WWYD in regards to DS getting up at night...

VTbride05 · September 2011

Forever DS has had a sippy of water near his bed. We stopped this a few months ago b/c he would drink it all when he was put in bed and then yell for another refill throughout the night, leaving him a soaking wet mess in the morning.

Lately he has been waking in the night again and yelling to us for water, milk (which he has never had in bed....), a tuck in, etc. I think the root of this is him not having water in his bed anymore.

Logic says put the water cup back in. But even without it he is waking up soaked (through the sheets the last 4 out of 6 mornings!). I don't mind the laundry and the mess, but it's gross and I hate to think of him sleeping in pee all night.

Maybe put in a cup 1/4 filled? And say that there is only that for the night?

I am tired (literally!) of getting up with two kids all night!

KristinKD · September 2011

Is he nighttime potty-trained? If you have him in undies, it sounds to me like he might still need pull-ups at bedtime.

DD1 has insisted on sleeping with a water sippy ever since we switched her to a big girl bed. For the first three months after she was daytime potty-trained, she was waking up with soaking wet diapers, but since then she's able to hold it until morning or, on rare occasions, wake us up when she has to go.

o2bme · September 2011

Would it help if you woke him up to go to the bathroom before you go to bed? DD goes to bed at 8 and we cut-off drinks at 7. If she asks for a drink several times after 7 she can have a sip of water.

KathrynMD · September 2011

He doesn't need water overnight and you certainly don't need to be refilling it in the middle of the night. I would give him a TINY amount of water in a cup next to his bed and say "here's the water for tonight, you can have more in teh morning" end of story.

If he wakes up yelling for more water, go in once or twice and go "oh, sorry, remember, that's all the water for tonight, but you can have more in teh morning - hug, kiss, bye, bye"

But, I'm a bad Mommy per my DD!

kmhunt11 · September 2011

I would work on cutting out the calling out to you for things in the middle of the night. He's old enough to reason with. Tell him if he wakes up to just roll over and go back to sleep, or give a stuffed animal a hug and go back to sleep. Tell him he's a big boy now and needs to let you sleep. 3 is a perfect age to learn empathy

KathrynMD · September 2011

To add to PP, since DD was 2ish, we've told her if she wakes up at night, she should just sing Baa Baa Black Sheep. I have no idea if she does it or not, but she doesn't wake me up unless she really needs something.

katana · September 2011

We ended up doing rewards, if he stayed in his room (except to use the bathroom) and didn't call me all night, he got a balloon (I had lots left over from his birthday, and I was feeling insane and desperate!). We did it for a while, he stopped calling at night and after a while stopped asking for balloons too. But he did the same, wanting refills or whatever, and it got ridiculous. He still wakes us if he has a bad dream or something but for the most part it's back under control.

AviatorJJ · September 2011

my ds wakes up at night all the time so i feel ur pain. sometimes with bad dreams, sometimes for water. there is no reason they or us need water in the middle of the night. ditto to Kathryn. the faster we get them back to sleep the better it is for everyone. i tell ds when we are putting him to bed after we give him a little water that this is his last cup before breakfast so don't even call out my name at night cause you aren't getting any more.

VTbride05 · September 2011

Thanks for the good thoughts everyone. It seems as though something "scary" is waking DS once or twice a night. He can not tell us about why he wakes up, but he wants something comforting like a drink, tuck in, song, story, hug. He does sleep with stuffed animals that he has chosen plus his special blanket. We had a really hard time with his when DD was about a month old. Lately it's been better. I am not sure why it's happening again.

And I am a "mean" mom too... I go in, hug and tell him no water, no more yelling, go to sleep! I would let him cry/scream for a few minutes but his room is right next to DD and we are trying to get her to sleep longer stretches.

Tonight he had a small drink before bed and we told him that was it for the night.

Wish us luck! Thanks again!

Oh, and no he is not night time trained! He pees right before bed. Often twice between dinner and bedtime and he still often pees through his pull up at night....

CarolinaDaisy · September 2011

Are you using nighttime pullups and what size? My DS is the same age and is in a 3T-4T Huggies nighttime pullup and usually that is enough to keep him dry.

I'd definitely cut the water before bedtime down. We don't usually do water before bedtime except when he is sick....like a scratchy throat from a cold, et.

And the nightwaking thing is honestly probably related to the new sibling. Our DS woke up at night every night the first 6 weeks and almost never at the same time as the baby. It was exhausting!

And now that the baby is 6.5 months old, we're dealing with some potty training regression. That's been going on for probably a month now....ugh. I thought we had gotten lucky and avoided that one.

I think it's just a huge adjustment in their lives. And as the baby grows and starts turning into more of a person...ie. sitting up, eating baby food, starting to try to crawl, wants his toys, etc., it puts a little extra stress on the big kid because they are dealing with feeilngs they cannot express. Thus behavioral issues pop up. I think our older son is struggling with major jealousy issues now....realizing that baby isn't leaving and he will always have to share Mommy and Daddy.....and toys!

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