My 2 1/2 Year Old Wakes up in the Middle of the Night

If you just had another baby in June, his night waking may be related to that. When I had my second, my daughter was up 2-3 times a night but usually she'd put herself back down. My husband and I didn't agree on how to handle it. I would ignore it or go in and out quickly. He would stay and coddle her. Now a year later (she's now 3) whenever daddy goes in he has to stay until she's asleep. I can still go in and out and she's fine with that.

We have found the best thing to do is just ignore it. Our daughter does it on occasion, and it is always worse if we acknowledge her. We took the monitor out of our room so that now we only hear her if she's really upset. She has a gate in her doorway so she can't leave (not a big deal, as we don't think she's even tried to open her door). Occasionally we find a doll or a book in bed with her in the morning, but she always goes back to sleep. She did this at my parents' house this weekend, and they made the mistake of bringing her into their room. Ha. She stayed up for almost 2 hours then!

It is a phase, and if you ignore it, it will pass.

I am in a very similar situation. My 2 1/2 year old daughter sometimes wakes up at night. She can stay awake anywhere from a few minutes up to two hours! She's in bed with us at that point (starts out in her own bed but then comes in with us). I will just hold my arm around her and she plays with my hair until she falls back asleep... I try not to talk and interact, so that she knows it's sleep time. We also just had a brand new baby at the end of June and it makes nights interesting. I have no advice, but just wanted to let you know that you're not alone! I'm hoping one day this will end. It has actually gotten better since she gave up her afternoon nap (right after her baby brother was born). However, she still has rough nights once in a while and I'm wondering if it's teething, bad dreams, or some other emotional issue....?

We also ignore it now. We made the mistake of going into her room the first time (because we were SO surprised that she was up!!), made sure she wasn't sick, and asked her if she had a poopie diaper. For nights after that, she would call out that she had a poopies (and she didn't). I tend to think that this is another extention of her learning about her independence: she woke up and decided to stay up for a bit...and wanted us to join her! So now we no longer go in and she seems to have re-learned that, asleep or not, she will stay alone in her bed at night.

J.,

When we transitioned my oldest son to his toddler bed he would wake up serval times a night. He would always want me to lay with him or rock him in his chair. From day one I told him no but I would walk him back to bed and tuck him in. It actually got to a point that we had to put a tension gate at his door so he couldn't get out of his room. We finally put him into a pack and play so he would not be able to get out at anytime and he did great! I think for him this worked well because I feel he was getting up so often to sort of make sure we were still there. Then once up he wanted my attention. I don't know for sure but I bet your little one will work through this and eventually sleep through the night.

Maybe put a clock in his room and tell him when it reaches a certain number (draw an example if he deosn't know his numbers) he is alowed to stay awake.

Good Luck

M.

I'm sure you'll hear this from others: be glad he can handle this on his own and stay out of it unless you want to make yourself indispensible to his getting to sleep. All three of my kids went thru periods (especially at that age) where they woke up at night. Sometimes the phase would last a couple weeks, sometimes longer. It just seems to be a normal part of growing up. Good Luck!!

M. G - SAHM of 14, 11, and 5 year olds

I am totally having this problem. Mine will be 3 in September. All of a sudden, he is being much more difficult at bedtime too. He wakes up at least once a night, but usually for only a few minutes and goes back to bed, but sometimes for much longer. And if he wakes up past 5 am, then he is probably up for good - ugg. He also won't nap anymore. I know he is not getting enough sleep which is causing the problem, but we put him to bed as early as we can (start routine at 6:30). If we put him down later, he still wakes up at the same time.

We also have a second little one, born in April. Luckily, he sleeps most of the night, but only because we are co-sleeping right now. We've got to work on getting that one in his crib since I am a reluctant co-sleeper (with the baby not the older guy). Currently, it's just easier and I get more sleep.

The older guy has had a lot of changes lately though with the new baby. He also moved into a big boy bed and a larger bedroom, and we went cold turkey on the pacifier all in the last 3 months.

I just ordered a bunch of sleep books from the library. Hopefully someone has the answer.

He is most likely waking up from low blood sugar it happens around the time you said. Make sure you give him a protein with no carbs before bed like string cheese or a piece of meat. has to have at least 7 g of protein and no more than 4 carbs. This info is on the nutrition label.
there is a good book called sugar busters someone mentioned on here.
good luck
J.

Our daughter had similar problem, went crazy trying to figure out how to get it to stop (she was 3 yrs)...We found that leaving her door a crack open did the trick. We used a gate for a while, then began to teach her to stay in her room, but even 6 months later, we leave the door open a crack so in the night when she wakes, she can see the door open, and fall back asleep. (also would recommend the nutritional advice already posted here). For the past few weeks, no problems for us, Good luck to you!

My 2.5 yr old also did this. Unfortunately, the first time around, I went in each and every time. MISTAKE. The second time around, I had learned my lesson. The best way to get a grip on this is to ignore it. As long as you know your child is ok, don't go in. If your child wakes up and knows he will in some way get your attention, he will cont. this. And with baby number 2 on the way, you do not want to have to deal w/this on time of over night feedings.

You can't be loud, stern, or don't turn lights on. Listen to him play. If he can't get out of the crib, let him play himself to sleep. You can stick a finger in his diaper and see if he needs changing but do it under a night light so as not to disturb his peace. Give him a couple of pats on the back and tell him night ight. If he has a music box, play it and go to bed.