Waking every night for no reason?

[fulltimedaddy]

Hey guys! I’m just looking to see if anyone has any experience with this, our LO is 3 years and 7 months, and every single night he wakes at the same time, 2 hours after he’s gone to sleep, it doesn’t matter which room he’s in, we’ve tried white noise apps, soft lighting, no lighting.. the only time he doesn’t seem to wake is if we’re sleeping in the same bed, but 99% of the time he’ll wake up crying between 9 and 10pm and this has been the case for as long as I can remember, certainly for the last 2 years at least.. he then won’t settle until he gets into bed with us, at which point he’s out like a light until morning.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, my guess is that he wants to sleep in bed with you and so is in the habit of doing this.

My DS as a baby used to cone in bed with me at 5am, but then he wanted 4am, then 3am, and I realised he was waking in habit to get in bed with me.

Is it a problem though? If you don't mind it's quite nice sleeping together.

Could it be his bladder waking him up? My 3 year old is in nappies at night, but I think he is getting to the point where he wakes when he needs a pee. He does often wake before we come to bed and can be resettled in his own bed, and then will do a much longer stretch through til morning. So sounds very similar to your son. I can't say it bothers me much, is it causing problems for you?

What happens if you just leave him to it?

Is he cold? Has your heating died down/off by then.. Put an extra blanket on him as you go to bed..

Habit- clearly expects to go into your bed.
Can you leave him be when he wakes?

Did you used to do a late feed at that time?

Or is there possibly a noise from the neighbours/street at that time?

He just comes to find us, and the same happens when he’s in our bed too if we’re not in bed with him

It’s not that it’s a problem really, it just annoys me that I can’t work out what’s waking him up, it doesn’t matter how settled he seems.. two hours in, he’ll start stirring and wake up

I really don’t think so tbh, he never wants to go to the toilet or anything, he’s never had any accidents in bed.. he just walks around in a half asleep daze until we take him back to bed

Baby gate on his door? Wandering half asleep can't be safe..

He never gets that far, we have a camera on him and we’re so used to it happening now that we just keep an eye on it between 9 and 10.. as soon as he starts stirring we go up to him.. there’s a gate on the stairs anyway though

I'd just put a gate on his door and tell him to go back to bed.