3 Year Old Won’t Sleep
Our Zeke is now 3 years old. He slept thru the night at 6 weeks. He was never colicky. He hit his milestones right on key. His terrible 2’s were down right terrific. And then last month he turned 3.
I was warned that if 2 was good, 3 would be terrible. This is our fourth child. You’d think we would know a thing about parenting, but woah — apparently not.
Toddler Sleep Anxiety and a Fear of Batman
The first month of being 3 was wonderful, and then – this week happened. Seemingly overnight, my darling little toddler 3 year old went from rockstar sleeper to having a massive fear of sleep because, well BATMAN. Batman apparently lives under his bed. When we look under his bed, he points to the ceiling, well because Batman flies up so we don’t see him. This has been 3 nights of SCREAMING – HOURS AND HOURS of SCREAMING.
To make things even worse, he is still in his crib. He for a while was a crib climber, but that only lasted a week (thankfully.) So now though, with this fear of sleep and Batman he jumps, like ALL the time. We have hard floors upstairs so for hours on end, it sounds as if a crib with our Zeke is going to come falling thru the ceiling.
When I say hours, it’s no exaggeration. Tonight’s crying and screaming lasted from 9:30 pm until 1:00 am. Our rockstar sleeper who use to get easily 12 hours of sleep a day has been running on 4-5 hours of sleep to make things worse. His performance is encored at nap time.
Restless Toddler Sleep Solutions
There are days I so wish we were still in the baby stage – but this night confirmed that I am done with all nighters.The first night, it was relentless. The only way for me to calm him down without putting him in our bed was to lay down next to him on the floor. It was a a hard cold floor – and the entire time he gives me a hawk eye stare while he at least calms himself down and attempts to sleep.
Give Him a Sword
I know, we live in Texas but I so am not a gun person. But a sword – sure. We had a foam sword laying around, so I gave it to him and told him to fight off Batman if he saw him again.
Zeke still cried for an hour – but the sword he holds like a stuffed animal and now asks for it when going to sleep.
Toddler Phase
Everything we have read, this is a total normal phase — but let’s just hope it’s short. I keep thinking back to our other kids and they would go through phases of getting out of bed and sneaking into our bed. Zeke doesn’t have that option yet, so thinking this is how he responds. Him in our bed is a joke. He was such an awesome co-sleeper as a baby, but now he finds the remote and turns the TV on, or plays poke Mommy and Daddy all night.
This too shall pass.. And while I love little newborns, this little stage Zeke is going thru is a good reminder why I should be grateful we are done having babies. (BUT… BABIES.)
Did Your Toddler Go Through Sleep Anxiety?
