3 year old night waking

[jenn1975]

 ?? Hello ladies. For over a year we've been dealing with my son waking in the night almost every night. It started when he became potty trained just before age 2. Right away he would no longer pee in a diaper. He would wake us up to pee. He was in a crib then. For the past 6-8 months he's been in a big boy bed and we have a potty in his room.

He does great staying in bed but calls us every single night to help him pee. He won't do it on his own. He won't get out of his bed by himself. I'm glad he isn't a jack in the box but we'd like him to go pee without our help if that's possible. He usually wakes just once and it's fast.

The other issue is naps. We still give him a nap even though we should probably stop. He goes to sleep late because of having a nap. Around 930-10pm. Then wakes between 7-8. So about 9-10 hours at night and an hour to an hour and a half nap at 2pm.

Yesterday he didn't get a nap. He was asleep at about 7:50pm but woke once at 1 am and again at 4 am saying he had to pee. Then wanted to be up for the day at 640 am this morning. So a weird night. I figured he would have a better night without a nap.

He has slept through a few times but mostly he wakes to pee. We've only suggested he try to pee on his own and haven't really done much else to encourage him. I was thinking some kind of reward chart?

I'm mostly wondering if him waking is more behavioral than needing to pee? Or maybe not? I pee in the night at least once.

With his low amount of night sleep would you say it's time to drop the nap? When I try an earlier BT he just calls me in and is restless until 930. On nap days.

He has a few no nap days here and there but not many. He copes fine without a nap. But the two wakeups last night have me thinking he was OT because of not having a nap yesterday. I should have put him down earlier possibly?

Right now
WU 715-8 am (seems to be getting earlier)
Nap 2-3:40pm (some days an hour)
Asleep by 930-10 pm

Will nap dropping help him sleep through the night? It didn't last night but maybe if we're more consistent?

How much sleep in total should he get? It's about 11 hours now.

Thank you for any suggestions!

[jenn1975]

Quick side note.... When he was wanting to get up at 640 am this morning I told him it was still night time and tucked him back in. He went back to sleep. It's 840 am and he's still sleeping! I think I'll let him sleep til 9 and do another NND.  Such a weird morning.

[jenn1975]

Hello again.... just wondering if anyone has experienced this and any advice.

[HenaV]

Hey Jen,

We had something similiar with R around this age so yes I do think there's a developmental thing at play. Equally I think your nap is contributing to your short nights.

Ruby was down to one hour at 2pm at this age. We tried dropping the nap very recently due to numerous NW and EW. It was bit a good move for her. She ended up an OT mess. Although OT is inevitable with this nap transition as with any other, she was beyond it so we've gone back to napping (45mins at 2pm). She's a bear on WU but it's better than her being that way all day long. A cross to Bernie think when cutting the nap under one hour.

So what to do? Iiwm I would cut the nap to an hour and bring BT forward. So something like:

WU: 7.15-8am
Nap: 2-3pm
BT; 8pm

What do you think?

Hena