22 month old awake for hours in the night.......

[cakesloveme]

.....so what do I do with him????

He has never been the best sleeper but in past few months goes to sleep on his own (achieved through controlled crying) and normally does 10 1/2 hours with only one or two wakings.

However, every 2 or 3 weeks he seems to have an epic awake period overnight for 4-5 hours . He wakes and I'll try the normal cuddle after giving him chance to self settle. He then doesn't go back to sleep and just screams and screams. Won't settle in our bed. I end up turning on light, reading stories and have resorted to the tv to kill time until he will go back down. My instincts say what I'm doing is wrong and he will wake and expect stories/tv.

Any suggestions??

Hi,
Well I'm sat downstairs with DD in the playpen watching In The Night Garden. She's 13 months, and has been awake now since about 12:00. This is a pretty average night to be honest, only difference is that I waited this long to bring her down. I also feel that whatever I'm doing is wrong and she's doing it because she knows eventually DH or I will give in and bring her down, but at the moment it's a case of whatever gets you through the night. DH has an interview in the morning so I want him to get a few hours at least.

I wish I had some tips or advice for you, but we've exhausted (no pun intended) all ideas and nothing works so my advice would be useless. I just wanted you to know you're not the only one up and not to feel bad about resorting to watching TV in the small hours.

I hope he drops off soon

Thanks Funtime, it is so frustrating isn't it! I am totally resigned to the fact that there is probably no answer and it is just a phase (that's what I keep telling myself anyway). Sorry to hear most of your nights are like this. My rational head in the daytime says I'll be all calm but when it comes to it I just get frustrated with him.

What gets me is that our days, his diet and nap is never wildly different from one day to the next, yet the sleep is sometimes great and sometimes shocking!

There will definitely be some payback when he is a teenager wanting a lay-in :o

Good luck for tonight. I've been told the mantra, this too shall pass, is quite helpful!!

I'm off to bed in preparation for another bad night......

What does his daytime routine look like? Wakeup time, nap time/duration & bedtime. Is he well in himself atm? Teething?

Hi Cakes,
Yes, I plan to wake her up at hourly intervals when she's 15! I know what you mean about daytimes - I can actually laugh about it then, believe it or not and kind of shrug it off, but in the wee small hours I become a monster. I've actually found myself banging my head against the side of the cot sobbing more than once.
Developments today though - took her to GP as I wasn't convinced the tugging on her ears was all due to teeth, and lo and behold she has an ear infection and is now on antibiotics. I'm pretty convinced this may have been a recurring problem, so fingers crossed it may make a difference!

We have no consistency either with DD. I think if we knew she'd be up at a certain time each night it would be more manageable, but some nights are just bad, and others are horrific!

I hope it is just a stage, but it's a bloody long one...

Funtime, ds was also diagnosed with ear infection on Tuesday and too has antibiotics! He is a changed child :) so this time it was related to being poorly (oh and getting yet more teeth!). He now seems to be very much back on track and doing normal 10 1/2 hrs. I hope your daughter recovers quickly and you get lots of zzzzzzs soon :)

But, he still does this middle of the night waking for hours and hours every now and then. I guess I should just put it down to developmental spurts and be grateful he is not waking hourly like he did as a newborn!

Omama, days generally start at about 6, breakfast, play, go out, nap usually late morning for up to 1 1/2 hrs, lunch, aftetnoon activity usually out somewhere , dinner about 5 ish , then quiet play, bath every night at 7 then milk and stories and asleep at 7.30 no fuss...he is a routine driven boy! It all works really well which so I get frustrated when he does have these epic waking nights because I can't attribute it to anything. So it must be development spurts!

Glad he's feeling better after getting his antibiotics.

My only though WRT his routine & the ongoing NW is that for his age, his nap is actually quite early if he takes it before lunch, and this gives him a really long stretch of time awake before BT. You might find if you very gradually nudge his nap a bit later so it starts after lunch, he might actually sleep in later in the morning than 6am. And it may stop/reduce the NW. But if he & you are both happy with his routine then I wouldn't be in a rush to change things!