Anyone else still have 2.5- 3 year olds waking them up at night?

KDR1979

OMG. I want to sleep. all night. consistently!!!

Our twins have been tough in the sleep department! We put them in their own rooms at 8 months b/c DD kept waking up DS. For the next 1.5 years, DS only woke up at night if he was teething or sick. DD was up all the time. We did a sleep study last year and she did have 64 periodic limb movements = kinda like restless leg. We checked her iron/ferritin and it was really low (no idea why-she eats meat & veggies and hardly drinks milk), but we put her on daily iron and that has made a huge difference. She will sometimes still wake up at night, but it has significantly improved. NOW, DS is waking up at night. They went to convertible beds ~ 3 months ago. About ~2 months ago, DS started waking up at night. He will run to his bedroom door, turn on the light and cry/scream/bang on door for us until we come. We talked to the pediatrician and she does want to repeat a brain MRI (@ age 12 months, he had a possible chiari malformation, but doc thought it was unlikely). Our pedi thinks this could be totally normal behavior, but thinks the MRI would be good to get...just to be safe.

Last night, they were both up...it was awful! DD will wake up and yell until one of us comes to get her. When you ask her what she needs, she says, "Want my mommy." The Sleep counselor/NP at our local children's hospital said that this was normal...if toddlers wake up at night, it is normal for them to want mom and dad. She also wasn't a huge fan of CIO for toddlers. There are SO many opinions on this!

It seems like NO ONE else is still up at night as much as we are. Anyone else still struggle with this?

 I have been sleep deprived for almost 3 years!

valeriegp

I sympathize! My son turned 2 at the end of December. He hasn't slept through the night since August, when we had a new routine start. The typical night is:

- start bedtime routine at 7. Hope he's asleep (in his bed/room) by 8:30, but sometimes it takes longer.

- He wakes up and cries out sometime between 11 pm and 1 am. He will not go back to sleep in his room, so he ends up in bed with us (we both work full time and the alarm clock goes off at 4:45 am, so admittedly we have created this monster because we need to sleep)

- Most nights, he wakes again around 2:30-3 and has to be calmed back to sleep. 

It is miserable.

Bigboobsmcgee

My almost 3 year old tries to keep me in his room every night by saying "Mommy, pleeeeeeease don't leave me". It's heartbreaking but I know it's a stall tactic and he doesn't really need me. At this age, my son can totally understand when I tell him that mommy needs to go to bed too so he needs to lay down and go to sleep.

Do your kids understand when you explain to them about bed time and going to sleep?

As far as getting out of bed and screaming, you might have to go Supernanny style with your kids and keep putting them back in bed, 1,000 times if you have to and saying "back in bed, it's bedtime" over and over. Limit your interaction with them and just stay consistent with putting them back in bed. Eventually, they should get it.

KDR1979

We've tried the back to bed over and over. By the ~3rd time in the same night, me and DH are so tired that we usually cave and let them come to our bed. We don't sleep great when they are in our bed, but it is better than getting up over and over and over!  If we let them scream, they end up waking up the other one.

It's so hard!

Stephorse

Our  2 yr old was sleeping though the night since 3 months old, but this past week has woken up crying and screaming wanting daddy. He's been waking up little brother who is 1 and who just started sleeping through the night! We were up 3xs last night! The only way he stops is if he's in bed with us which I don't want to keep doing. Anybody have any ideas that have worked?

jld49

My 3 yr 2mth old still wakes up at night and has been for the last year or so. It's ridiculous and exhausting. I pretty much have been inconsistent in response bc he has ebbs and flows, sometimes its temper tantrums, other times, night terrors, other times nightmares, other times hungry, often separation anxiety--so my response isn't always the same. And of course, I was at first patient, then eventually not patient, then patient again bc I know he has genuine fears, and then impatient/frustrated. It's become a stressful thing, sleep, for him. And I think that's become the biggest challenge. We need to change sleep for him to feel like a relaxing topic. He does it when he feels he needs to/is relaxed, and when he hits a light cycle in his sleep, he can snuggle up and stay relaxed to return to sleep. 

Waking up in the middle of the night is pretty normal for toddlers, actually, so don't be under the impression that most toddlers sleep really well all throughout the night. Many don't. I'd suggest giving parts of Jodi Mindell's book "Sleeping Through the Night" a read--particularly the parts of on sleep wakings (she has a technical title for this). I found it helpful. 

jld49

PS--I should add to my post above: up until 2 years old he was a very good sleep through the night-er. One day it just changed.