It's like someone has given him Red Bull!

I have fraternal twin boys who are almost 2 1/2. They share a room out of necessity and are still in cribs because they are not ready to handle beds yet. We put crib tents on last summer when one boy climbed out and came VERY close to being seriously hurt. They don't mind the crib tents at all and even remind us to zip them up. Anyway...

When Frank is overtired at naptime or bedtime, he will often hop in his crib, laughing hysterically for hours before he falls asleep or he'll wake during the night and do the same. What do I do about it? I know that the main issue is keeping him from being overtired in the first place. I am a stay-at-home mom and we work really hard to make sure our boys get good naps and go to bed at the right time and all of that. I love Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. But if they (particularly Frank) have a bad nap or difficult night, for whatever reason, it affects the next few days' sleep like dominoes.

So, sometimes he gets overtired and does this. I feel sorry for his brother who is a great sleeper no matter what. If I ignore it, it can go on for hours. If I hold him and sooth him for a few minutes, that works sometimes. It's like he just can't wind down. It's hard to fall asleep jumping up and down.

What should we do???

 

I have no advice, but my boys are EXACTLY like that to a T. Joel will stay in there for the whole two hours jumping, singing, saying "Bryyyyaannnn wake uuupppp!!!!" Oh he's such a mess! But for me, I have decided that unless he gets upset, or is waking his brother, I'll let him be for "naptime" and when it's over, I'll get him out. It does him good to have "down" time and thankfully, Bryan somehow sleeps through it all 90% of the time. By the end of the day, it's obvious he didn't get his rest, but he had the opportunity to do so. I can't FORCE him to sleep. Though for us, he will usually sleep in the next morning if he didn't nap the day before, so in that aspect it works ok for us.

 

This sounds like our house as well. There really isn't anything that I do either except for pray that the loud one doesn't wake the quiet one up. I am waiting for the day when I hear, "Please be quiet, I am trying to SLEEP!!"

 

If this just happens when he is overtired, I would hold and soothe him until he's calm and sleepy (or even asleep) so he can get caught up on his sleep. The quickest way for a wired overtired kid to calm down is to get him some sleep! But, if this is a routine thing that happens a lot, I would ignore.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. It happens when he is over tired or not tired enough. I've decided there is a fine line between the two and you better get your kids in bed during it whenever possible! When he had a good night's sleep the night before, we don't let him nap beyond 2 hours. Any longer and he has trouble falling asleep at night.

 

We've already started to hear this! LOL 'T' will say, "J, hush, I'm tryin to rest."


We also share a room (girls) and I had to let 'J' CIO at around 17 months. She went on for TWO hours (that was the only way we could do it was to not go in at all) and her sister managed to sleep through every minute of it.