weird night waking problem

[prefernot]

I don't know if anyone can help with this one which has me confused.

Dd, 23 months, a good sleeper most of her life with an occasional problem when ill etc. which has responded well to gentle cc, has for the last 3 nights been waking at 2am for 1.5 hours. She doesn't cry, she just stands in the cot, most of the time quite quietly though occasionally calling my name. When I go down she doesn't want anything, maybe just has a sip of water, gives me a kiss and a cuddle standing up and says night night but just doesn't go back to sleep! I've tried not going into her but it doesn't seem to make a difference if I go or I don't. I can't just sleep through it as she calls for me every 10-15 mins or so which wakes me up if I do doze off.

In the day she has 1-2 hours sleep in the afternoon which she definitely needs (more so these last few days as she's exhausted all morning), between 12-2pm. She goes to bed 7.30pm-8pm and wakes about 6.30-7am. I'm in no doubt that she's tired as I can hear her yawning as she stands in the night. She's getting over a cold and a cough but wasn't doing this when it was bad and I think she's nearly better. She's not teething.

I haven't a clue what to do, cc doesn't seem appropriate as she's not crying and seems not to be bothered if I go in or not. Any ideas? This happened to anyone else?

Up at 6am this morning!! He was really, really grumpy and so was I.

He is at nursery when I'm at work, and he seems to absolutely love it (most of the time). I feel guilty about him being there but would find it very hard being at home with all the time. I have the upmost admiration for those who do because I know I couldn't.

Hope we both have a good night (and not so early mornings!)

Hi MrsW, dd woke up twice last night but for only a few minutes and settled quickly and easily. And woke up at 7.30 this morning!! She IS ill though, I took her to the GP this morning, so I don't know now how much of her weird sleeping is due to feeling unwell and how much to do with weirdness.

How was your night?

New phase is 6am waking every day (well three days on the trot), sulking from me and DS (why he's sulking I don't know, he's the one that keeps getting up so bloody early), then mindless staring at Toy Story 2 on the telly for a couple of hours!

I read your other thread about your DD, it sounds really horrible for her and for you. Hugs to you both, hope she feels better soon.

Sorry to butt in, but having same problem with my DS (21 months). He has always slept really well (eg. not up till 8am!) but for the last 6 weeks or so wakes at least once a night. I take a bottle in (although he doesn't always drink it), and he goes back to sleep after about an hour of lying there 'talking' to himself. If I don't take the bottle in, he just continues to cry. I thought this would just be a 'phase' and he would stop, but it doesn't seem that way!

I find it really hard to get back to sleep while I can hear him 'chattering', so sympathise with you both!

TeriS
(Am thinking of changing MN name to V Tiered!)

My 23month old is the same. For the past fortnight he's woken at 2am. When DH went in he settled back to sleep easily. When I walked in he screamed to be with me. When DH was away on business I took him into bed with me to ensure he didn't wake his older brother. This, of course, was a huge mistake. It was only resolved when I had a big night out last week and was so plastered I didn't hear him. DH said he yelled for a while but then dropped off (he's much tougher than I am....)Since then, he's slept through. If he does wake, I leave him. Hopefully that's broken the habit.

Isn't it odd that they've all started doing this waking up business at around the same age. TeriS it sounds like your ds has been doing this for longer than my dd. Although she's still not ever sleeping right through the night, she has, for the last few nights been waking only briefly, having a sip of water and going straight back to sleep again. I'm really grateful about this but at the same time I've still got no idea why it's started happening. She's also been getting more difficult to settle to sleep at nap times.

Any of you had that problem at the same time as this night waking thing?

DS is sleeping fine for his daytime nap, which is the weird thing - it's just a night!

I also have the problem with DS responding better when DH goes in - when I go in he usually wants to cuddle for a bit too, whereas DH just gives him the bottle and walks out.

We tried just ignoring him for a couple of nights last week, as I wasn't sure if us keep going in is just 'encouraging' him to wake up, but DS just layed there crying for ages, which was even more upsetting then getting up!

Don't know if this will be any help to you all, but my DS2 who is two and a half, started to do this at the age of about 22-23 months. He also had previously been a good sleeper.

It has only been the few Weeks that he has stopped, so it has been a LONG time of broken sleep for us.

It is only as he has got older, and he can explain things better, that he started to talk about shadows, noises etc in his bedroom. He also rarely cried though.

We already had a night-light in his bedroom which seemed to make no difference. But one night i told him that fairys live in his night-light, and that when he is asleep they fly around his bedroom and protect him. I really didn't think it would work, but that night was the first that he slept straight through. He also told anyone who would listen about 'his fairys.'

Don't know if this will be of any help, and what worked for me may not work for you. A friend of mine who is a H/V did say that around the age of two, most children go through a 'scared' phase. It is funny that most of the children posted about on this thread are about that age.

saintshar, thanks for that, it would explain why he is fine sleeping during the day!

It's hard at this age, as he can't tell me why he's not sleeping. I might try telling him the fairy thing though... he understands a lot of what we say to him, so it might get through.

I'll post you on how I get on with it. Girls, if you come across anything else that works for you, let me know.

TeriS

TeriS, my DS got into the habit of having a bottle in the night (he was much younger though, less than a year) and eventually I started watering it down. I did gradually over a week or so and by the end he was just having water which he lost interest in.

Not sure if this will work in your case but just thought I'd mention it!

The only other thing I'd wondered was whether this was the age they start to have bad dreams?

This is all very interesting to hear as dd (nearly 2) has become afraid of things lately. She doesn't want a nightlight though, I've tried that, she just called me to turn it off as it was 'too light' and she couldn't sleep , it was a very dim one too! But she's terribly afraid of noises and unfortunately as we're in a block of flats there are a lot of noises which come down through the ceiling / walls. Nothing I can do about it except tell her things like it's a little girl dancing / a lady putting a picture up / a doggy putting puppies to bed etc. etc. etc.

At the moment at nap time I can only get her to settle by lying on the fold out bed in her room until she goes to sleep and then slipping out. I'd prefer her in her cot where I know she's safe and also I know it's not a good habit to start but she's been really poorly this week and needs to sleep and isn't up to being left to cry at nap times. After this weekend I'm going to have to get her back in her cot though. Not looking forward to that!

Last night she woke at 5am, wide awake, but then she asked me for my top to lie down on so I gave it to her and she went straight off which is an indication of some separation anxieties I think?