My 18 month old has started waking for hours at a time in the middle of the night

[LearningMum]

Good morning, my little girl is 18 months old and has recently started waking at 2am and being awake for between 2-3 hours 😱 she's never been the best sleeper but usually settles straight back down. With a dummy etc.
First I must explain that we cosleep at the moment because of our living situation, we have been staying with family for 5 months whilst waiting to get our own house. We move in today 🙂
Because we have been sharing a room , it became impossible to keep her in her cot at night, she would wake up see me in bed and scream until I put her in with me. I'm hoping this will settle down once she has her own room as from tonight.
But just this last week, even being in bed with me. She is waking up about 2 am, not crying, Just playing and tossing and turning. Trying to get back to sleep god love her, but she doesn't seem able to. She doesn't cry because I'm next to her. But when we get her in her own room tonight. I'm dreading it!!!
Has anyone else experience this kind of waking up thing with a toddler? Or Any suggest what to do.

Yep,from all the stuff I read about it,it’s called ‘split nights’ and my son did it every night for 4 months (!) when he turned 9 months old! It was a nightmare and that’s when we first started co sleeping to save my sanity! If you google split nights,there’s some info on it about making sure they’re nap times are right. However now my son is almost 19 months and just after he turned 18 months it started again!
Waking in the night for 1.5-3 hours just rolling around,tossing and turning,really struggling to get back to sleep even with me right there next to him.
Luckily it only lasted a week or so but this time it seemed to be developmental as he was learning loads of new words that week.
I think once you’ve checked that the day sleep isn’t affecting it and that it’s not teeth or wind or anything making them uncomfortable,then it’s probably developmental and they’ve got lots on their minds because they’re learning such a lot at this age.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t last for long for you!

@Moreteaplease84 thanks for sharing hun. Good to know this can be normal part of development. I will be sure to look up split nights. Thanks very much for the advice xx