To wonder if it’s normal for a two year old to wake up so much?

[coldautumday]

My DD was two in the summer and her sleep is so poor. She wakes up multiple times a night. It wasn’t always like this; she slept well as a baby but then when she turned one it went a bit haywire when she was dropping the second nap. For a while she was waking once but only once at the most twice. Now it feels like it’s every couple of hours throughout the night.

I have another child and did some sleep training with him but when I tried the same methods with her it didn’t work - it’s left me feeling I am stuck!

In fairness it doesn’t usually take very long to resettle her so part of me thinks to wait for her to outgrow it. But when does that happen ‘naturally’?

That’s like asking “how long is a piece of string!”
My 2 slept all night, most of the time, from babies but some of my friends DC didn’t sleep all night or settled themselves until they were about 4.

What happens when she wakes up? Is there a reason? Does she ask for food, drink, cuddles?

Jeez. I don’t know. I’m only asking, wondering if there is any light at the end of this tunnel. I feel like I haven’t slept for years!

I don’t know what it is @boymamahere ; she does settle back down with a drink but she isn’t waking asking for one.

I've been there! It's a nightmare! Each child is different but what are you doing when your DC wakes up? If they come into your room just lead them gently and quietly back to bed and repeat over and over until they realise that getting out of bed is pointless. Do they have an early enough bedtime, or too early? Are they waking up upset and crying? I found with my DD that she grew out of it once she started nursery and then school when she was bone tired. I find that most kids do grow out of it, you just have to remember it's not always going to be this hard!

Thanks @TealScroller She is still in a cot - plan to move her to a bed maybe spring sometime but not yet as it’s a big cot.

She is at a funny point with her nap where she’s started refusing it unless we’ve had an early wake up. So I’m aware that’s not helping. I just feel like we should be more settled by now … as in some nights she might sleep through and some she might not but she never does! There’s always at least one wake up, usually two or three, on a bad night multiple!

I normally just go into her, ask her if she wants a drink and she says yes and that settles her. But she doesn’t ask for a drink or seem interested if you leave one for her - I think it is a reassurance thing. I’m so tired!

Night waking is really normal for the first few years. Sorry

I don’t know what source that is @MarvellousMonsters but there’s a lot of contradictory information out there.

Really, I just want to know about when I’ll be able to go to bed and go to sleep and there to be a 90% chance I won’t be disturbed!

My DS was still waking once or twice just before he started school at 5 years (Sept baby). They do outgrow it eventually. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to speed it up. He's now 8 and although normally sleeps through, he has been waking the last few nights. All it takes is putting him back and a quick cuddle and he's asleep though

The sources are on the pictures, and whilst the exact details may vary, because there’s very little real research done on this aside from at BASIS at Durham University, my personal anecdotal experience is that it’s somewhere between 2 and 3 that they stop waking regularly. I opted to cosleep so I could resettle my children without getting out of bed.

https://www.basisonline.org.uk/resources-for-parents-2/

My eldest slept through very quickly (we also did sleep training), but my youngest wakes up often through the night. At least once, often 2-3 times.

Do you get up every single time to resettle her? We try to wait a bit, we only go if she gets out of bed or starts calling loudly, at the moment she will settle back on her own about 50% of the time (although there are good weeks and bad weeks). I think her sleep is quite light so she will cry a bit or talk in between each sleep cycle, but she isn't always "awake".

Friends and family with older children all told me things settle aroun 4-5 yo, so we'll see how true that is!