too many night wakings..

[Shiv52]

Wait to to the weekend Katy. No point in starting when there is a chance you'll not keep it up. You'll be exhausted by Thursday. My friends little girl screamed for 4 hours when they tackled the same issue just to warn you!

[koe2moe]

Someone hits me in the head please!  I really thought it was friday today!!!  

[amayzie]

Someone hits me in the head please!  I really thought it was friday today!!!  

LOL!! I was wondering why you were suggesting i start tonight!

Just to clarify too- once he's asleep, or even sometimes not asleep but calmly lying in my bed i can then transfer him into the cot no problems... so it does seem like i just need to bite the bullet....

[becj86]

Logan went through a little bout of SA just recently and just needed cuddles - really cuddling tight as if scared I'd leave He's fine again now... even started STTN!!!

[amayzie]

It doesn't seem like SA to me.... more like a prop.. he wakes up crying- but sort of half asleep- not screaming right away or anything....

[becj86]

In the early hours of the morning?  dreaming perhaps?

Its possible Logan's issue was related to the day care he was at - terrible, really Some nights he'd wake screaming Mummy! No Kindy! and other nights he'd whimper but still end up needing me to help him get back to sleep. He's a different kid in 2 days at the new place, amazing the change.

Just putting it out there as a possibility. You know Hamish best. xx

[amayzie]

We've sometimes had wakings where he says something- usually something like 'cars' or his cousins' names or something... i know what you mean and we sometimes get that- but other times not.

[anna*]

Yeh, at this age it's a tantrum that things aren't going the way he wants/expects. So I'd tell him before bed that there's no more mummy 's bed, that he'll be sleeping in his lovely cot all night tonight, and then let him have his big tantrum. It's not your job to try and settle him if he's having a MOTN tantrum - it's your job to tell him what the rules are, and be consistent. Obviously if he's in pain or ill or whatever and really DOES need you then the rules are off, but just as you would be consistent with rules in the daytime, so you will be consistent at night too.

When Audrey wakes in the night she is VERY cross when I won't pick her up, she buries her face in the mattress and YELLS, but she's just cross that I'm saying no. It sounds very serious, a full on toddler meltdown, but she gets over it pretty quick. Keep instructions short and clear. Grab your lovey. Lie down. Sleep now.

[ZacsMumme]

Anna has a brilliant point to. They can totally understand us. So explaining warning and comforting before BT helps a lot.
Z did this random 3 nights In a row waking for a bottle (yes I know he still gets one at BT ) night 1 was teeth, night 2 was I want one really. Night 3 DH said he's totally waking wanting a bottle now ... YK. The next night we explained there would be no bottle in the night but if he needed us we would always co,e, if he was thirsty we would get water. He didn't wake... so do explain, it does help .

Def wait till the weekend Hun. I found at this age teething made Z quite clingy, if your worried he may be in pain just give him a dose of meds when he first wakes to rule it out

[zeri]

Z did this random 3 nights In a row waking for a bottle (yes I know he still gets one at BT  )

DS does too. I know I should stop, but.... I guess I just hope he will stop on his own!

[Erin M]

I think i'll be giving it a go rather than DH- he has man flu at the moment  and needs his beauty sleep...

PMSL! 

Katy, if he's going to sit and chat to his glowing owl (or whatever it is) that's fine.  James wakes in the MOTN when his schedule is off and chats away to whatever happens to be in his bed (his loveys, his pillow, the 12 stuffed animals currently sharing his bed, whatever books he's thrown in there...) -- and he eventually falls asleep again with not a whole lot of fussing, but if I go in there it takes at least twice as long for him to fall back asleep -- so the less intervention the better.

[amayzie]

Ok- So as i don't work tomorrow the 'weekend' starts tonight!!

So last night i gave a half hearted attempt- but as i knew i wasn't going to stick with it come hell or high water i bailed pretty quickly. What i did do though was go in give him a drink then leave.. i might have given him a cuddle. Anyway- i then left the room. He cried a little and called out- but his heart wasn't really in it Be would cry on and off- but was sort of half way between not crying and an 'i need you cry'... IT was more a 'hey!! I'm still here!!'... So i left him for a while, but he did escalate a little, and i wasn't up for waiting all night so i just brought him in with me. Tonight though i thought i'd do similar- leave him in there to start. If he's doing that again- calling out but not really properly crying i leave him right? I still wait till it's an 'i need you cry'? I go in when he's more upset... Gee- it's like I've forgotten everything!!

So- do you think i might be best to just leave the night light fully on? I've been covering it a little- but it might be ok to have it bright? This morning was THE WORST of the wakings- asking for milk at 5am!! Then at 6am- when i gave it to him- then he said 'sleeping' That's how often it's happened apparently- that he knows that an acceptable routine is milk at 6am then sleep for a bit before peppa pig!!!

[*jazzberry*]

I would only leave the night light on enough so that he can find his water/lovey whatever, otherwise it mat disrupt his sleep more, not a chance I would want to take if I didn't have to! And yes if he is just crying out a bit I would leave him. Although having said that if it does start to escalate I would get on there fairly quick and reiterate the new rules, here is your water, here is your lovey, no mummys bed, go back to sleep etc. good luck, waiting with ya!

[amayzie]

hmm... he doesn't have a lovey- has never really taken to one... who needs one when your thumb is so damn tasty i guess!!

[anna*]

I guess for me, once they're nearly two years old, it's no longer about 'I need you' or 'mantra' cry... it's the difference between "This is a tantrum because I am upset and furious that things aren't going my way", or "this is too much for me, I am so upset now I'm not going to be able to recover from this." I hope this isn't controversial but for a two year old who knows how to sleep independently, I really just don't have the same concerns about volume and duration of crying than a baby, or a little one who's being left as a means of sleep training (yk? Like if they don't already know how to sleep independently?). Stan was this age when we finally got to the end of a year of BRUTAL EWs (pre 5.30am just about every day since 10months old, nothing would fix it) and yeh, I left him to cry. I called out to him that it's sleep time, mummy's asleep, daddy's asleep, he needs to sleep. But I knew he wasn't in pain, wasn't afraid, was just cross and having a big tantrum and this wasn't something I was prepared to negotiate on at all, any more. It took 3 nights.