2 Year Old Sleep Problems - Advice PLEASE!

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You don't have much time to handle this before the baby comes. I recommend that you get serious about this issue.

Take the curtains and blinds down so that he has nothing to pull on. I don't know how far down your windows go, but I'd put short curtains up that he cannot reach. There will still be light, but there won't be as much. If you have shelves under the windows that he is climbing on, remove them. You need to take away all his ability to climb and misbehave. He is misbehaving, you know - laughing and thinking this is funny.

Buy a cheap interior door and cut it off about a foot over the doorknob. Sand it good so that there are no splinters. Turn the doorknob around so that the lock is on the outside. You can see in and he can see out into the hall.

Stop going in his room, period. Don't let him know you are in the hallway checking on him. The reason you are checking on him is to see what he is playing with. The next day, take what he's playing with out of his room. Keep doing it until he decides to sleep. If he wants to sleep in the floor, fine. He will eventually go back to the bed because it's more comfortable.

The reason that leaving him for an hour and a half hasn't worked is because you are not 100% consistent leaving him alone. He knows you will cave and come in with him. You have to stop doing that.

He may realize that he has lost the battle and start crying his eyeballs out. I'm sorry about that, but the only way to get him to stop doing this is to let him cry.

Please do this quickly. You need to rest and you need to be able to tend to the baby in the middle of the night with him asleep and in his room.

Good luck,
Dawn

My 2 year old went through a phase similar to this (not nearly as bad), but she would not go to sleep for a hour after putting her to bed. She would just talk and sing etc.. Turns out those were the days she would not wake up till 8 in the morning. It she slept this late I would not let her take a nap during the day. Then by 5 in the afternoon she would start getting so fussy , but we held her off. I would do her bath time a little earlier that night around 6:30 and by 7:30 lights would be off and she would be sound asleep shortly after. Maybe you could try shortening his nap if he already wakes up late. Sometimes 2-3 hour naps were just too long and did interfere with her night time sleep. And some days she just doesn't need a nap.

I know I suggested the door knob cover last time, with packing tape along the seams so he couldn't grip it and pop it off, works with my 3 year old ; ) And double stacking the baby gates so he can't scale them. I found a great one with vertical slats, no way can it be scaled, there's no way to get a foot grip :D

Step 3 for me would be to put a lock on the outside of his door so he can't open it. And I'm not a mean old witch, I just think if he can't get out he'll give up, and you unlock it when you know he's asleep. OR, I or Dad would sit by his bed every night until he went to sleep to point him down if he sat up, no talking, no lights, no nothing, and then leave when he was asleep...saves the hassle of going to put him back in bed multiple times. Oh, and I would move his furniture around so he couldn't rip curtains and lift blinds, eliminating the source of the problem does wonders in eliminating it. Like I've said before, toddlers are smart people in small packages, our job is to outsmart them!

There's more than likely a combination of things going on...he senses the change about to take place in his life, even if he doesn't comprehend it all, he still needs naps or he wouldn't be tired without them, he knows at school he has no opportunity to fool around, it's naptime, no games. Pretty much I would get tough (not mean) and wouldn't play games, and he seems to think you are. Do things on your level, not his, and see what happens so you can get some rest before the new baby arrives!
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Ditto what Dawn said as well!!

I had a suggestion for you but then I saw you have some sort of bunny clock that tells him it's sleep time. About a month before my oldest turned 2 she would either wake up from 2-4am or would wake at 4am for the day (well...till nap time). We bought a timer that gets plugged in, then we plugged a nightlight into the timer. We had it set to turn on while we would be reading books and shut off at 5am (the point at which I would not longer fight to keep her in bed and would go downstairs with her). That way, we could "blame the nightlight" that it was bedtime/sleep time. It didn't prevent her from waking in the middle of the night, but she miraculously no longer put up a fight at 2am when we escorted her back to bed. We'd just say "oops...the nightlight says it's still time to sleep". Worked like a charm! Thank god!
Good luck. I hope you find something that works!

My child did this.

Try removing his nap (he may take one occasionally when he really needs it)

and

making him more active during the day.

Hang in there.

Both of those should work.

Remove the naps. His body is probably getting to much sleep.

I am sure he senses the changes that are coming. Do not really have any
advice for you.now. I think you are just going to have to deal with him
on a day to day basis. Just be consistent in whatever you do. Or better
yet, lock yourself in the bathroom LOL. I would probably just let him sleep
with me, just so everyone could sleep. Sometimes you have to do things
you would not ordinarily do to survive. Good luck.

Did he happen, by chance, to have any new vaccinations when he started having the sleeping troubles? If so, he could have heavy toxicity overload, which will make his body out-of-whack and totally screw everything up, including his sleep schedule.

If he recently had childhood vaccines, you can have him tested for toxicity by a naturopathic doctor. If he tests positive, you can have him chelated.

Good luck.

At the cusp of any age change, or at the time of any age change, a child gets tweaked.
AND at 2 years old, sleep tweaks and aberrations, typically happens.
It is a phase.
This is growing-pains. Of which the child is developing/changing a ton, in terms of cognition/physical changes/imagination/and emotions.

When 2 years old, my kids had sleep tweaks too. I rode it out. Then their usual sleep returned.
And they went through a phase of wanting to sleep on the floor, of their room. Fine. They got sleep that way.

At this age, they are changing so much, in a developmental sense.
And they do not even have, fully developed emotions yet, nor impulse control, nor cognition.
And at this age, they also develop nightmares and general "fears" of the dark and what not. They cannot turn off their imaginations or emotions.
Their maturity for handling these things, is not even fully developed yet.

I don't know, my 2 were not this bad, but we made "sleep rules" around this age - they both tried to resist naps and bedtime at that age too. I "gave them the power" in their minds at least. When they said, "But I am not TIRED!" I would say, "OK, you don't HAVE to go to sleep right this second, you can just sit or lay in your bed and read or play quietly with toys. BUT the rule is you need to stay in this room and stay quiet until there is a 4/7 on the clock." (nap is 2-4 - bedtime is 8:30 wake time 7am). I covered the right side so they could only see the first number. "If you don't follow the rules/stay in room/bed quietly until said time, I will latch/lock your door."

Also, when he DOES follow the rules, you may offer an award/reward - a piece of candy or a small toy immediately upon the wake up time, if he follows the rules.

They managed to stay up for nap a few days, but then they got too accumulatively tired and started falling asleep with books in hand.

Also, he might think he is "missing out" on something you and dad are doing - so it would probably pay to go to bed at that time too - or nap while he naps in your case. Tell him that you need some sleep too, and he needs to be good and quiet so you can get some rest and not be so tired/cabby later.

Is he getting enough outside time/sunlight in the morning to get his circadian rhythms right? Is he getting too much screen time? As for the blinds and curtains - I understand that, my kids won't sleep in a light room either, I owuld be tempted to take them down, though, and use painters tape and brown craft paper to just tape on the windows directly - It may not look great, but it will keep the tight out and you can put the other things back when he straightens up.

From very young, I mostly followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth - it has tips for bigger kids too, not just babies.

Good Luck.

Jessie

But something has changed and is changing - he got older, and you are expecting another baby! He knows that things are changing, and he needs your attention and he's found a way to get it. Are you talking with him about the new baby, and reassuring him? A 2 year-old is capable of talking about their feelings if given the chance.

I don't agree with taking away his nap. Overtired kids are the hardest to get to sleep. A two-year-old needs a daily nap. He's napping at daycare.

I or my husband typically napped with our daughter at this age. You sound exhausted, just lie down with him and take a nap. We also took turns at night laying with her until she fell asleep at night.