I am so desperate for sleep. My 2.5 year old has ALWAYS been a horrible sleeper. She didn’t even sleep through the night for the first time until she was 14 or 16 months old, and even after that it was hit and miss. Naps have also been a struggle for as long as I can remember. She stopped taking a second nap well before her first birthday. And for the past 6-9 months she’s been regularly skipping naps altogether, especially in the last month or two.

My mom keeps saying that maybe she’s just ready to not take naps anymore but I don’t think that’s true. My daughter has had horrible dark circles for as long as I can remember and I don’t think it’s normal for a child to have them this bad. She is always yawning and rubbing her eyes by the time nap time comes around but she just won’t sleep. She doesn’t cry or anything she just rolls around squealing and playing and kicking the wall. And it used to be that if she did take a nap, even a short one, then she wouldn’t fall asleep at night until 10-11:30pm even though we put her down at 8. And if she didn’t take a nap then she would fall asleep almost immediately at 8 when we put her down. But for the past several weeks she’ll skip her nap and STILL refuse to fall asleep until at least 10.

She’s also been waking up during the night more. I don’t go in unless she’s crying a lot. But it still wakes me up every time she wakes up and makes noises. I’m currently 15 weeks pregnant with our second child and sleep is already getting hard for me, and this is just making everything so much harder. When she wakes me up in the night it takes me hours to fall back asleep.

She’s not scared of the dark and she doesn’t typically cry when I put her down so I really don’t know why she is refusing to sleep.

She was recently diagnosed with an upper lip tie (that should have been caught when she was born. But that’s another rant 😏) and the dentist said that she had enlarged tonsils. It could have just been that she was sick with a cold the week before the appointment but we are seeing an ENT next week to find out for sure. I don’t know if maybe that’s why she doesn’t sleep well?

I am so desperate for answers. I feel like I can’t think rationally or function properly because I’m so sleep deprived. With her sleeping issues and me being pregnant I can’t help but find myself thinking “what have I done? I have a toddler who doesn’t sleep and I’m about to add another sleep-stealing child to the mix.” And that’s a horrible feeling to have when I should be happy about having another baby.

I love my daughter so much and she is such a good kid. But the lack of sleep is clouding my judgement and kinda making me resent her at times which sounds horrible. But I just can’t get enough sleep to think rationally.

Has anyone has a child like this? Was there a medical issue behind it? I’m desperate.

And please be nice in your responses. I’m too tired and hormonal to handle any mean comments 😭