3 year old waking every hour, how long does this phase last for ...

[duvet]

About 3 weeks ago dd2 had a cold which meant she had a couple of unsettled nights having previously slept well and through the night, however since then she is still waking and it's got worse instead of better, the last three nights between 1 and 7 she woke nearly every hour and it's a killer. We are returning her to bed straightawya each time, she settles back fairly quick but to then wake again an hour later. It's torturous. It's now really getting to me, she is tired and irritable during the day and so am I, we are doing all the suggested things, she goes off to sleep at bedtime by herslef no problem.
The whole family is beginning to suffer, what else can I do. Have tried nightlamp, sticker chart, reasoning with her, ignoring her. It starting to feel like groundhog day!

.

you say you have tried ignoring her, what happens when you do this?

We had a bit of problem with night waking recently (be somthing else next week i expect)

we tried the ginoring which helped to an extent but I took to talking to dd every night before bed about what "bigger girls" do if they wake up (she is desperate to be called a bigger girl ) and this did seem to work eventually

could it be that there is somthing waking her up? sore or tickyl throat? runny nose?

She comes in our room, I ask her what's wrong but nothing she says she cant sleep sometimes but then settles back pretty quick once told.

She's better now no more cold systems but the habitual waking has continued which I just need to break ... somehow!

i meant symptoms!

.

Have 3 and a half year old boy waking every hour for last 5 weeks so full sympathy. Have tried everything. Wild animals and witches in his room apparently. Have bought bunk beds, new duvet, tried sticker charts, positive parenting and threats. Nothing works, all he wants is to sleep with mummy. Just got to hope it's a phase and stay strong!

We got (well b'day pressie from Grandma as is expensive) this for our 2YO DD who was waking three or four times a night and ok being taken back to bed, but as you say, exhausting. With fear and trepidation of a relapse i can say we have only had one night where she has got up since having it (2 weeks). Without CCTV i cannot say if this has been the cure or the 5 months 'phase' happened to come to an end, but whatever it is i am happy! At night she checks bunny has gone to bed and we reiterate 'if bunny is sleeping, DD1 sleeping, ok?'

Hi thanks for the replies, further to my first post it's still not sorted but there is a slight improvement!

We have put a temporary camping mattress in DD2's room and Dh and I are taking it in turns to sleep in there. This means that at least one of us gets a decent nights sleep! She has improved a bit in that she will stay in her bed and we can settle her back quite quickly as we are in the room and she does settle back well, but she does still persist in waking at least twice! Usually around 12 ish and then 6am but as soon as we say go back to sleep even at 6 am she will and then sleep til 7.30!. This imporovement occurred over ago and altho we are consistent in our no attention back to sleep method - she persists in waking in the smae manner everynight!! Aaagh I'm still feeling very tired and irritable at times and she seems to be tired too. I'm contemplating calling the HV but will they able to offer any new advice.. hmmm will think about the bunny clock not convinced tho with my stubborn daughter esp as she doesnt get the stickers idea.

We had a similar thing recently. We used a sticker chart (with some success). At the time we gave him a torch (in case he was scared of the dark), checked for 'monsters' at bedtime, and DH put up some cheapo flourescent stars on the ceiling, so that he could watch them (and theoretically drift off to sleep).

Not sure what worked, but after a couple of weeks, he seems to have got back to normal. Hope yours is only going through a stage too, as it is soooo bloody hard to function when you are not getting any kip.

we have had same problem since our 3 yr old had a short illness and never slept through since - 4wks ago now. Previously she was brilliant at going to bed - just said night night and shut door, no probs. She has been up 5 times a night and when we thought she maybe had a urinary infection we started a gradual withdrawal from room method as she falls asleep quite quickly if we stand in her room. However we are now sick of this and seeing no difference in no of times she wakes. HV advised not going in to her and then returning her to bed if she gets out - may take 2-3 hrs on the first night but should see improvement by 3rd night. We start tonight (happy new year!) A friend did this with her wee one who was a year younger and she said it took 2 nights to clear up. You have to be completely consistent, very calm and use the same sentence each time. Also do not get into any conversation at all. I will let you know what happens.............................. We would have done this in the first place had she not been unwell and also we have an 8 month old and were anxious about him, but too bad.

1st night went well - hour and half of returning to bed at bedtime. Went like a train at first and weeping and wailing for about 10 minutes but we stayed calm and repeated same phrase calmly over and over "back to bed now". After 1 hour we only had to go in once in next 15 mins then we just waited a bit to make sure she was asleep. Wee baby woke in the night but toddler slept through it and didn't wake til about 1.45am - same story as bedtme - wailing for 10-15 mins while returning to bed then very quiet but still going like a train - I can't even get back to my bedroom door before she is getting out of bed, but after an hour and a quarter she went to sleep and then woke up for the day at 7.25am (probably got woken by her night and day clock that we bought her as it makes a wee noise when the picture changes..........) So I am feeling great today as I expected to be up for about 3 hours at a time. However we may still face worse tonight but we will definitely persevere as I think the results have been brilliant so far !! HV said to expect 2 bad nights and then a real difference. GOOD LUCK to everyone else suffering similar and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

2nd night - same as first at bedtime. Then not up til 2.30am and again for about 1hr 25 mins but got slower to get out of bed after first 20 mins. Different after that as she only slept for 30 mins then woke again and I had to do another 40 mins of returning to bed, then she slept another 30 mins and woke again but this time I only had to return her to bed ONCE. So that took us til 5.50 am and she then woke at about 8am for the day - I had quickly reset her alarm so it would be later than just after 7 !! I am still positive even though this was worse in some ways than night one as sometimes the 2nd night can be worse so fingers crossed for a real change tonight..............................

I'm resurrecting this thread because sadly 8 months on and I'm still suffering the same problem with my dd who is now 3,9! it did improve in that we got her down to one waking in the night with the rapid return but she will still sometimes revert back to 2 or 3 x a night, fair enough when she's ill but not otherwise and now for the last few nights again she is doing this in fact 4 or 5 times, I'm so fed up with it not to mention tired I cant believe how consistent we've been and yet still she continues with the same behaviour evne my hv doesnt know what else to suggest bar keep doing what I'm doing. The only thing i've tried differently the last couple of nights is that after the first waking I warn her that if she gets out of bed again then she will go on the naughty step. This worked to some degree but then she got all worked up and altho stayed in bed was crying and screaming for ages before i went in and calmed her down. I've tried sticker charts, rewards she's not interested, tried sleeping in her room she still gets out of bed. I know noone probably can suggest anything it just helps to express it and I'm hopeing and praying that it wont ruin our holiday as we are going in a caravan on Friday....

Please if you are still an active member can you let me know when it/if it stopped? My 3.5 year old has been like this since she turned 3 and I have tried EVERYTHING. Thank you

Hi, I saw your message from Jan. 23, 2019, and am wondering if you've had any improvements? My 3 year old DD is waking up about once every hour throughout the night/morning. If you've seen improvements, was there anything you did that you'd recommend? Or did it eventually stop?

Hi, I've been reading this thread and would love to hear how long this phase went on for and what you did to help? Currently a few weeks in and feeling sleep deprived!