Is your toddler an erratic sleeper?

[raggedyanna]

Ok not too sure what to do about ds and whether his sleep patterns are normal or not.

He is coming up for two and has a fairly bad sleep history but finally started to sleep through the night at about 14 months. The problem is that it goes in fits and bursts..he will have a couple of weeks where he is great and sleeps through no problem and then he will go through another couple where he wakes every couple of hours and then goes back to sleeping through. Do other toddlers do this, what do you do?

At the moment because he is generally a reasonable sleeper now days I assume something is amiss and waking him up so I respond, I go in, pat his back, cover him up, offer a drink if really upset and then go back to bed. He usually settles after this, if not I go in every 5 minutes until he does settle, on the very rare occasion I get him up and rock with him in the rocker ( this is only if I desperately need us both to sleep) Any ideas...he goes back to sleeping through after two or three weeks and then sleeps beautifully for two or three weeks.

Is he teething?

DS1 is erratic - I often hear him wake up, have a drink, chatter to himself (just "oh dear, drink, hello Bear" kind of thing for a little while, then go back to sleep again. Sometimes he needs DH or me and he soon lets us know! But it's almost always teething-related.

I've always picked him up if he does get upset in the night, taken him onto the bed in his room, cuddled him while whispering reassuring things to him and then told him Bear's sleepy and wants him to go back in the cot with him - 99% of the time this is all he needs.

If it was happening every night, I might be more inclined to be a bit harder, but I figure when you're that little, it can be a bit scary in the night and it's nice to have a cuddle. Plus I think sometimes he wakes up because he has a bad dream, so what better antidote to that than being scooped up by your mum and cuddled tight?

Oh, DS1 was two in April - he only slept through with any kind of regularity when he was 19mo apart from a brief spell around 5mo, but mostly this was because he gets horrendous temperatures when he cuts a tooth.

Ds is just the same. At 2.10 he is sleeping through much more often and, if not, usually only wakes once. We do the same as hunker.

Jess will be 2 next month. She only started sleeping through at 15 months and is now not too bad. Wehave off days where she wont settle until 8pm (usual bedtime 7-7.30) but our problems lie in the fact she can have few days of not waking until 6.30 or like this morning and most of last week, its 5am - not matter how many times we put her back to bed, she gets up again and we admit defeat. I think its a toddler thing - they do their own thing and you have to ride the wave x

thanks for the reassurance, I do always go into him but was worried that I was setting myself up iykwim especially when we end up in the rocker but just feel that if it was behaviour that he wouldnt sometimes sleep through if that makes sense. I dont think it is teeth, he has all but the 2yr old molars through and there is no real sign of them at the moment

found this thread when on a search for others with toddlers who had patches where they slept really badly. Sorry for the hijack but anyone else having probs at the mo with sleeping and toddlers?
Ds is 21mths and is going through a real patch of not wanting to settle at night, waking several times and then being ready to go with the crows and on top of it all he has dropped day time naps for the most part (every 2 or 3 days he will still have one0 I think he is prob overtired but won't sleep!!!!