20 month old - waking and talking for hours at night

[lottie33]

Help - my DD is waking at midnight or so and chatting and singing for 2-4 hours seeming quite happy although there is the odd crying out for attention .. have tried leaving her, going in and shushing her, changing nappy, calpol in case teething ... but nothing works - has just had four teeth in and a new baby bro to boot ... can I hope this will end naturally or is there something I can do to get her back to sleep (becoming very hard work during the day) ...

[crokky]

can you cut back any day time nap she has to make her more tired at night?

[lottie33]

we tried that a few days in a row but it just made her frantic a bed time and still wake up - I tried keeping the nap but getting her to run around all day at the park too but no difference!!!

[crokky]

sorry, I meant can your shorten the nap rather than removing it altogether?

[Elibean]

Lottie, my dd1 did this at around the same age without new baby (probably did have new teeth, but don't think that was the cause). I think she was just having a language 'spurt', and it was purely developmental - stopped of its own accord

If she seems quite happy, I would leave her to it - personally, I'd keep her naps the same, or even let her sleep a bit longer to make it up until the need to chat and sing ends!

[fihi]

ooohh lottie i've got one of those! she's 21 months, wakes at midnight at the mo (it used to be a babyhood feed time but she stopped it at 14mo,no idea why started again) so will watch this thread with interest. You are in an even more sleepless situation than me, there are two older ones in our house but a baby must make it knackering for u! we have started making her daytime nap earlier, so that she has it a bit before 12 after an early (11.30) lunch. that seems to work some of the time but it's hit and miss. i'm also experimenting with a snack like toast or rusk(she still adores them)before bed in case it's hunger waking her.she always asks for milk but rarely drinks much. my LO has just got all 4 back molars thru so wondered about that too, calpol for good measure. Had similar with the boys but it really wasn't regular so didn't last, with them a night light cured it(??) My current theory is that DD kicks her covers off and gets cold, so have put her to bed in fleecy pj's tonight. Assuming u and i have the same cloned DD's you've probably done everything i've said, so i can only say i sympathise and here's hoping some clever mumsnetter will come up with something.

[lottie33]

oops, crokky I did only mean cutting back the nap - I don't think I could survive if my DD had no nap at all with the lack of sleep we are all getting, I had been waking her after 2 hours thinking that was more than enough even with the lack of sleep at night but have recently let her sleep till she wakes as long as it's no later the 3.30pm (which so far has been up to 3 hours)... this has made little difference to her waking but has improved general behaviour (no tantrums yet even when exhausted) ...

fihi - yes I've started feeding lunch around 11.30/45 too ... otherwise I sometimes find DD falling asleep at the table...

and Elibean - we keep thinking it must be a language spurt as she is clearly trying to sing songs or tell stories although it's just total jibberish to us (except for recognisable tunes - which is very sweet).

last night we completely ignored her - didn't go in at all (there was no crying out - which made it easier) - just chatter for about 2 hours (less than before) and in two sessions rather than all in one go ... I think that was an improvement? and that is with no intervention from us and allowing her to sleep for as long as she needs after lunch .. fingers crossed this will just dissappear - its been about 2 months and Baby bro is coming up to 3 months old so we are very lacking in sleep department!