18month oldwaking up... staying awake for hours at night..

[vibha]

hi,
      my 18 mo son wakes up around the same time everynight between 2 and 3. sometimes later...so i don't know how i should do the wake to sleep technique?? any ideas on that?
also after he wakes up crying we go in just lay him back down ...recover and come back..last night he was awake between 2:45 and 4:30 (isn't that a long time to be awake)
he also uses a dummy which i know he shouldn't have but its not the dummy he wants as its attached to him and can find it easily..but me to come to his room to lay him back down again
now my question is ..is he waking because he is in a habit of waiting till i come in? is it separation anxiety?
is he waking due to dummy falling out of his mouth?
last night even after we said its night time,gave him a drink of water (although its right in his cotbed where he could find it)he started to cry many more times and had to go in 4 more times to finally give him a cold medication which has calpol in it as we dint know why he was crying soo much?

he has never slept through the night ..although he has on occasions slept from 7:30 to 4:30 had milk slept till 7:00 i realise we haven't got a decent nights sleep since he was born..
our routine never varies(rarely)
6:30 wake up
8:00 breakfast
10:30 snack(sometimes just juice)
12:00 lunch
3:00 fruit
5:30 dinner
6:30 bath/story/bottle
7:30 bed
he sleeps well till 2 and then all hell lets loose ???please help..
thank you
cheers
vibha
12:30 to 2:30 nap(sometimes shorter)naps from 1 to 2 .5 hours

[Harrisonsmummy]

certainly you have my sympathy - been there for hours in the night!! Could be chronic overtiredness causing the wakings. I would try and get him to bed as early as you can for a few days to see if you can catch him up, especially on days where he takes a short nap.

What about teething, have you tried giving him pain meds before bed to see if that helps at all. That can cause restlessness, and it is about time for molars / canines to be coming through.

Not sure about separation anxiety - I can never determine if that keeps them awake. In the end with DS I would just sit quietly in a chair in his room until he went back to sleep (allow an extra 10 mins after he has dropped off). That way he got to sleep quicker and so did I. I was more concerned about lack of sleep than knock ons from being with him, and as long as they settle on their own at the beginning of the night, it doesn't seem too bad!

HTH.

Justine

[alyssa1]

We just went through the same thing but our night wakings were from 4:30-6:00am.  We determined that he was overtired and corrected it by putting him to bed a little earlier for a few nights.  If he does wake I would continue to do what you are doing.  Just lay him down, tell him it's night night time and leave.  Always go back if he needs you though.  Do you think he's teething, or has he just had his 18 month old shots?  Has something thrown him off a little?