Anyone have any suggestions for these night wakenings EVERY NIGHT!!?

[CRHMOM]

Hi my son just turned two and every since we put him in his big boy bed he is constantly getting out in the middle of the night crying in his bed and/or coming into our room. Its gotten worse and this is occuring everynight now. I have a 6 week old so it very exhausting getting up with two kids in the middle of the night. When my son comes out of his room my husbands doesn't say a word to him and just grabs him by the hand and takes him back to bed. Depending on what time it is he will go back to sleep easily. To make mattters worse he use to sleep in till 7 but now its more like 6:30 and he is up for the day. We also have our other problems getting him down by 8 because he is wired from his afternoon nap still. I'm trying to limit his nap to 1.5 hours and waking him up by no later 3pm. So his overall sleep is getting less and less - 10.5 hours night sleep and 1.5 day sleep which hardly seems enough for his age.

Any suggestion with these night wakenings? A friend recommended to me this night light that you can order online and the parents can set the time for when its okay that the child can come out of their room in the morning. The moon glows when its sleepy time and the sun shines when its time for the child to wake up. I will try that to see if that helps any....


Thanks
Trisha

[Lolly]

Have you thought about putting a gate on his bedroom door to stop him getting out of his room? We have one on DS's room, he doesn't tend to get out of bed but if he does it stops the wandering around in the dark - if he needs us he will call for us.

I also wonder if it is worth adjusting your day. My DS was waking at 6.30ish at that age so he would go for his nap around 12.30/1 - so about 6/ 6.5 hours A time and we would wake him by 2, but 2.30 at the very latest or bedtime was a mess. If he went to sleep later we still had him up by 2.30 - even if it was a really short nap but made bed a bit earlier. We have always done bedtime around 7 so he is asleep by 7.30 so about an 11 hour night. As he got a bit older we had to limit the nap to 1 hour so he was tired enough for bed.

Laura

[momtonb&ab]

laura has given you some great advice here....could you just post your schedule, i can't help but wonder if the routine needs tweaking as well.....

[CRHMOM]

Sure - typical routine is:

Wake up 6:30 am (use to be 7am)

Nap  1pm - 3 pm (I have tried an earlier nap time at 12:30 and he just isn't tired enough). I also NEVER let him sleep past 3 pm otherwise we have a hard time putting him down by 8 pm.

8:00 pm bed

I just don't know why he is wakening up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. I might have to put a baby gate on his door so he can't get out but I'm sure he will just cry anyway for us.....

[Lolly]

Another thought is he could be teething - those big molars could be moving around which can definitly cause night wakings even if he doesn't appear to be in pain. It may be worth trying meds at bedtime or a dream med if he will take it to see if that helps.

Have you tried shortening his daytime nap at all?

Laura

[CRHMOM]

Hi....thanks so much for the advice ladies......

Okay this has been going on far to long now -- about 2-3 months. He continues to wake up ever other night for a brief period and come into our room (he has figured out how to open his door). My husband and I don't say a word, grab him by the hand and put him back to bed (its takes like 2 minutes) but its annoying. This all started once he moved into his big boy bed and has gotten worse with new baby in the house and now that fact that he can get out by opening doors...

I'm about to try putting the gate on the door tonight but I really don't think that will make a difference becasue he will just cry for us at his door.....grhhhhhh.......

He is also teething with his second year molars. He has always been a good sleeper but this NW are getting annoying. He is also getting up for the day at about 6:30ish instead of 7 am (not sure I can do to much about that). We bought one of those nightlights but will take him awhile to figure it out that he has to stay in his room until the sun on his night light shines at 7...

[Lolly]

Ok so I would do a couple of things! First I would put the gate on the door - you get up anyway to put him back to bed so it's got to be worth trying break the habit of coming into you!

If he is teething I would definitly medicate. I find ibuprofen works better at night, it last longer and it an anti-inflamatory as well. My DD is cutting her canines at the moment so we usually give ibuprofen at bedtime and paracetamol if (when ) she wakes in the night.

If he is waking at 6.30am I think an 8pm bedtime is a bit too late, I would try for 7pm and see if that helps. You could also shorten his nap down to 1.5 hours which is still a good nap to get an earlier bedtime.

What do you think?

Laura

[CRHMOM]

Hi,

So we put the gate on his door last night and he still woke up crying standing at his door at midnight. We climbed over the gate to put him back to bed.

He woke up at 6:30 again and I keep putting him back to bed until his nightlight shines with the sun (we have it set for 7 am).

We will try to fix these NWs with the gate --- will give it a good week to see if it makes a difference.....Not sure what else there is left to try......

I just know these NWS are becoming a habit and I just want to break it because getting up with him and newborn still during the night is exhausting!!!!.........

[momtonb&ab]

have you considered the earlier bedtime?

i really agree with Laura that with all the night wakings and early waking that 8 is probably too late and may be making your problem just that much worse.

the gate is a great idea until he learns how to stay in bed.  also wondering if there is an option to put him back in his crib (or are you using it for new baby?)?  for us, we curbed the getting out of bed by putting them into the portacrib (we didn't have room for bed and cribs in their room at the time) the first time they got out of bed and they slept in it for the rest of the night.   dd never got out of bed - she didn't want to be a baby anymore and really really wanted her big girl bed.  to this day (it's been 1.5 + years) she still doesn't get out of her bed until her light comes on in the morning - ever!).  DS was a bit leary of the big bed and spent a couple of nights going into the portacrib until he realized he loved his bed.   since then he has gotten out of bed only to pee and that is something we told him he could do. 

hang in there, you must be so tired! 

[CRHMOM]

Okay so last night was a disaster......we had him in bed at 7:45 pm and then he woke up at 11 oclock crying for us by the gate on his door.....he actually pushed the gate right off the wall (yes he is a strong boy). Again he doesn't really want anything just a quick comfort and send him back to bed. Then he was up at 6:40 for the day.

I just don't know why he is doing this. We have a peep talk with him everynight that Carter has to stay in his big boy bed and if he wakes up and needs a cuddle just to cuddle with his little bear. His NW are almost consistently EVERY night for the pats 2 months....he has gotten worse since he figured out how to open the door.

Will this go on forever..... He has always been a solid sleeper sleeping 11/12 hours straight since he was a 10 weeks old baby. Do they go through a period of separation anxiety at this age...or is it adjustment to new baby....new found freedom of his big boy bed......or his molars? I can't put him back in a crib because we have the crib for our newborn.....

I just get so upset when he wakes up because I have a 9 week old daughter that still get ups 2x a night. So I get my husband to deal with Carter........

THinking there is not much more I can do than what I have been doing.....