Toddler waking in the night, throwing a tantrum - anyone else?

[MrsBloomingTroll]

I'm hoping that my DD1 is just going through a phase or is a bit under-the-weather at the moment, but does anyone else have this with their toddler?

(She is 2.7 BTW.)

1 night in 3 (roughly) she sleeps through, no problem. Happy Mummy

1 night in 3 she wakes once around 2am, goes straight back to sleep once I go to her, or sometimes without me (we leave her a couple of minutes).

1 night in 3 she wakes around 2am, shouts for me and then, when I go in to her, screams "I DON'T WAAAANT MUUUUUMMMMMY!" and has a full-on hissy fit, kicking and screaming, throwing toys out of her cot, etc. I then exit the room and she shouts for me to come back, we repeat a couple of times, then she finally calms down and goes to sleep. But she has woken the entire household in the meantime.

I'd say this has been happening for the past few weeks.

She has generally been a crap sleeper at the best of times, but better since the new year when we made some changes to her routine, so this is a bit of a setback (especially as I'm pregnant again and knackered).

Anyone else?

Or is it just me?

Similar with an 18 month old! He's generally a crap sleeper too. His older brother and sister are 'good' sleepers and so I would definitely say that some children just don't get sleep!!! Back up the stairs now to lay him down AGAIN!!!

Sorry to hear that, CoonRapids, hope you got him down in the end?

DD woke up last night, but only because I had a coughing fit. She asked me (very politely) to please be quiet and stop making the loud noises because I would wake up her toys and the cat. Then she conked out asleep again until 7am.

Now if only every night (bar the coughing fit) could be like that!

sounds a bit like night terrors to me. ds had this for a while when he was between 2 and 3 years old. he was screeming and unconsolable. the only thing that helped was waking him up properly and then cuddling until he calmed down.

Thanks, but I don't think it's night terrors, because DD does have these (as does DH!) from time to time. I've got lots of experience of dealing with DH during sleep walking/talking/night terrors over the years and it's not the same. I know when he's asleep.

DD is fully awake when she has the tantrums, acknowledges me, and still screams and lashes out.

I think the waking up is habitual because it's normally around the same time (don't know why - we have removed all "incentives" for waking) but sometimes she copes with it fine and other times she turns into a banshee!

Ohhhh im not alone !!!

Im going tru the same thing with DS age 21 months, he used to sleep OK :/ but just before xmas he started wakening between 3-7 times A NIGHT!

This went on for a few weeks then back in janurary me and DH decided to take him to see health visitor with eyes down to our knees, we explained what was happening, DS also has night terrors now and again, but apart from these, most nights he wakens and crys, we give him aroun 3-4 mins to see if he will settle but never has.
He will be sitting up in bed, screaming and reaching out for us, we try to lie him back down but hes straight back up, throws his teddys across the room along with his dummy, we have tried to sit it out, one night taking 1hr 10mins. We cant understand why he was doing this.

We have just today been back to see our GP as 3months is along time with hardly any sleep, i cried my eyes out, and its causing a strain between DH and myself because of lack of sleep. We have noticed that when he wakens he is always kicking and rubbing his legs as if he is in pain. (but could also be part of the tantrum)
GP examind DS, and has mentioned when he is kicking his legs about and crying she thinks is norally a sign of tummy discomfort, which links up to DS having bad constipation, and he needs to take lactulose everyday to make his bowel moveents softer. She could hear popping and growling sounds from his tummy which now shes mentioned me and DH have heard these noises wen trying to settle him back to sleep. She has given us Movicol to try now have to go back in 3 weeks to see if he is more settled. Fingers crossed!!!!

HAve you noticed if your DD appears to be in pain or is it a tantrum?? Is she teething or cold or 2 warm these are just the things iv been asked by HV latley.

You have my sympathy and i know how you feel, i hope you get sorted and we are both back real soon getting our well deserved beauty sleep :)

shellmc, thank you so much for your message.

Now that is very interesting, because when I go to DD in the night I do sometimes hear her fart as she settles down, so maybe this is a wind thing?

She was terrible at waking repeatedly in the night until we cut out her night-time milk. So maybe she's still having digestion problems. She used to have colic as a baby. Hmm, you have given me something to think about, thank you!

BTW, if you haven't yet cut out the night-time/bedtime milk then that might be worth a try. We noticed a massive difference when we did it.

We don't think it's teething because she finished with that several months ago, although I am taking her to the dentist in a couple of weeks and can ask him to confirm.

Hello MrsBloomingTroll,

Im pleased i have helped in a way, DS also suffered from colic as a baby and has had problems having a poo since he was around 5 months old.

DR said something about build up of gas or gripeing pains could be the cause of him being so unsettled, and unsettled he is!!!

The night time milk- DS has latley started not wanting his milk and prefers his cereal with a little milk, well only past 2 nights but i must say last night he slept tru till 4.10am whether its because of that i dont know.
Does you DD still have milk on cereal before bed or does she have no milk at all??

At the moment, DD has milk on cereal in the morning and a morning drink, and the only other dairy she has is a yoghurt for pudding after lunch or tea, and the odd bit of cheese.

I don't think she is lactose-intolerant because we were quite careful with her diet up to 12 months, as we have gluten-intolerance running in the family anyway. So we introduced new foods slowly and carefully and did a stint with non-cow's-milk formula milks.

But it's worth bearing in mind. We're starting to potty train and she does seem to have real problems with knowing when she needs a poo, although apparently this is quite common.

DS had milk on cereal last night and had a yoghurt abround half 6 after his tea and last night was terrible, wouldnt settle at all and was awake from 12.05am till 2.30!!
Once he did go back over he was unsettled throughout the night and ended up in bed with me and poor hubby was bk on the sofa.

Hows Your DD been??

Sorry for not replying last night. DD was a fecking nightmare, wouldn't go to sleep until almost 10pm, by which time all I could do was collapse into bed myself.

(It's because she fell asleep in the car when I was out yesterday, and when she naps it wrecks bedtime.)

The good thing about her not going to sleep until that late is that she slept through the night until 6.30am.

I can't think that she had any dairy yesterday besides milk at breakfast.

How was your night?

Ohhhhh terrible had 2hours at the most DS was crying and jumping around his tummy making lots of weird bubbling sounds. I decided to take him down stairs to settle him, he was then sick at 3am just bile tho.
Then again at 5.10 and 5.50am hes at my mams now while im at work (on my dinner break BTW).
He has been sick again, he got started on MOVICOL on wenesday for his constipation. Im hoping he isnt being sick because of this ??? He is totally shattered my mam was saying before he is falling asleep but wakening again kicking and twitching bless him.

Thats great that your DD slept tru untill 6.30 what i would give for that :)

That sounds nasty, you poor thing!

DD has always been a bad sleeper. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of nights she slept through in 2010.

2011 has been a lot better so far, except for the past few weeks!

We have this with DS (3yo) on and off. It's bad enough that I have to leave DH to deal with him because he's been known to throw things at me, kick, punch etc... which is bizarre, because by day he is such a sweet child, who would never do those things! We seriously get to a point where DH just holds and rocks him whilst he screams and kicks for a few minutes and he eventually wears himself out and drifts back to sleep.

It always seems to be around 2/3am as well.

What we have found is that it happens more regularly when his routine has been disrupted (he is ?ASD) and has not been sleeping well. It seems to be a reaction to being over tired.

I know that's not much help when she is not sleeping well, but if you manage to get through it, I strongly recommend doing whatever it takes not to get back into the cycle! We offend relatives regularly by refusing invitations and/or putting DCs to bed on time regardless of whether they are still here, but it really has improved his sleep pattern so much, and with a 8mo baby too I struggle to function on so many broken nights (plus I find it quite disturbing when he is screaming and throwing things at me).

Hi Gracie123- does you DS still have a sleep through day??

So if your DS has a good routine and goes to bed on time does he tend to sleep right through or does he still waken a few times?

Thanks

If he has his normal routine he sleeps well. If we disrupt it (eg GPs won't let us leave to put him to bed!) he sleeps poorly and it can take a week or two to sort it out again.

Because he is so fussy about his routines the HV has queried ASD, but we're not sure.

His general routine is up at 7am. Nap 12-2.30. Bed again at 7pm. When he is ill I sometimes extend the nap until 3/3.30 but not often. He's always an absolute wretch if you wake him when he's ill.

Sorry for lack of input from me - we've been away for the weekend.

Horrible night with DD last night. She slept in the car on the way to PILs house and then wouldn't go to sleep for ages (my DH was asleep before her!). She then woke crying a couple of times around 2am but woke again half an hour later really kicking off. I ended up co-sleeping with her and DH crammed himself into her bed.

I'm hoping it was due to unfamiliar surroundings (although she's slept there fine before). She's had lots of sleep on the way home today, so could be another bad night.

We drop her daytime nap when we can, and DD sleeps so much better at night when she doesn't have a nap, I would recommend giving it a go!

We can get away with dropping his nap about once a week. More than that sets him off with the night time screaming again.

We've found he just needs more sleep than his peers. I'm okay with that mostly. It's just a bit of a sore point with relatives who expect him to work to their schedules IYKWIM

Ps hope you get a better night tonight!

Not a great night, but no tantrums - she woke because I had another coughing fit, didn't have a tantrum and was back to sleep quickly. But she then slept until gone 7am - we had to wake her so we wouldn't be late for nursery!

Am hoping nursery will have tired her out today and we'll sleep better tonight.

Hooray!

We aren't having tantrums at the moment, so as long as nothing gets disrupted we should be fine...

Glad to hear it Gracie - maybe it was all linked to the full moon? [hopeful emoticon]

DD was exhausted after nursery yesterday, asleep a good 40 minutes earlier than "normal" and then slept until 5.30am, when she quietly climbed into bed with me (DH is away for work this week) and then slept for another couple of hours. Fab!

Thank goodness for that! Will your DH mind when he comes back if she joins you in bed?

Well, she doesn't make a habit of it (at the moment), only if she wakes up once it's getting light outside.

Hello agin, how are you getting on with DD??

Im happy to say after another visit to gp and DS being started on MOVICOL he is like a total different baby, much happier and (touch wood) wev had 5 fab nights with him last night he didnt even waken once :)

xx