Waking in middle of night and wanting to play (long)

xDanniellex · February 2012

I'm wondering if this is a phase or something?

LO is 20 months. For the past few weeks I've been dealing with him waking at night crying and refusing to go back to sleep. I've tried rocking him and he'll either go back to sleep in my arms but wake up crying when I try to lay him down or he'll lay their wide awake and eventually want down.

I've tried laying him in bed with me (H works 3rd shift and LO only seems to do this on nights Daddy is gone). He may fall asleep but it is never for good. But most of the time he'll lay there for a bit and then get up and want to play.

So I usually end up letting him play/watch cartoons for 1.5-2 hours before putting him back to bed. He falls asleep fine once he's back in bed.

Unfortunately he isn't sleeping later in the morning to make up for the fact that he was awake in the middle of the night. This is a kid that has never had sleeping issues. He put himself to sleep pretty early on and has slept through the night since around 4 months. Teething never bothered his sleep.

I'm at my wits end since I'm not getting much sleep. Thankfully I'm a SAHM so I don't have to worry about functioning at a job all day after being up at night.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or heck just someone else dealing with this would make me feel a bit better. I plan on calling our doctor's office tomorrow to see what the nurse says, but thought I'd try some moms to see if you had anything to offer. TIA!

BeachM · February 2012

We're not there yet, but this sounds a lot like the 18 month sleep regression. I don't know if this is the kind of answer you're looking for, but we did CIO at 6 months and will do it again if needed.

fiestlylil1 · February 2012

DS was up about 7 times last night. He's never really been a good sleeper. I'd say he sleeps through the night 2-3times a week. Most nights he goes right back to sleep, but we do have nights where he wakes up at 3am and won't fall asleep until 4:30. It's rough. Especially when I have to get back up and go to work.

mittensonkittens · February 2012

That's a normal toddler phase. Don't encourage it by letting him watch TV, and don't bring him into your bed if you don't want him to stay there. When DS1 did that, if he was up and not crying, we didn't go into his room. If he cried, we gave him a few minutes before going in there to see if he would calm down. If we had to go in there, we didn't pick him up, we just said "it's sleepy time", layed him back down, and left. If he was extremely upset we would hold him or sit down in the chair, but the more intervention we did, the longer it took for him to go back to sleep. I'm not a fan of CIO for infants, but I did have to let DS1 cry for 5-10 minutes at times as a toddler to get through stages like this. it's good practice for ignoring 2-3 year old tantrums.

mrs.mastro · February 2012

My 21-month-old has been going through something similar. He will wake around 11 or midnight and just be wide awake. I go in there and tell him to go back to sleep, but it's as if he thinks it's morning. This is bad, but I end up laying down on the couch in his room because he yells for me non-stop if I leave. He will just talk to himself and sing songs for up to 2 hours! I attribute it to the talking development stage. He is really on a steep learning curve with talking right now and I think it overwhelms his brain. His chattering is crazy and he will keep repeating phrases he had said during the day like "fun green bus!" or sing songs over and over.

Luckily I am a SAHM too, so I can deal with it, but I hope it comes to an end soon! I wish I had a solution for you, but I don't.

ETA: I leave him in his crib the whole time and do not pick him up at all.

sschwege · February 2012

I haven't experienced this personally, but DD's doctor's office says it's normal around this time, they call it "A New Awakening." Basically they said to resist the urge to feed, play, or bring them to bed with you. A quick visit from the parent with some snuggles and reassuring words should be it.

Court0026 · February 2012

I think Mia's limit is 4 days in a row for STTN. For her entire 20.5 months. Ugh. She gets up once a night at least 3-4 nights a week and begs for food and milk. BEGS. I have tried giving her a snack right before bed and she takes water in with her, but who knows. The pediatrician thinks I am nuts for feeding her, but she seems hungry and she usually goes back to sleep after 45 minutes....snack and stories. She has never liked being rocked. I just don't know what to do with her.

shaena1407 · February 2012

DS is 22 months now, and a month ago we went through the EXACT same thing! DS has never had sleep issues either (even when teething). He would wake up around 1am and not want to go back to sleep.

I would go in and rock him for like 5 min just so he knew I was there and would get a little sleepy. Then I'd put him back in his crib and leave the room. He would start crying so we did CIO (we originally did CIO at like 18 months and he took to it perfectly within a week). So we'd check on him after 3 min, then 5 min, then 10min and so on. By the time we got to the 10 min check-in, he would be back to sleep.

He's back to sleeping like normal now. I think it's just a phase like others have said.

Dreamsicle23 · February 2012

Absolutely unacceptable. I never, never, NEVER let DS get up unless he's sick. You are asking for major trouble starting a habit like that.

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