FTMAD Epic Fail: Sleep Training a Toddler

At 21-months-old, FTD, the man-child and I have entered into the worst phase of sleep we have ever dealt with, keeping our crazy ass boy in his crib all night.  Holy freaking crap you all, FTD is losing his mind, the man-child is in a full state of crazed sleepy delirium, and I am EXHAUSTED! Not one of us has slept more than four solid hours in two weeks! Needless to say, we are at our wits end, and nothing FTD and I have tried to get the kid to sleep through the night has worked!  Prepared to be wowed with stories and trials of toddler sleep training epic failure. 

Two weeks ago my son was a sleeping BOSS.  He took two to three hour naps like clockwork, and slept from 7pm to near 7am.  Life was good.  Now, life is shit. shit. shit. shit! What has changed?  Well, my mother-in-law is here for a visit, my kid thinks it is his job to climb out of his crib the minute he wakes up to see what every one is doing--EVERY hour on the hour-- and due to lots of stress my milk has dried up. Oh and then of course, like a freaking cherry on top, Daylight Savings time change added to the madness. 

Now that the What and the Why is out of the way, I can move on to the How sleep training has been an epic fail. 

In the past when an exceptionally tough tooth was breaking trough the little guy would sleep poorly and have a mood to match, so I hoped this poor sleeping was more of the same.  Yes, at nearly two weeks, I realize I held out hope for entirely too long.  I first turned to my close been-there-done-that parents for help with getting the dude back on track.  Then, I turned to my amazing First Time Mom & Dad Facebook community…

Between my close friends and the Facebook responses, I had a full arsenal of attack for fixing the sleeping woes, things like: (A few are actual responses from the Fan Page.)

• I would remain consistent in your approach to his waking and coming to your bed. If you want him to stay in his bed, keep taking him back to his bed until it works (even if it's days and weeks!). If you don't mind the snuggling in with you, then let it. Everything is a phase with these LOs and it will end eventually  PS Don't give up on trying the naps. Kids skip them all the time and go right back to napping after whatever development, distraction, etc has ended. Maybe could try "quiet" time in his room during that nap hour if he's not sleeping. Or a stroller walk! My kiddo knocks out in the afternoon on a stroll when he skips his crib nap.
• Baby Benadryl
• Keep going for nap time, even if he is in his room playing quietly he may fall asleep or at least he has "rested." 
• We locked our bedroom door & the pounding & screaming stopped after a couple nites. Pretty sure that's not in dr. Spocks or what to expect!
• consistency is your only option.
• Keep putting him back in bed, don't talk to him, rock him or nurse him, just pick him up and put him back in bed as any times as it takes.
• Get childproof doorknob covers and a gate for the bedroom door.
• Use a sleep sack to keep him in the bed.
• Get a crib net.

The first night I started with putting him back in his crib, repeatedly. Of course he cried, climbed back out and came to find me. This cycle continued on for an hour before FTD could not take the crying anymore, plus we were concerned about his mother thinking I was torturing her grandson.  I gave in, rocked him to sleep and then did it again every couple of hours. It was like having a newborn all over again.

The next night I tried letting him run wild, stay up late and then gave him Benadryl to help him with any teething, illness and hopefully get into a deep sleep.  My friends, this was our first time ever giving him Benadryl.  I was warned it could keep him up, but seeing as how that was already an issue, we had nothing to lose.  

It kept him up. 

Well, it didn't help him sleep, he was still up every couple of hours.

Then last night, I put him in a new sleep sack, and put the child proof doorknob covers on his door.  I felt bad about this, but I need sleep and so does he!  At bedtime we put the sleep sack on him, then put him in his crib to make sure he would not hurt himself trying to get out.  HolyShitYouAll. He climbed right out!!! I mean, sleepsack on and all, he whipped his legs over and climbed out!  ARGGGGGG!

This video is not from this night, but it will give you an idea of what I am working with! 

As for the childproof doorknob covers… He opened the freaking door in SECONDS!  Seconds.  He opened the childproofed door in seconds. 

WHO DOES THAT????  My toddler Houdini that's who.  

So now, here I am back at square one with two problems:

1. I have a crazy toddler that somehow has completely forgotten how to settle himself back down, or just doesn't care to.  

2. Unlike the days of using the cry-it-out method to teach him to self sooth as a baby, or more to the point, the days when I could be safe knowing my crying baby would fall asleep safely in his crib when i left him, now I have to worry about the Toddler Houdini not only climbing out of his crib, but then climbing up on his changeable and bookshelf, or just climbing in the toilet while I sleep. (These are all things he does all day long for fun)

Basically, all that is left to do is ride out the storm. Stay consistent with putting him back in his crib when he wakes up, keep trying for naps and not completely lose my shit, because eventually this phase too shall pass. One day he will take his nap again.  One day he will not be so tired from not taking a nap that he falls asleep during dinner…  Only to wake up a few hours after being put to sleep, ready to play.  Eventually I will sleep again too.