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Original poster

ds waking during the night driving me mad

11 replies

joanneg · 07/09/2004 11:24

ds - 2 years old - wakes up about 5 - 10 times a night. He goes to bed fine. He just suddenly cries out and then we hear the cot rattle as he moves and moans.

Sometimes when we go up he is stood swaying about moaning. Other times he asks for a drink. Although he is easy to settle back down the constant disturbance is driving me mad. Once I am woken up it takes me ages to get back to sleep as i am a bad sleeper.

Any ideas what might be casuing this? Do you think that his cot is uncomftable? Shall we leave a drink in his cot?

Any tips/advice appreciated as the sleep deprivation is driving me insane!

OP posts:
Lonelymum · 07/09/2004 11:29

Is he kicking the sides of the cot in his sleep and waking up or do you think something else is waking him? Maybe he needs to move to a bed. Sympathy for your disturbed nights. They are the worst aspect to parenting in my opinion.

Lonelymum · 07/09/2004 11:31

Also is this a recent change? Have you considered if he is teething or having nightmares? Has he seen something scary recently?

aloha · 07/09/2004 11:50

Do you go to him every time he cries out? Have you tried leaving him to settle himself?

Original poster
joanneg · 07/09/2004 21:21

hi - thanks for replying. He has always woken up a lot - so dont think that it is anything he has seen - I must admit maybe it is his cot bar disturbing him. I am starting to think maybe a bed is the way forward. We do go in quite quickly - so I think maybe tonight we will let him moan and see if he settles himself.

any other suggestions

OP posts:
Twiglett · 07/09/2004 21:26

message withdrawn

lulupop · 08/09/2004 07:34

My DS was a frequent waker too. By the time he was approaching 2 (and I was expecting DD), I felt as frustrated as you sound.

He is quite a big boy and we found moving him to a bed really helped. Every time he turned over in his cot at aged 2, he was hitting the bars and I'm sure that disturbed him.

Once he was in the bed, we put a stairgate across the door, told him he could play in his room if he woke but wasn't to shout out, and he's been fine ever since. To be fair, the first 2 nights he did scream at the gate (until he was sick!), but after that he was fine. Now when he wakes up in the morning I just hear him saying "Mummy, I wake now", and I go and get him.

Good luck

helsi · 08/09/2004 08:17

I saw the Little Angels programme last night and they introduced a night light that just gave a nice bit of light off instead of being in the dark when the child woke. They told the child that it was a fairy's light that was there to look after her and then in the morning they turned it off so that the fairy could get some sleep until the next night - I thought that idea was really sweet.
I also agree that maybe your ds needs a"big bed".

My sympathy - hope it works out ok.

twick · 08/09/2004 12:39

I slightly disagree about the moving to a bed. I tend to think that if they're waking in the night anyway, having a bed could open a whole new can of worms as he may start wandering. It sounds from what you're describing as though he's only partially waking (standing, swaying may mean he's still almost asleep) so I'd try leaving him a bit longer to settle on his own before doing something as drastic as getting a bed.

josephine27 · 08/09/2004 21:10

just found this site. have a 16 month old little girl, who constantly wakes through the night and will only settle(she go's rigid and screams the house down)if i put her on the spare bed. she then go's back off in no time, but i either have to sit there till she go's into a deeper sleep and carry her back or (more often than not!) end up in there with her for the rest of the night.
myself and my boyfriend are constantly on edge, never being able to relax all night or evening just waiting for her to start and have not had a good nights sleep since she was born. we have no help from anyone else, so we know we have made desicions that are hindering us now (getting her to sleep on the spare bed, then carrying her through to her own) but with no other support, we just did what we could to get through and i keep putting off trying any other sleep ritual as im so tired already!any advice?x

josephine27 · 08/09/2004 21:41

sorry, that was meant as new converation, but was reading your message. i have the utmost sympathy for you. lack of sleep is one of the hardest things to cope with as when we're tired everything feels 100 times worse and a good nights sleep(whats one of those?) would be like winning the lottery. hope we both crack it!x

prefernot · 08/09/2004 22:13

Oh, poor you, joanneg. It's really hard to have broken sleep for anyone but if you're a light sleeper yourself it's impossible. My dd's not as bad as your ds but she's quite erratic. One night she'll sleep ok, the next wake a few times. One morning she's up at 5.30am, the next it's 7am. I find this has a devastating effect on my own sleep, I'm continually expecting her to wake up when she doesn't or hoping she'll sleep and she doesn't.

AGH!!!

Any moment I have to sit down quietly I find I'm virtually asleep in seconds ...

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