Northern California Babies
Options
WWYD: 19m/o up for hours @ night
N is up 2-3 hours everynight from about 2-5a!
He's not cryng or even calling for us, he's literally sitting silently in his crib for HOURS! It's super strange and for some reason it stresses me out. He naps (one 2-3 hour nap at noon) fine and goes to bed fine (around 7pm) and wakes up by 6am.
I know he's up b/c my video monitor clicks on if there's a sound break in his room and so I'll wake up when it clicks and then it will click every so often if he moves or turns on his worm and I'll see that he's STILL up! Sometimes if I don't wake up and he cries at 5am, I wonder if he's actually been up since 2 or 3am?!?!?
Would you do anything or just let it be? It's been going on for a few months now!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: WWYD: 19m/o up for hours @ night
Does he do it every night? I only ask because A goes through bouts of this during growth spurts. He will wake up at about 2-3am and be wide awake ready to go. Now for us, he talks, sings, giggles and is ready to play so I have to make sure he doesn't wake his brother up. He will then fall asleep around 5-6am and then wake up again around 8am.
I agree that mentioning it to the pedi would be a great start.
Ditto all of this. And it would totally trip me out also
br
He's awake for sure, because I've gone in a few times to check on him and when I go in he asks "morning?" and I'd say "no, it's still nite-nite time, lay down" and will, but then I'll check and he's sitting up again. I stopped going in, thinking it would "break" the waking, but it hasn't.
It's bizarre and it kinda makes me sad!
DS totally did this off and on (days or weeks at a time) for a whole year at least. From about 17 months until very recently. He would be wide awake. He'd lie there for about an hour just fidgeting and then he'd want something to occupy/entertain him, and then after that second hour we'd spend maybe 30 minutes trying very hard to settle him back to sleep, which usually worked. It sucked.
And like your kid, I knew he was awake. He wasn't in distress, just mofo awake for HOURS in the dark when he should be asleep. It was a clue, in a long string of clues, that he needs less sleep than other kids. The only affect it had on him is that he would then absolutely need a nap. But if he napped, his body told him he needed less nighttime sleep.
I'd mention it to your pediatrician. Maybe keep a sleep log for a week or so to see if you can pick up on any patterns first?
I never mentioned that particular issue to our pediatrician because it didn't occur to me he might be able to help and we didn't see him much during that period. After that particular issue passed I read that some kids genuinely have insomnia but I'm not sure what the treatment for that is in small children. I wished I had talked to our pedi about it to get help for us and him when it was an issue instead of living with party time at 2 am for weeks.
BTW, the only thing that finally broke the cycle for us appears to be skipping the nap very judiciously. For example, I know that if he wakes up after 7:30am, he can last all day until at least 8 pm with no nap. If he wakes before that and does not nap for whatever reason, he is likely to fade and desperately want sleep at dinner time (about 6 pm) and then it's a mad rush to get him ready for bed before he gets a second wind. If he falls asleep before 7 pm (no matter when he woke up), he WILL wake up at about 11 pm and be up for a few hours, wide awake and cranky. If he takes a nap, it's usually late afternoon and no matter the duration, it means he'll be awake until about 10 pm. So DH and I have to carefully choose our poison every day to balance his needs and ours so we don't all meltdown from mismatched needs for sleep.