Toddler regularly up for hours in the night

[futuremrsconnor85]

My toddler wakes up for hours at night! It's not every night, around 2 or 3 nights a week. Last night was 2:15-4:45. She wants milk and wants to get up and play. I give her the milk but I refuse to let her get up. Does anyone have any tips or reasons why she might be waking? I thought sleep was supposed to get better as they get a bit older!

Forgot to say, she's 22.5 months.

Stop giving her milk when she wakes up

What do you do when she wakes up? What is her bedtime routine like?

I tend to lie on the floor next to her bed to encourage her to go back to sleep which can take a couple of hours or more. I don't give her milk every time, just when she asks for it. She has bath,pjs and story and generally goes to sleep fine about 8pm. She's never been a big napper in the day, she has 30-45 mins about 2pm. Occassionally she has no daytime nap at all now.

Had exactly this with DD when she was about 22 mths - and she was in a bed by then as she was a holy horror at climbing out of her cot.

I know its cliche - but it is a phase. DD had a good bedtime routine, wasn't day time napping at all. She simply woke up about 3am bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for action. Took a few weeks for it to settle down. I had to be quite firm with her - no drinks, no lights, 'It's night time, it's dark, time to sleep sort of talk - firm, maybe even a bit cross - not soft soothing words. I read somewhere that sleep has a 90-120 min cycle - and it did take her about 90 mins to get sleepy again, so it was a case of gritting teeth to get through. Unless she's waking everyone in the house, re-assure her tell her to lie down and leave the room. You're being there is a distraction for her and she'll want to engage you. Hang on in there!

I’d start putting her to bed a bit earlier to start with. If overtired they can wake in the night like this. For night wakes give her at least 15 minutes before you go in. Then no eye contact, no lights, lie her down and tell her to go to sleep. Leave the room and repeat. By lying in there she’s getting some reward for being awake.

Many thanks for your suggestions, I will try them!

To add something else, my DP works away for three days a week and thinking about it she tends to wake up on the nights he is not here. Has anyone else ever found anything like this?