2 1/2 year-old up 3 times a night - anything we can do? Will moving from cot to bed help or exacerbate?

[franch]

DD is 2y 7m, normally v good sleeper, but last few weeks has started crying out in the night, quite upset - when we go in she usually asks for a cuddle, a drink of water, her story tape back on, or (last few nights) to go to the toilet (she's still in nappies at night).

We've been assuming we just have to go with this but thought I'd post in case there are any bright ideas. We were planning on moving her to a bed soon - good idea or not??

Maybe she is getting her second set of molars? Ds (similar age) was really grumpy last week and we found out it was his teeth.

Quite possible KT - thanks. And thanks very much for the thoughts WW - B&Q light / potty ideas particularly useful

No suggestions franch, but am in total sympathy as ds2 is around the same age and does exactly the same. funnily enough, he requires the same treatment, cuddle, drink tape on etc, etc....then he just goes back to sleep. he's a terribly light sleeper too and now notices if I switch the light off when we're going to bed. yawn.............speaks a sleep deprived parent!!

I would definitely consider moving from cot to bed now. I think we had dds in their beds by the ages of 15 months. They loved it - we let them chose their own duvet covers and they couldn't wait for bed time.

I confess I don't 'get' the story tape thing -- surely if they're used to going to sleep with a tape playing, it stands to reason they'll want it back on if they happen to wake up in the night? Dd2 is similar age and is by nature fiendishly and inventively wicked, but is a good sleeper. Her bedtime routine is story followed by bed, ie. lights out and as quiet as it can be with two older children in the house. She's not averse to larking about in her bedroom of an evening, particularly if she's had a daytime nap and isn't that tired, but once asleep that's it for the night. She does wake up occasionally with (I presume) a nightmare or if she falls out of bed, but tends to just go back to sleep on her own, sometimes on the bedroom floor, if that's where she's landed.

Requests for night-time drinks etc is likely to be a wind-up ime, particularly if she has definitely had enough to drink at supper time. Ditto the need to visit the loo. I tend to take a very dim view of wakings in the night (ie. any time before about 6.30am) for any reason other than clear distress -- one of us will generally storm up the stairs, hissing, "It's the middle of the night, go back to sleep." In comparison with lots of other people's children our do seem to be very good sleepers, so the tough line does seem to have worked.

Frogs, the story tape thing exists in our house mainly because I was always used to lights out and silence and could sleep no other way (and that is still true now). At our last home, we had dreadfully noisy, inconsiderate neighbours and having a tape playing quietly in the background seemed like a good idea, so that ds1 could always sleep through noise (the idea being that his tape would help drown out the noise from the neighbours). Now ds1 (now 8) and dd (now 6) both go to sleep with their CD/tape playing, but know that if they wake up in the night that they just go back to sleep. Ds2 (2.8), however, hasn't quite reached that level of understanding yet, so if he wakes in the night and asks for his tape, tbh, it's much easier to oblige than listen to his protests, which are loud enouigh to wake half the street up!! However, we turn the volume down so he can just hear it, but no-one else can and that is the rule. Hopefully it won't be too long until he reaches the same stage as the older two..........

Hi All - new to this so...my DS (2.10) has always been a great sleeper until Christmas last year. Now tends to wake most nights, minimum of once and sometimes 5 or 6. Often just comes into the room, almost likes to check we are still there, and sometimes sneaks in without me even noticing. We've never allowed DS in our bed, he's always gone down fine and gets himself off to sleep around 7.30pm and with us leaving the room. Now he wants you to stay with him until he goes to sleep, doesn't like the dark so we have B&Q light and leave dimmer on. He literally goes straight back to bed when you put him back if he gets up. He's a lot better than has been, drops off in about 5 mins now, but we never get a night through and he wakes at 6.00am always grumpy and ready for a sleep about 9.00am. We've cut out his afternoon sleeps about 3 months ago and he was fantastic at potty training and is dry at both day and night. He'll go and use the potty himself at night if he needs to but not often. I work part time but the disturbed sleep is taking it's toll! Any ideas - what about this bunny clock? Anything else - done the put back and no talking but he does just go back and go to sleep. My husband works away for a week every other month and it gets worse when he is away.