My son is 3.5 years old and has always been a good sleeper. Until recently he would take a 2-2.5 hour nap and sleep 11.5 hours at night. When he started being dry at night and stopped wearing pull-ups, he would generally wake up once at night to pee, but that was it. Then last month he started having a hard time settling at night, so we cut back the nap and then ended up just getting rid of it. He's been totally fine with this.
Every now and then though he would have a night where he would wake up screaming, saying his bum was hurting, and it would take up to an hour to get him settled and back to sleep. We would just chalk it up to maybe him being gassy and move on. Lately though, it's been happening more frequently.
He also has times when he'll poop during the day and cry, saying his poop hurts. He goes every day and isn't constipated in the slightest. I think maybe it did hurt him once, and now he just tenses up.
Anyways, 2 nights in a row now he's woken up between 9:30-10:30 screaming to the point I'm shocked he hasn't woken his sister. When we first go in he's almost incoherent: won't tell us what's wrong, is totally tensed up...will just say owieowieowie and that he needs us. It's almost like he's having a temper tantrum if you can picture how worked up that is. We'll sit with him while he's on the toilet, nothing happens, but he just can't calm himself down and insists his bum is hurting. After the first night we were at the doctor's for DD's shots, and I explained what had happened (on average it was probably happening once every 2 weeks before the last 2 nights). Doctor lay him down and checked out the bumhole, but said he couldn't see anything that would be causing a problem.
I don't think he's doing this to try and manipulate us, or that we've set some sort of precedent by coming and taking him from his room. (We do this since it takes so long for him to calm down, and we don't want him to wake his sister) He's genuinely upset, whether there's actually something bugging him or it's something he's creating in his head. We asked him to try and tell us where it hurt, and that seems to change. The first night he pointed almost to the tailbone area, then last night he said it was inside his bum. I'm just at a complete loss for what to do to help him! Half the time he doesn't even want me, he just wants DH.
Sorry if this has gone on a little long, but I just have no clue what to do here. Could it be something physical that the doctor is missing? Is there something else going on that I'm missing?? Any insights are much appreciated! I want my awesome sleeper back.
