u/Savings_Band218

What is/ was your 18 month old child’s sleep schedule like?

My 18 month old has recently been rejecting sleep lol. He has always been a lower sleep needs child and has typically dropped naps earlier than most kids do. Until 16.5 months he was sleeping 11ish hours at night and taking a 1-2 hour nap mid day. He now has stopped napping completely and fights sleep at bedtime (typically 7:30 pm) so hard and it can take an hour just to get him to bed and he wakes up around 4/5 am every single day and fights sleep again, and sometimes is wide awake. I am a stay at home mom and have been consistently still offering him naps during the day but I can’t spend an hour trying to get him to sleep since I have a newborn to care for as well. I know brining home his baby brother in this time has affected this as well but now that we’re in more of a routine, I’m wondering what I should even be expecting from him in terms of sleep. Is 18 months too soon to drop a nap completely? Is 12 hours of sleep at night expecting too much from him now? I feel lost and sleep deprived 🤦🏼‍♀️

It’s been 5 weeks since we brought home our second baby and my 18 month old has reject sleep ever since.

My 18 month old son has not been sleeping almost at all ever since baby brother has come home and we’re at a breaking point. Obviously bringing in another baby is a big adjustment for any toddler but his little body needs to start getting sleep so he can function better during the day. His sleep schedule prior to bringing home his brother was, wake up around 6:30 am then nap from 11:30-1:30, bedtime at 7:00. And he would usually wake up once in the middle of the night and need help but would go back to bed pretty quickly and easily. He has since dropped his daytime nap completely no matter how hard we try to get him down during the day. He will randomly fall asleep in the car if we go somewhere in the afternoon but will wake up at our arrival pretty easily and doesn’t act overtired and crabby. Bedtime has also become such a fight, lasting sometimes hours with screaming, usually going to bed around 9pm now. His bedtime routine has stayed the same and is bathtime, reading books in his room quietly with only a lamp on and then laying down with us for bed (he has a floor bed). However instead of rolling over and falling asleep he will now scream and kick and want to fight with us. We usually try to keep him in his room and just remain calm with him, laying down until he will settle. If he starts to fight we step out of the room and set a timer for 5 minutes before coming back in and trying again. There have been a couple nights where my husband has taken him out of his room to take him for a drive out of pure desperation to get him to go to sleep. He now usually sleeps in until 8:30am now, but consistently gets up at 4 am and has the same fight with getting back to bed. It’s very obvious that he is not getting enough sleep, he’s much more cranky and upset throughout the day than he normally is. I feel like we have tried everything and I know he’s going through a big adjustment but I don’t know how long this is sustainable and I feel so bad for him. I will also add I am a stay at home mom and do my best to get his energy out during the day, we go to indoor play centers, he often goes to the gym daycare with his dad in the mornings for social interaction and loves it, and we almost always do a walk/ park time as a family after dinner so he gets fresh air before bed.

I do think he is teething pretty bad as well right now and will get Tylenol before bed sometimes but this seems to be more than a teething issues.

If any other families have gone through this and can offer any advice or just words that it will get better, would be much appreciated.