28 month old waking during night!!

[J & J's Mum]

Hi,

Our DS is almost 28 months old.  For the past 3 or 4 nights he is waking up at 3.00 and is totally wide awake and will not settle, he then ends up saying that he wants a drink and has to sleep with it in his cotbed!  Every time I go out of the room he really cries.  I know that his last molar is about to pop through, but he's never been like this with his previous teeth.

His routine is:

7.00 wake
7.30 breakfast
10.00 snack
11.45-12.00 lunch
12.30ish nap
1.30 - 2.00 wake
3.00 snack
5.30-6.00 dinner
6.15 bath
6.30ish milk and snack
7.30 bed

Regarding his snacks, I do try and keep to these times, but lately, he isn't eating very well at his meals and wants snacks all of the time, which is probably why he's not eating his meals!! I am working on that though!!

I'm wondering wether he is ready to drop his nap?

Sometimes, he does lie in his cotbed for a while talking/singing and then will drop off, but his naps are getting shorter, which he is doing himself.

I just want my slepp back!!!

Any ideas?

[jennyh]

it could just be his teeth,we are having that here at the moment .dd2 nap has gone to just 1 hour now as she seemsto need less now.
as for snacks he may have a sore mouth and just need little and often at the mo.....jenny

[Layla]

I could have written this post myself!!! Lately Isabella (also 28months) has been playing about with naps & night sleep. Her naps have gone down (on her own) to 1hr15mins & even 45mins last week... although I was going to cut it myself anyways cause she was taking longer to fall alseep at night. Also about a week ago, I noticed her on the monitor wide awake just before I went to sleep (10pm) & told my husband to keep an eye on her. Well he went to bed at 1am & told me she was awake until 12:50am . So almost 3 hrs of awake (& we didn't even know about it ... so who knows how many times she has done it?). Since the nap has reduced, she has surprisingly added to night sleep so I don't think you should cut the nap out (just yet ). Still give him the opportunity to nap & rest. I do think its teeth related (I noticed about 2 weeks ago that mine hasn't cut ANY of her last molars - & I honestly thought we were done with teething ). She does occasionally call for me at night & I go to tuck her in & I'm out of there!

If he's asking for water, perhaps put it in the cot before he goes to sleep so he can help himself rather than call you for it. Otherwise, I would do the wi/wo if it turns into something more (usually with us its only 1 wi & she's happy with me telling her its still night time)

I would think snacking is also related to the molar. We still go through moments where she'll eat ALOT for breakfast & then want to snack for the rest of the day. I try not to get stressed about it. As long as she is eating iykwim.... I "aim" for 3 set meals & 2 snacks but if she's hungry earlier I don't deny her the food.

Hopefully this is just a phase & will pass/settle once the molar is out. They do reduce the amount of sleep they need overall with age so you might want to experiment with naps - but if he's only sleeping for 1hr, I "think" thats enough of a cut at this age (well I can't see mine surviving all afternoon on any less than what she is doing now).

Layla