Did you know there is a 2 year sleep regression? I didn’t thank god because it’s miserable. Luckily, we figured out what it was fast and nipped it in the bud.
The Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, our beloved blonde haired, blue eyed man child went to bed talking to himself for an hour. He then woke up crying about 2 hours later. We went in to check on him and realized nothing was wrong and after cuddling him and rocking him and reading him a story, we put him back in his crib. He was not happy.
He wailed for awhile and refused to go back to sleep. I assumed something must be wrong and went upstairs to save him. I took his temperature, it was normal. I couldn’t figure out what could be wrong and so we gave him baby tylenol. He wouldn’t stop crying so we let him watch a show which usually calms him down. Finally, Nick put him down around 11 pm and he fell asleep.
He then woke up again about 2.5 hours later! I went in to save him convinced he was in pain and he stopped crying immediately (which should have been a sign). I brought him into our bed and he could not get comfortable. He just wanted to watch a “show” again. We refused and he continued to so the worm as we tried to sleep. Finally, after not settling down for 2 hours, I put him back in his room and sadly he cried for an hour before falling asleep. This was one of the hardest 60 minutes of the past year as a parent for me.
Tommy slept in until 8 am thank goodness so he wasn’t a total zombie the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
We packed up the car to drive to Cape Cod to stay at my Mom’s for Thanksgiving Wednesday night and Tommy slept almost 3 hours straight in the car. It doesn’t take 3 hours to drive to the Cape but we had a few stops and a lot of traffic.
After waking up at 3 pm upon arrival, bed time at 7 pm was good to go in the new pack and play. Ours mysteriously vanished during a Tommy handoff between grandmas. We think it was left on the curb and either got stolen or thrown out as it was trash day. It was the BabyBjorn which is the best!!! We will never know what happened but this was a new(ish) Graco crib for T. He had slept in it once or twice before but not routinely.
He began to crawl out of pack and plays at the end of the summer and also learned how to open the doors in my mom’s house. We somehow forgot.
So Nick and I like the young, cool couple we are went to bed at 10 pm. All of a sudden at 11 I heard a faint cry and then a thud in the other room. I knew…
Next, I hear little feet pitter patter and then a door knob being jerked. I jumped out of bed and there he was on his way to come get us in our room. I, of course, brought him into our bed hoping he would fall asleep.
No luck.
Nick decided to try to sleep in the same room as him to keep an eye on him in the pack and play. After being put back in the pen, he climbed out in record time. Nick decided to attempt a few technique I’m going to leave off the blog to keep Tommy in his crib but he was not having any of it and neither was I so I brought Tommy in to sleep with me. He kicked me and wormed around for 3 hours but finally fell asleep and slept until 8 am once again.
My sister-in-law the next morning told me her son had a terrible time sleeping during the terrible twos. A few of you messaged me on Instagram to share your 3-week horror stories.
What!?
THREE WEEKS???????
I can’t be up from midnight to 3 am for 3 weeks. I did some googling like “two year sleep regression cry it out?” because how else was this going to resolve fast???? There weren’t too many free solutions.
We had planned to stay in the cape Thursday night but opted to leave early so Tommy could sleep in his crib that he can’t get out of since we lowered the mattress to the floor (sort of).
Tommy fell asleep on the drive home at 6:30 pm, something we had assumed would happen so he was already in his pj’s. He transferred easily into his crib.
He woke up right on schedule around 11 pm and we let him cry. I know it sounds so heartless as I type but we knew it was the only way he would get a good night’s sleep. Sure enough he fell back asleep within 20-30 minutes and slept through the night.
The same thing happened the following night but the crying only lasted 10-15 minutes.
And now, he still wakes up between 9 and 11 pm after going down easily right at 7 pm but he falls back asleep shortly after. Every time it happens though, I get sick to my stomach thinking he will be awake for the next three hours.
I share all of this because I had no idea this was a thing!? I’m sharing this because while you may not believe in “cry it out”, I believe in my sanity and I can’t be up for 3 hours in the middle of the night for 3 weeks. It worked for us in 3 days. I’m hoping we are past the tough part but I’m prepared for it to come back with a vengeance.
If you found a better remedy for this sleep regression, share it below in the comments.
As for our Thanksgiving, here is a cute little “playground workout” we shot the morning of… yes the one where I was on like 5 hours of sleep.
