I need major advice.

Alli3586 · March 2010

For the past 4 nights, DD has woken up in the middle of the night and been up for hours. Last night it was from 12-4am. We try feeding her, rocking her, putting her in bed with us...nothing works. DH says we need to let her CIO. Most nights it's only 1-2 hours, but last night was really hard. WWYD? We can tell she's still tired, it's just like she can't get comfortable and rolls around constantly. Help!

djandkellen · March 2010

If it were me, and I knew nothing was wrong with her, I'd let her CIO. Otherwise, she's going to continue getting up like this. Good luck!

KKM · March 2010

I would try CIO...not fun, but it may be necessary. I read Sleepeasy Solution and really liked it.

MrsTotty · March 2010

Um, CIO. That would NOT fly in my house.

hewinked · March 2010

Yeah, if nothing is wrong with her, I'd try CIO. It is not fun, but it works. Good luck!

Ciconrad · March 2010

Definitely CIO. I know it's hard but it's better for her and you to get proper sleep.

disbride061103 · March 2010

We don't do a full on CIO, but if DS wakes at night, he will generally sqawk for a minute of two. If he doesn't go back to sleep and starts actually crying, we go get him. We try to rock him to sleep and if he doesn't, we will put him in his crib to see if he goes back to sleep on his own (sometimes he doesn't want to be rocked, just needs a few minutes of comfort). If he doesn't go back to sleep, I let him CIO for 5-7 minutes (at the most) before I go get him and start the process over again. We've only had a handful of nights where he has ever stayed up for several hours.

preg_amy · March 2010

DS does this every once in a while.

It usually passes. We don't CIO, so we just deal with it. And eventually he goes back to sleeping a little better.

Sometimes when they go through developmental milestones, they wake up in the middle of the night to "practice." So if she's learning words or doing some new large motor things, it could be that her mind is just having a hard time shutting off. She's learning so much that she has a hard time settling down.

I don't know if that's the case, but usually that explains DS's longer periods of night wakings.

Buckets of Moonbeams · March 2010

CIO. K started doing that at 9 months old, wanting to get up to play for 2-4 hours at night. We placated her off and on for a month, let her CIO (and she never really cried, BTW. Just fussed.) at 10 months and she's never once woken us up in the night since then. She sleeps like the dead.

Future Mrs.Grabowski · March 2010

DD has been getting up in the middle of the night for the past almost 2 weeks....is anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours....due to annoying neighbors I am exhausted from lack of sleep...lastnight I finally let her CIO ...I checked on her and made sure she was dry and had her blanket and FP seahorse and that was it. I figure if I keep going in there and try to comfort her the way I have been this will go on a lot longer then it should.

GRKaters · March 2010

I'd call the pedi and have her checked for an ear infection. DS's sleep habits go straight to the pooper when he's sick.

star173 · March 2010

Are you sure nothing is going on? K has had a few days like that, but not for 4 hours. Does she have sweets in the evening? Could she be cutting teeth? K is different with food than most toddlers, but lately, she's needed milk in the middle of the night. Could she be hungry? Do they hit growth spurts around this age? I'm not against CIO, but if it's out of character for her, there may be something else going on, you know.

KKM · March 2010

star173:
Are you sure nothing is going on? K has had a few days like that, but not for 4 hours. Does she have sweets in the evening? Could she be cutting teeth? K is different with food than most toddlers, but lately, she's needed milk in the middle of the night. Could she be hungry? Do they hit growth spurts around this age? I'm not against CIO, but if it's out of character for her, there may be something else going on, you know.

Two weeks ago B was up for two hours having a party in the middle of the night. Never has done it before. I cant prove it, but I personally think it may be from the huge piece of chocolate cake he had after dinner (we had a b-day party for Grandpa). I did say though if he did it again we were going to have to let him CIO, or PIO.

cleeksock · March 2010

we hit a phase like this around your daughter's age. CIO really didn't work. we just had to wait it out. It came around the time she hit a language explosion, so I'm blaming it on that.

CelticWife · March 2010

This may be a dumb question, but is she actually awake? Does she say hello mama/dada?

DS has had a nighttime "waking" a few times. He is standing up, eyes open, and crying, but he doesn't seem to recognise us. He thrashes around in bed, fusses/cries for an hour or so, then it just stops and he continues sleeping. If we pick him up, he squirms away. It is kind of like sleep walking, which runs in DH's family and is apparently really common in toddlers.

If she really is awake, do you wait 15 min or so before going to get her? My friend has to do that with her DS. If she waits 15-20 minutes, her LO goes back to sleep on his own. (If something is really wrong, she can tell by the way he is crying, and she goes right in.)

Other then that, I would read Ferber and consider CIO or have DH go in instead of you.

Sunny1inTucson · March 2010

Alli, our DD's are the same age and we've been dealing with the exact same thing the past 2 nights!!!!!!!!

It's so exhausting. I'm guessing developmental milestone must be around the corner, because she's not teething, her ears were checked last week and they were fine, etc.

She just can't - stay - asleep. She's fussy and rolls all over the place, can't get comfortable. Kicks her feet against the mattress. Even if I climb in the cirb with her and try to comfort her that doesn't work. Nothing works!! Not even bringing her to bed with us.

She woke up at 11:30 last night and it took til 12:30 for her to get back to sleep. Argh! Then she woke again at 5 and was up for the night. ETA: and it was impossible to get her to sleep last night too. Even when she's in bed, she just squirms all night long.

star173 · March 2010

KKM:

star173:
Are you sure nothing is going on? K has had a few days like that, but not for 4 hours. Does she have sweets in the evening? Could she be cutting teeth? K is different with food than most toddlers, but lately, she's needed milk in the middle of the night. Could she be hungry? Do they hit growth spurts around this age? I'm not against CIO, but if it's out of character for her, there may be something else going on, you know.

Two weeks ago B was up for two hours having a party in the middle of the night. Never has done it before. I cant prove it, but I personally think it may be from the huge piece of chocolate cake he had after dinner (we had a b-day party for Grandpa). I did say though if he did it again we were going to have to let him CIO, or PIO.

LOL..having a party in the middle of the night!! Haha. K actually sleeps better on the occasions that she gets a sugar high...she goes NUTS then crashes and sleeps like a rock, hehe. What is PIO? LOL- party it out?

mmeloy · March 2010

My DD went through a similar phase, which started right around her language explosion. She would wake up in the middle of the night for two hours and then go back to sleep. She didn't really want to get up and play; she would just lay there, awake, and intermittently scream at us. It definitely seemed like she wanted to be asleep but just couldn't fall back asleep.

For us, this phase lasted months. We tried everything we could think of to help her fall back asleep; we just need to wait out the two hours and then she would fall asleep again. I talked to the pedi about it, and she didn't think that CIO would necessarily be the answer for us since it wasn't as if she just needed us to help her fall back asleep - she just couldn't sleep.

We pushed her bedtime back an hour (from 8 to 9), and she (miraculously!) slept through the night for a couple weeks! We're now dealing with the canines coming in, so her sleep isn't so great again right now but it's definitely not as bad as it was. Good luck!

nicoleRI · March 2010

disbride061103:
We don't do a full on CIO, but if DS wakes at night, he will generally sqawk for a minute of two. If he doesn't go back to sleep and starts actually crying, we go get him. We try to rock him to sleep and if he doesn't, we will put him in his crib to see if he goes back to sleep on his own (sometimes he doesn't want to be rocked, just needs a few minutes of comfort). If he doesn't go back to sleep, I let him CIO for 5-7 minutes (at the most) before I go get him and start the process over again. We've only had a handful of nights where he has ever stayed up for several hours.

You must be peeping in my windows at night- this is exactly what I do...step by step.

GrowingFamily · March 2010

Get the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" IMMEDIATELY!!! Sounds like you really need it! There is a version for infants & one for toddlers. Sounds like she is trying to get attention or make sure you are still there...you need to lessen the nighttime interaction with her. She may just be getting into a really bad habit. Read the book- it will talk all about it. GL!!

KKM · March 2010

star173:
KKM:

star173:
Are you sure nothing is going on? K has had a few days like that, but not for 4 hours. Does she have sweets in the evening? Could she be cutting teeth? K is different with food than most toddlers, but lately, she's needed milk in the middle of the night. Could she be hungry? Do they hit growth spurts around this age? I'm not against CIO, but if it's out of character for her, there may be something else going on, you know.

Two weeks ago B was up for two hours having a party in the middle of the night. Never has done it before. I cant prove it, but I personally think it may be from the huge piece of chocolate cake he had after dinner (we had a b-day party for Grandpa). I did say though if he did it again we were going to have to let him CIO, or PIO.

LOL..having a party in the middle of the night!! Haha. K actually sleeps better on the occasions that she gets a sugar high...she goes NUTS then crashes and sleeps like a rock, hehe. What is PIO? LOL- party it out?

Party It Out in this case !

Kilts_Kimonos · March 2010

we are right there with you this has been going on in our house for a month now. I've tried letting her cry, she just pukes everytime. I hope you get some good advice. Oh and my DD will be 17mos on the 11th

yoko589 · March 2010

CIO in our house. We have had similar issues lately and that seems to be the only thing that really works. I will give her a sippy of water, put her music on and lay her down. If we put her in our bed, I don't get any sleep and so I am super cranky the next day.

EcoBaby · March 2010

DS was doing this last week. We decided to go from 2 naps per day to 1 nap per day and that seemed to fix everything.

Maybe she needs a later bed time or less nap time?

EcoBaby · March 2010

Oh, and I also think maybe he was going through a growth spurt so I also starting giving him a snack right before bed. Seemed to help.

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