14 Month Old Waking at Night - Mom Is Tired

My 14 mos old does this too. My solution is that I made her entire room childproof and put a twin sized mattress on the floor. When she wakes up I go in her room, calm her down and then lay down on the mattress and go back to sleep. She plays happily on the floor awhile then come over and cuddles next to me on the bed and falls back asleep. I tried everything including walking, rocking, singing, listening to music and letting her cry before I decide to give in to her need to play at night. I talked to my mom and she says I played at night too when I was a baby. Karma I guess.

It's important to teach your daughter that night time is for sleeping, not playing. If you get up with her and let her play, turn on a bunch of lights, let her watch TV, talk to her alot, or whatever, even once a week, she will learn that she can play when she wakes up. I would suggest keeping as many lights off at night, absolutely no TV or games, and talking in a quite voice. You cannot budge on this!! Consistency is one of the most important things in child-rearing. I understand that she wakes up your baby because I have a baby that wakes up my 5 year old. But if you give in and let her play it will never end. Don't let HER train YOU- it's your job to train her. Hopefully she will outgrow waking up if she realizes she just has to go back to sleep- or just learn to soothe herself back to sleep. It is possible- I've trained my 4-month old to do it, so a 14 month old can learn too. Hope this helps- Good luck and God bless!

The main thing I can say is to NOT let her play or watch TV. I don't even talk above a whisper when my daughter wakes up. Usually she only wakes like that when having a nightmare or ear infection. She can usually put herself back to sleep from a nightmare, but I do have to go to her when she has an ear infection. Is she still taking two naps? If so, she may not need both of them anymore. My daughter went to one nap around 14 months and started sleeping about 12 hours straight through the night. I do put a cup of water by her bed for her when she wakes up. The doctors don't like it, but I need a drink at night, so I figured she does too. The cup is usually half empty by morning.

Good luck and I hope you get some sleep soon!
T.

Im sure you have figured out something by now, but it sounds like your little one is having what is called "night terrors". Both my daughters have had it. My oldest is now 4 and she grew out of them about a year ago. And youngest is 17 months and she is still having them every now and again. They will wake up screaming like someone is really hurting them and scare you to death. And they look like they are awake, sometimes with eyes open and all, but they are really not. My daughters would and still sometimes will take anywhere from a few seconds to 30min to settle down. All you can do and should do is stay in the dark enviroment, talk softly to them and eventually they will calm down. My oldest would go back to sleep right away, but my youngest...OMG, will take forever to go back to sleep. But eventually she will, just don't turn on the lights or try to distract them with toys....hope that helps!