For the past four nights, Bug has been waking up in the middle of the night and crying for his daddy. The first night, my husband went up and laid on his floor until he went back to bed. The second night, I went upstairs to find them asleep on the couch in the bonus room. Two nights ago, he woke up at 2 and then at 4 and we brought him into our bed. Of course, we didn’t sleep much.
Last night was the worst. He woke up at 12:30 and hubs went upstairs. At 2, I heard Bug crying and realized that hubby had been up their the whole time. There was absolutely NO sleeping going on. So we went into the kitchen, ate a snack and put him in our bed. HUGE MISTAKE! He kicked and tossed until 6:30, when I finally got up with him.
What the frick is going on? I know sleep disturbances are normal but we just don’t know what to do.
He goes to bed between 8-8:30 every night with same routine. Bath, stories, bed. Lately, he cries a lot when we try to leave his room. He gets music and most nights, his turtle provides glow in the dark stars.
Any advice? I don’t want to just him scream for hours on end (10-15 minutes I’m fine with). And he’s now attempting to lunge over the side of the crib, so I also don’t want him to get hurt. (We’re moving to a toddler bed in a few weeks.)
This is getting old fast. I feel for the little guy and maybe he’s getting sick or maybe he’s cold (we gave him a blanket) – but we can’t keep this up. It’s exhausting.
Hmmmm – sounds like he's having some separation anxiety. I think the best thing to do is to be consistent. If he wakes up, go into his room to let him know that you are still there, comfort him a little bit, tell him that it is night time and time to go back to sleep, and then calmly leave. There will be crying. Go back in every 5, 10, 15 minutes to let him know that you are still there, but that he is a Big Boy and must sleep in his bed. Good luck!!
Remind me how old he is? Is he at a typical age for a sleep regression? Or a new set of molars? (Maybe if it's that – or if you suspect he's coming down with something – a dose of children's Motrin before bedtime might help?)
I can only tell you what we did with Catie during those phases, which may or may not help you at all, since each kid has their own quirks. Typically, if she woke up, I'd go sit on the floor next to her crib to comfort her for a minute & make sure everything was ok, then I'd turn on her music (she still listens to the Baby Einstein Lullaby CD to this day), and I'd stay until she fell asleep, but I wouldn't make eye contact or interact with her at all. (I'd either sit with my back against the crib, or I'd just lie down on the floor and pretend to be asleep.) She knew I was there, but she wasn't getting my attention, so eventually she'd get bored and just go back to sleep.
Good luck! Hope this phase passes quickly.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN! Been dealing with this for a year now and it has progressively gotten worse. Started as night wakings and I would not talk and put her back in bed and she would go back to sleep. Now it is progressed past night wakings to inability to go back to sleep on her own. Almost every night we have a visitor to our bed lately. It started last December around the time she turned 2 and is still going on and she turns 3 next Tuesday. We go through stages of it going well and then nights of trouble. I think it is awareness of being alone. Since we are still in the midst of it I can't tell you any magic solution. Consistency and comfort are key. I am calling 2010 the year of no sleep and praying 2011 brings more…oh and I have a 10 month old that still eats a bottle every night around 3am. I live on coffee!!!
Erin- the twins went through this right before they turned three. Took them to the doc and everything because I knew there had to be something wrong internally, they had always slept through the night since they were 3 months old. Anyways….finally figured out what was going on….MOLARS came in. There was so much pain and pressure in their mouth and ears, they couldn't really tell me where it hurt. I finally broke down one night and gave some Motrin….and they slept. I did that for 3 nights straight….and then they molars finally broke through the skin…it was so sad. Hugs to you! I hope you get some sleep!!!!
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