Toddlers: 24 Months+

My 2 1/2 year old STILL doesn't sleep through this night...

It's not terrible... it used to be.  We've moved twice in six months (sold a house, moved into a rental, then moved into the home we built).  We gave him a little transition time, but momma is five months pregnant and starting to freak out.  

He wakes up in the middle of the night (inconsistent times within a three hour window) and cries out for mommy and water.  If we go in, give him some water and a kiss, he usually goes back to bed.  Normal- maybe?  Still exhausting- yes!

We've tried CIO (which we did successfully as an infant) and he usually cries himself to sleep only to wake up and repeat the cycle for hours.  I'm exhausted.... who has some ideas?




Re: My 2 1/2 year old STILL doesn't sleep through this night...

  • Is he in a crib or a bed? Sometimes they do it because they are uncomfortable in their sleep space. If he's not in a twin bed, I recommend one. And let him pick out his cool new bedding
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  • he's old enough to understand consistency

    if you say goodnight, and don't go back in - he'll get it - but it'll take a few nights....

  • DS is 3.5 and does the same thing but I usually get up at least once a night and go to the bathroom or get a drink so I don't really consider it abnormal. If his gate is open (I open it when I go to bed) he climbs in bed with me and most of the time I don't even wake up. If his gate is closed he'll cry a little and ask for water or something. He's usually asleep within 5 minutes. I have noticed that he sleeps better these days (winter) when he wears his fleece zip-up footie PJs, assuming because they are cozy. However, they irritate his eczema if he wears them more than once or twice a week :/ 
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  • I've got nothing. DD1 didn't start sttn until she was 5 yo. We tried everything, and nothing worked. When she was ready, she started sttn. 

    DD2 wakes up once and comes into bed with us. If we put her back to sleep in her bed, she just keeps waking up every hour for the rest of the night. We're transitioning her to a twin bed now, but the same thing happens in the crib or the bed. She wants to be touching either DH or me. DD1 was the same.  

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  • WIsh I had an answer for you, but my 3 1/2 yo still wakes up every night. I tried fighting her to stay in her bed for weeks this past summer, but it just ended up exhausting everyone in our house. Now she wakes up and just comes into our room at some point. She's like a little ninja b/c I wake up and she's in our bed. Is it ideal? No, but at least we are all getting sleep.
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  • I think it is normal.  My 3 1/2 year old still wakes up every night between 11 and 1.  She will go back to sleep in her bed, but will continue to wake up.  We just let her climb into bed at the first waking.  I am hoping she grows out of this soon.
  • DD's still up almost every night, almost right at 2:20 on the dot. 

    I'm not the type of mom to just leave her in her room to teach her to STTN. She comes in our bed at that point.

    That said, I'm a little nervous about it with another one on the way, particularly if this one needs to bedshare like DD did. I'm debating on getting a another crib mattress for our floor and she can come on that when she comes in. Either that or an Arms Reach Co Sleeper for the new LO.

    We also picked up the NCSS for toddlers to see if that helps at all. It helped when she was an infant.  

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  • At that age it's hard to be consistent because they know we are trying, so they try even harder to break us!  If he needs to be awake still, make sure his room is completely baby proof, put up a baby gate so you can hear him but he can't get out, make sure he has a sippy cup of water and leave him.  The first week or so you'll need to get up and go to the gate and tell him he can't come out but he can play if he wants to.  Show him his water, maybe put on his night light if needed in his room to see, and let that be that.  After a few nights he'll probably do it all himself.  He might need to nap less during the day, that's what worked for my daughter and she will be 3 in April.  Good luck!
  • Thanks!  He's in a twin bed after being a toddler bed for about six months.  He seems to love his "robot bed" :)



  • Glad to hear that at least we're not alone!



  • Sorry to report that we are still up w/ two 3 1/2 yr olds most nights...DD is going through a scared thing where if she wakes up she calls out to us & tells us she is scared... they flip flop, she'll sleep ok for awhile & her brother will wake up regularly and then vice versa.  They both will walk down to our room too (him more than her) in addition to crying out for us.

    I think by 2 1/2 or so CIO is a no can do if they're not in a crib, they would just walk to our room after awhile & I can't really ignore a kid standing next to me saying, 'mommy, mommy mommy i'm scared' or whatever.  

    GL... 

  • Timeline of baby and toddler sleep

    56% of four year olds still wake during the night (Green 2006). The average frequency of waking is two to three nights per week

    I've found that link helpful.  Read the 30 month section as well as the 3-5.

    FWIW, DS has always been a "good sleeper" and he still has gone through normal regressions and is in a period right now where he'll wake up overnight and call for us wanting a drink of water or just needs to be covered up again and he'll go right back to sleep.  Most of the time it's like he's woken and he's just disoriented or something, not really awake.  This happens usually just once a night, and maybe like 2-3 days out of the week at this point.  I really don't think it's something you can "train" out of them, they'll grow out of it.  I'm not comfortable teaching him that I'm unavailable to him at nighttime just because it's nighttime :shrug:

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