2 yo night waking and up early

lana22

Until he turned 2 my DS was a dream sleeper, 12 hours at least every night, never woke up. Over the past month or two he's started waking up sporadically in the middle of the night and calling for us till we come in. He's 26 months and in a crib. We usually lay him back down, put blankets over him, and he goes back to sleep, but sometimes we have to go in several times before he goes back to sleep. He also wakes up about 2-4 mornings a week between 5:30 and 6. I have a younger son and if we let him call for us too long or cry it wakes him up, but I'm starting to think that unless I leave him be he's going to keep doing this. He doesn't seem to "need" anything and is starting to try and manipulate us to stay longer, read stories, go downstairs, etc.

He usually takes a 1-1.5 hour nap around 1pm (sometimes earlier if he's up v early), and goes to bed at 7:30. We tried moving his bedtime back until 8 for a week or two but it didn't change things, and he seems ready to sleep at 7:30 and doesn't take long to fall asleep. Do you think he needs a later bedtime anyway?

laynal

This all sounds normal to me! Mine goes to bed between 8-9 and wakes up between 5:30 and 6. They don't need as much sleep as they get older. My daughter also used to call out for me at night. I would go in, not say anything and just cover her up and kiss her. I think she jut needed the reassurance that I was there. She will still call out for me once a night but she's potty trained now, so sometimes it's to go potty. I think most of the time they outgrow it.
Unless you're comfortable with CIO (as long as there's no real need). If I were you I just wouldn't give in with letting him get up in the middle of the night. A quick kiss or pulling the covers back up, or asking if he has a need then heading back out. He'll get the point eventually.
Hang in there, it does get better!

blu-eyedwife

1) Night wakes - Mine goes through phases where he has more/less difficulty sleeping.  He always wakes at night, but 90% of the time, he rolls over and goes back to sleep.  The other 10% of the time, there's usually "something" going on (like a molar coming in, a stuffy nose/cough, or last night he was thirsty) so he wakes up, is uncomfortable, and can't get back down.  We go to him during those times and it doesn't seem to affect his ability to sleep on his own the majority of the time.  We don't do stories or anything that would keep him up, usually it's just a retuck, some hand holding or back rubbing.

2) Waking up early - I have no solution for this.  But empathy.  We do this too.  He's also usually up between 5:30 and 6.  (For weeks it was 5:50 on the dot).  It doesn't matter if we put him to bed later or earlier.  Right now I'm just tucking it away for those mornings when he's a teenager and doesn't want to get up before noon, so I can remind him that we don't always get to sleep as late as we'd like. 

junebugrbig

DD went through phases of waking up in the middle of the night crying for us.  We go in give her a drink of water and cover her back up and tell her it is time to go back to sleep.  We try not to spend too much time in there so she doesn't expect a nice long midnight visit.   My kids do not go to bed until 8:30pm.  They are rarely up before 6:30am.  Maybe a slow transition to a later bed time would be helpful.  Not 30 minutes all at once, but five minutes later every couple of days and see how it goes.

ThatWasAHoot

When my son was teething, he did that sometimes.  Not as drastic, but enough where we were like, nooo!  He usually goes to bed at 8-8:30 and is up at 7:30-8.  But I remember when he was teething, especially his 2 year molars, he woke up a few times during the night for a few weeks.  And he'd sometimes wake up at 6:30-7, which is early for him.  Maybe it's that?

lana22

Thanks everyone! He hasn't woken up for the past four nights, and has been sleeping until 6:45. Hurray! He was getting over a stomach bug and maybe it was some residual sickness. Seems like there are occasional phases of early waking, and I just have to suck it up. He's also been going to bed at 7:30 or later, so hopefully we can maintain a later bedtime and keep these "late" mornings going.

bluejetta

Glad things got better. I find we have periodic bouts of super early morning waking and doesn't seem particularly related to anything.  We have also moved back bedtime from 7 to 7:30 and it seems to help since our LO seems to need a bit less sleep than she did 6 months ago or so.