Nighttime separation anxiety

AmySmolos

I need advice ladies. DS has been randomly waking at night and refuses to go to sleep without dh or I in his room. He doesn't do it every night but when he wakes up he won't let us leave. Last night he stared at my dh for 1.5 hours like he was making sure he wouldn't leave him. But for 1.5 hours??? We end up staying the rest of the night in his room because it takes so long for him to be in a deep enough sleep that we can leave. My dh is worried about the staring for so long like if it's arid all issue but I think it's separation anxiety because he acts fine at all other times in the day. He also acts fine with naps and going to bed at night or us leaving him which makes me confused as to why it's only in the middle if the night.

Any thoughts as to his to help him through this? It's been a couple of months now that we've been dealing with this. Also do you think we should worry about the staring? Thanks!

skooz

I think our situation is a little bit similar, not quite the same. DD will sleep through the night fine in my bed, but wakes up often in her own room. One night that I thought I'd try to get her to stay in her bed I sat by her bed for about half an hour waiting for her to go back to sleep. She stared at me a lot of that time. I think I ended up giving up and just bringing her to my bed. This all started after we were out of town for a few weeks and she was sleeping with me then. I haven't gotten her to sleep all night in her bed since (we've been home a month), although to be completely honest I don't mind her in bed with me, especially while DH is gone.

So I guess no good advice, but DD doesn't like being alone at night either. Could he have been asleep with his eyes open while he was staring?

AmySmolos

Can they sleep with tier eyes open? I didn't know that. We haven't tried to leave while he's staring but I do know after he's in his crib for a good 30 minutes I try to leave and he shoots up and starts crying. At least I'm not the only one with a starer.

AmySmolos

So far ds is horrible with CIO. He will cry for an hour and be standing up in his crib the whole time. Then he just works himself up more and more. I was thinking of trying a sleep lady shuffle type thing or just another attempt at CIO. We have to go in once though due to his seizures to make sure he isn't feverish. Once we know he's ok then we can leave him. I don't know if that messes it up or not.

vic8504

I will say that 95% of the time DD sleeps through the night. But then we will go through this phase where she wakes up like an hour or 2 after being put down...Sometimes she will cry for a little and fall back to sleep but other times she starts getting super upset and we have to go in, if we let her try to CIO she will make herself sick or be up twice as long! The other night I laid on her floor for 1.5hrs until she was asleep enough for me to leave. Sometimes I wonder if she wakes up because of a bad dream or something like that.