I don’t really feel like I should complain, I know there are others in worse positions but as I am sitting here trying to think about all the things I need to be doing, I can feel my eyelids with a ten tonne weight on them. Why? Because Beanie Boy seems to have taken a dislike to sleep, that’s why! Up until Christmas, my brown-eyed cheeky monkey was sleeping happily for at least 2 hours every day and then from 7(ish) to 7/7.30am every night. Granted, he hasn’t always been the best of sleepers but for the past year he has slept really well. Beanie Boy has always been my happy boy, the one with the catchphrase “I make you happy Mummy” but in January his preschool hours changed from 2 mornings per week to 3 full days a week, 9.15 to 3pm and from his very first day, his sleep patterns changed. For one thing, he obviously wasn’t getting his two hours sleep during the daytime on the days he was at preschool but then he decided that he didn’t need to sleep on the days that he wasn’t at preschool either. He also started waking up around 6am every morning and shouting for either Hubby or I to go to him. Initially it would just be “can you put my music on” but very quickly he decided instead that it would just be best if he got up.
Beanie Boy shares his bedroom with Jelly Bean who of course was also being woken by Beanie Boy’s morning calls and in turn he would cry so loud that it would wake up Little Bean too. The result from all of this is that I have a very overtired little boy who has lost some of his sparkle. He is still my gorgeous little fella for the most part but he is noticeably more grumpy, he rubs his eyes a lot and he gets upset very easily – in my mind, all signs of being overtired. In more recent weeks this has become worse as Beanie Boy is now waking up around 5.30am and refuses to go back to sleep.
We really are at our wits end with this so any help or advice would be most gratefully accepted. I have bought him a special lavender pillow, I bathe him each night in a lavender bubble bath and he nods off to sleep without issue but what about the morning? How do I encourage him to stay in bed and sleep, or even better not wake up so early in the first place???
I can’t offer much help I’m afraid but please know you’re not alone! I’ve had 2 solid weeks (that came from nowhere) of 5 -5.30am starts with my toddler yelling for mummy or daddy. Don’t know why and don’t know how to stop it. All I know is that it always used to be somewhere between 6 and 7am and this is killing me! A lot of people have suggested a Groclock to me but Boychild is a bit too young at the mo (21 months) but maybe this might be good for Beanie Boy?