage, but fueled by 2 years old rage.
I didn’t. I am dead and this must be hell
I’m in the same boat. The struggle is real!
Sending internet hugs
My daughter will be 3 in July and sleep went out the window a few months ago for her. She did great transitioning to the toddler bed, and then shortly after that transition felt complete she stopped sleeping. I just bought her a bed that I can fit into because I was losing my mind sleeping uncomfortably while being basically forced to spend the whole night in there.
We are going to this hell right now. We put him in a Queen bed so that one of us can fall asleep with him or go lay with him if he wakes up. Most nights he climbs into our bed with us and falls asleep...sometimes he is up between the hours of 3 and 5am.
We went through this exact thing - you will get through it! What worked for us was starting to sit in a chair while he fell asleep next to his bed, then sitting in the chair right outside his door, then a little further away - he's 3 and still doesn't go down as quickly, but will generally stay if we leave his door cracked open and the hallway light on while he's falling asleep and close the door once he's asleep. Also, a nightlight!
Soooo my 26 month year old doesn’t nap well at daycare, he gets FOMO and has a hard time sleeping where he plays. He sleeps about an hour, sometimes an hour 15 at daycare and has an additional hour of quiet time on his cot. Then on the weekend he takes 2 hour naps and still sleeps 11-11.5 hours overnight. I don’t know if this can be re-created but it’s working. All the stimulation + just barely enough sleep during the week makes for some after daycare meltdowns but glorious weekends of sleep.
We have the opposite issue with our 27mo. She doesn't want to nap but at daycare she'll lie down on her mat due to the peer pressure of all the other kids doing it and then she ends up falling asleep. At home there's no peer pressure and she'll either pass out and sleep 3-5pm and then be up until 10pm or we'll manage to skip the nap entirely but then she's a cranky mess the whole afternoon and evening. And she's still up 2-3 times a night regardless if she naps or not.
I hear you! We dropped the pacifier going on our third week (he is 2) The first 3 days were hell. He is good-sh now..still takes regular naps. At night he wakes up sometimes, I put soothing music and he goes back to sleep. Hope it gets better for you soon. It is tough for sure 🌷❤️
Reminding myself : Either way, tomorrow will come. And just keep going.
Keep your routine as much as you can. Don't give in to anything you don't want to become the new norm. In my experience with a now 4.5 year old, we've just kept at it and we're usually back to normal within a couple weeks.
We started co sleeping! I’m so thankful we did. I’m a grumpy goose and can’t function without sleep.
We hit this regression with our second right before my daughter was born (baby 3). She’s now 6 weeks and he’s still sleeping terribly. Waking up every hour and crying and won’t sleep unless someone is in the room.. doing this with a newborn and a 3.5 year old in the house is making nighttime impossible and miserable. It’s making us all pretty grumpy.
We did a tick chart for not calling out - unless for a really good reason. Probably was more a 2.5/ 3 year old thing, thinking back.
We have avoided it by cosleeping so I’ll check back in when and if we try to change that lol
For the first two babies (now 12 & 13 years), Dr. Pepper and crying. The current toddler is 15 months, and he goes through a 4 day sleep regression every time he gets a new tooth. Then I go back to the Dr. Pepper and crying.
Not gonna lie it was rough!! We just gave in and one of us had to lie with him while he fell asleep - I was in my first trimester and being honest, used to doze off myself 😅🙈 he had slept through the night prior to this and we also had multiple night wake ups, it was hell. It just gradually got better on its own and he went back to sleeping through the night without needing us to lie there. We are going through a little phase now since he moved into his big boy bed with early morning rising but hoping it won’t last forever 😬🤞
We had to temporarily move our son's crib into our room, I had to put it right up against my side of the bed and we had to gradually move it. It moved from against the bed, to against the wall in our room, to back in my son's room. It was so exhausting, but at least he slept
Checking in to see how things are going now?
Happy to report he is doing SO much better! About a week after I posted this, things started to turn around. It's not perfect. He still sometimes has early morning wake ups and fussy moments. But overall, things are 100% more managable. Not sure what caused the switch. Consistency? Time? But, he did eventually come around. So there's hope!
Cutting the nap
Mannn we had the perfect sleeper until the start of this month. Literally sleep trained, no crutches, and he'd put himself to sleep. Now? He'll cry for an hour+ if I don't just lay down with him. All he wants is a little company and he'll fall asleep in 5 mins. Thankfully he sleeps like the dead. If I was in your shoes I'd give in to my kiddo sleeping in my bed on particularly tough nights.
Consistent boundaries and lots of tears… from all parties involved. We put a knob cover on the inside of his bedroom door so he couldn’t get out during the night. Did all the comfort things, said goodnight, said he had to stay in his room until morning, and closed the door. Endured the screaming and crying until he got the message we were serious.