HELp - 21mth old DD has started waking in the middle of the night for no apparant reason :0(

[wiffey]

DD has always been an excellent sleeper but now wakes anytime from 11 o'clock on & just screams for upto 2 hours, if you go in she just starts chatting & wants to play, is she maybe ready to go to a big bed ??

might that not make things harder?

when DS1 has had random periods of waking, excluding illnesses of course, i just go in (no lights, no conversation) pick him up and cuddle him, say 'good night' in a firm voice and go out again. he usually only grumps for a minute or two then, and goes back to sleep. we've learned to ignore the random night chatting aswell, amusing as it can be sometimes!

My DD is 20 months and is the same. If I go in it makes it 10x worse. I can generally tell she's not actually upset/distressed, more that she's woken up and fancies a play and no one's going to see her so is protesting (DD's is angry shouty crying). About 3 weeks ago, I decided to ignore her ... actually the first time I went in with a beaker of warm milk (magic cup so it wouldn't leak everywhere), didn't talk to her, just left her with it. Well did she shout and scream at that! Got herself in such a state, I went in a couple more times ... this went on and off for 2 hours. Since then, I've just ignored her and if she does wake up (which is less common) she tends to shout for a few mins then nothing.

Wouldn't put her in a big bed ... then she can get out