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DS waking in the middle of the night... Please help!!

sunnydays99sunnydays99 member
in Pre-School and Daycare
For a few months now DS, who is 3 for those who can't see tickers, has been waking up in the middle of the night. He'll lay in bed and call me until I come to his room. He usually wants his nightlight turned back on, it automatically turns off after 45 mins, or for me to "cuddle him". I have no idea why he started doing this out of the blue bc up to this point he'd always been an excellent sleeper. I go to his room and turn on the nightlight lay with him for a minute then say goodnight and leave. Then it all happens again about an hour later!!

A bit of background: he no longer naps during the day. When he dropped his nap he started going to bed a bit earlier and A LOT easier. His night waking started about 2 months after dropping the nap. He is day time potty trained but still wakes up wet about half the time. Everytime he calls me I ask if he needs to pee. Sometimes he says yes and sometimes no.

I'm just looking for any advice on how I can end this. I'm the kind of person who cannot easily fall asleep so everytime he calls me I end up laying in bed for an hour then just when I've fallen back to sleep he calls again!!! It's really messing with my sleep cycle and making me super grumpy during the day.

Any advice?
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Re: DS waking in the middle of the night... Please help!!

  • 74dragonfly74dragonfly member
    I suggest you break the night light habit or get one that stays on. It is his sleep crutch and he seems to need it to sleep . I recommend the Fearber book.




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  • chels0120chels0120 member

    I'm not sure if this is what is going on but we have had 2 times of our DS doing this.

    Time 1: About a month after he started daycare. We finally figured he was having night terrors triggered by being overly exhausted. We started putting him to bed earlier and after he caught up on sleep and adjusted to naps at DC, he stopped having them.

    Time 2: Just about 6 months ago he started getting up every night and coming into our room (usually around 1:00 a.m.). He would never go back to his room by himself and would want to cuddle when I got him to his room. After 2 weeks of this happening (and one VERY tired mama) I was finally able to get him to tell me that he was scared at night. He didn't like the dark. And thought there were monsters under his bed. Apparently they'd watched Monsters Inc at school and while he loved the movie... it was making night times hell. So we told him there weren't monsters, mommy and daddy would never let them scare our boy, and then we did bed and closet checks for a week or so til he got over it. We have a scensty warmer in his room that provides a little light at night so that seems to help too. We also started leaving his door open a bit.

    I hope you guys find what's causing it and are able to get him sleeping well again! GOOD LUCK!

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  • rsd12rsd12 member
    You have been lucky thus far! Kids sleep habits change. Fun. I would keep the night light on all night. My kids would be upset if theirs were off in the middle of the night too. That is the first thing I would try, 2nd thing would be to bring him to the potty if he has to go. Not that I don't love cuddling my boys, but that is not a good one to start. My middle son recently stopped joining us in bed!
    Boy 1 2/06 - Boy 2 12/07 - Boy 3 9/09
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  • Wally3Wally3 member
    We had this problem. First get a night light that stays on. Don't offer bathroom unless he asks. Tell him you are not going to lay down with him at night and then don't.

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  • mrsjones06mrsjones06 member

    DS sleeps with a small lamp on in his room all night. I still get afraid of the dark sometimes so I have zero problem with him sleeping with as much light as he feels like he needs.

    What works for us is talking things out if DS goes through a stage of waking up. During the day we'll talk about it & I'll explain that we have to get some good sleep so I don't want him to call me or get out of his bed unless he really needs something, etc. I'd tell him you're keeping his light on all night so if he wakes up he can just go right back to sleep without needing you to come in & turn it on. Then before bed remind him of your talk & that he doesn't need to call you if he wakes up during the night. The light will be on so he can just go back to sleep. When you give hugs before bed say 'last hugs before morning' 'night night' or whatever. Get him to agree & repeat it's the last hug & he'll go back to sleep...maybe make it a big boy thing...he needs to sleep all night if he wants to get big & strong, etc. That kind of stuff works for us.

    Good luck. I know it's hard when you're not getting good sleep!

    Married: '06 - Mom of 3 boys: '08, '11 & '14

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  • brewcitybridebrewcitybride
    Very common! DD started doing this at 3.5, and still does it 2-3 times per week. She usually had a bad dream, has to pee, or just wants to be by us. We just take her back to bed and fall back asleep. It sucks, but it's a phase I've heard most kids go through...we have not found anything that works to keep her in bed.
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