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Original poster

Why does he do this?????

49 replies

Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 10:02

After giving advice on cc here, now I'm back for some advice myself!
Ds woke up last night about 20mins after I'd gone to bed. He started crying. We left it 10 mins then went in and did the usual, checked nappy, checked temp. He was standing in his cot fully awake. We put him down, tucked him in then left. 10mins later we do the same, go in, lie him down, say "No" firmly and come out. This goes on for about an hour. He will stop for 5 mins and you think, great, he's gone and you begin to doze off, then he starts again. After an hour dh took him downstairs and gave him some Calpol just in case and offered a drink. Settled him back, 5 mins later he starts again. After 2 hours (it's now 3am) we finally crack, I think he must be ill so we bring him in with us. He falls asleep but thrases about and wakes every 20mins or so crying, this is followed by the occasional punch in the mouth. I convince myself that he will be ill this morning. After about 2 hours of broken sleep I get up this morning and he is his usual self, chatting away, smiling, ate all his breakfast, etc.

So wtf was that all about???? He does this every 3 weeks or so, he'll have an 'episode' at night and we can never get to the bottom of it, sometimes he does it 2 nights in a row. He is just over 2years old. He is wide awake whenever we go in, and the crying is usually accompanied by him shouting us. It gets louder and louder too and angrier and angrier.

CC doesn't seem to work, cuddling him doesn't seem to work and if we bring him in with us we still don't get any sleep. So any bright ideas anyone????

OP posts:
robin3 · 30/01/2006 10:25

Could he be colder than you think? DS has been waking up more often recently and I think it's because it's a bit cold.

If all else fails we have a bean bag in his room and one of us lies on this with a duvet and without talking, no lights on, we lie down next to the cot and close our eyes. It seems to comfort him that we're in the room and he drops off. This way we both get some sleep and he realises that's he's not going to gain in any way from a TV downstairs or chatting to us. DS exactly the same if he's in bed with us and thinks it's a great laugh and starts to tell stories!

Or, if it happens not long after he's gone to sleep i.e. when we're still up and about, we read a very boring story with the light off. Winnie the Pooh works because he can't follow the stories easily but likes the sound of our voice. DP also reads books from work which have the same effect (on me) but faster .

If he's generally a good sleeper I'm sure this'll just be a phase. Painful for you though.

Hazellnut · 30/01/2006 10:36

We have been having similar problems with dd lately although she is only 12 months. The last 5 (glorious) nights have been fine and we pu he heating to come on for a couple of hours in the night so assume, as Robin3 says, she is cold.... Mind you, have undoubtedly jinked myself now and she will prove me wrong tonight (in which case I shall come and moan !!). If you've got a thermostat (we haven't) is it set to come on at a certain point ?

I was having a conversation with a friend at the w/e who has an 18 month old and she said she thinks this was her problem last winter and this winter she has dressed him in far more layers than recommended but seems to work for her too.

HTH - its grim isn't it ?!

teeavee · 30/01/2006 11:03

my ds (18 months) has been doing the same thing - I agree that keeping him warm enough and doing something mind-numbing seems to help, whereas bringing him to our bed signals 'party-time' to him. I took him to the sofa last night and watched a droning-voice documentary, he fell back asleep in my arms.

Hazellnut · 30/01/2006 11:05

The other thing with dd we've done is cut down her day time sleeping as she never liked it anyway - I guess this might not be an option with a 2 yr old as he may not be napping at all.....

tracyk · 30/01/2006 11:16

What time does he go to bed Rhubarb? Is he overtired or had a particularly excitable afternoonon the nights that he wakes up? my ds (23mo) seems to have a disturbed nights sleep if is too late to bed or not enough quiet wind down time. I think they get into their deep sleep too quickly and they then become unsettled during the night.

Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 11:47

We don't have central heating. Whilst it is cold here, there are nights that have been colder and he hasn't woken up. He has fleecy pjs on, a sleeping bag and several blankets.

We have cut his afternoon nap down to just half an hour, which he does still need otherwise he falls asleep about 5pm, which is no good.

He goes to bed about 7.30pm and generally gets up at 7.45am. The bedtime routine is the same, change into pjs, warm milk and a story.

He has never been a good sleeper, as I said this happens every so often, sometimes we'll get a week of nothing, but more often than not this happens every week or so. Sometimes it's not as bad and he'll drop off again after about 20 mins or half an hour, other times like last night he can go on for hours.

He is also disturbing his sister who sleeps in the same room, she has gone to school tired, me and dh have gone to work knackered.

When we put him in our bed last night he did seem genuinely restless, he was waking up every 20mins or so, crying out, I'd have to comfort him, he'd drop off, thrash around a bit, then wake up again. But this morning there is absolutely nothing wrong with him.

When he was in his room he was stood up in his cot, his crying was very loud and very angry, not a distressed cry. Just wish we could put our finger on it! Or maybe his head is just so huge, every now and then it grows a bit more and it hurts him? I did read somewhere that children go through growing phases (including brain growth) that can be quite painful, so maybe this is it? Or perhaps I should be looking at the phases of the moon!!!

OP posts:
codnotmud · 30/01/2006 11:48

ear infection

codnotmud · 30/01/2006 11:49

bet you a fiver

bigotedbitch · 30/01/2006 11:52

oi! whaddayd htink r?

Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 11:53

How would I know then? He's not complaining of anything this morning, he's right as rain! What symptoms are there?

I think my brain growth theory is quite a good one actually!

OP posts:
cod · 30/01/2006 11:54

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Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 11:59

He's in the garderie and I'm at work struggling to keep awake and teach classloads full of French teenagers! Must try and fake enthusiasm!

Will do that to him tonight though. Had another thought too, could he be getting molars?

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Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 12:00

Oh, if he does yowl when I press it, what can I get from the chemist for it? Please don't tell me to take him to the docs! The docs here are shit!

OP posts:
Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 12:00

Oh, if he does yowl when I press it, what can I get from the chemist for it? Please don't tell me to take him to the docs! The docs here are not worth anything!

OP posts:
Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 12:02

Sorry, did that twice cause I wanted to remove the swear word, the pcs here at work have this blocker on them and they can block me from a conversation for really silly words that the text might contain!

OP posts:
robin3 · 30/01/2006 12:04

Hate to use the confusing old Gina mum type question BUT....

maybe he's over-tired?

DS sleeps better at night if he has a long nap...1.5-2 hours usually.

Might be something that is worse when lying down hence perky during the day. Calpol would ease the pain though so if that's not working I'm not sure he's in discomfort.

DS is same age and he pretty much agrees to any syptoms if you ask him in the night, so
'do your ears hurt'-'yes'
'are you hungry'-'yes'
'are you cold'-'yes'
'are you worried about the third world'-'yes'
....bless him he's a genius, what can I say!

Sorry...pretty useless empathy is all I can offer.

tracyk · 30/01/2006 12:07

If it was his molars - would the calpol not have helped? Maybe a developmental pahse? or growth spurt? Maybe not cut his nap down in the afternoon - how long would he sleep for if allowed? My ds still has at least 2 hours 1.30-3.30 and still needs his bed for 7.30pm.

cod · 30/01/2006 12:11

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Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 12:12

The reason we cut down his naps is because if he had an hour or more, he wouldn't want to go to bed in the evenings and would be up singing and talking until around 9-9.30pm and this resulted in the danger of him getting bored and crying during the evening too. So giving him half an hour has worked reasonably well up until now.

Agree that the Calpol didn't seem to do much for him. He was very restless in our bed. I still think brain-ache!!!!

OP posts:
cod · 30/01/2006 12:13

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Original poster
Rhubarb · 30/01/2006 12:13

Cod, he's 25months.

OP posts:
ggglimpopo · 30/01/2006 12:13

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cod · 30/01/2006 12:14

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tracyk · 30/01/2006 12:15

Could you put him down for his afternoon nap earlier therefore allowing himn an hour or so and still leaving a decent gap before bed?
Does he seem to wake up ok after 30 min nap - if I woke ds after 30 mins he'd be grumpy as hell and prob better to have nothing than 30 mins.

cod · 30/01/2006 12:15

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