2 Year Old Having a Big Wake Up in the Middle of the Night

[lifeguard]

Ds has been sleeping 9:30-8:30 for the past 6-7 months pretty consistently. He very rarely sleeps through the night but the wake ups are generally 5-15 minutes 1-3 times a night - not very disruptive for us. He generally has napped at 1:30 for 45 minutes - 2 hours.

For the past 1.5 weeks he's been going to bed super easy but then only sleeping 30 minutes - 2 hours & then waking up - FOR HOURS!!! He's up 3-5 hours in the middle of the night & nothing we do seems to help him go back to sleep sooner.

Things we've tried:

-lying quietly beside him in bed & basically ignoring him (he just plays & plays slowly getting louder & louder & more wild)

-letting him get up & come downstairs to play & watch tv (I normally try to limit tv but at this point I am just so tired...)

-lying with him quietly & letting him nurse - for HOURS (he just becomes more & more awake)

-not allowing him to nap during the day (poor child is EXHAUSTED)

-waking him up in the morning earlier (because of the middle of the night wake ups he would happily sleep in much later than usual)

-keeping him up later at night (just makes him fall asleep faster but not stay asleep any better)

But it just seems to be getting worse & I'm starting to become worried something might be actually wrong with him. We're all exhausted from this (dh & I are now taking turns being the one who gets to sleep at night). Ds is falling asleep if he's in the car for more than 2 minutes (not normal for him). It's taking a long time to wake him in the morning & this afternoon after he fell asleep in the car it took us almost 45 minutes before he was fully awake (definitely NOT normal for him). And then this evening he fell asleep playing - he has NEVER, EVER fallen asleep in the middle of anything before (he will always come crawl up on one of us first).

We're at a loss as to what else to try & I just don't know how much longer we can keep on like this. The house is falling apart around us & none of us is functioning well. Dh & I actually discussed giving him benadryl tonight to get him to sleep (but of course agreed that it really is not the right thing to do). I am getting no help from any irl because they either at a loss or look at me like I'm crazy for doing anything other than closing his door & saying goodnight.

[lifeguard]

Are we all alone? No one else has had this problem?

[mom61508]

So sorry sounds really tough. I can't be of much help. DD is certainly not a perfect sleeper but I have not had the issues youre having.  However, perhaps there is an underlying issues such as food sensitivities? Perhaps post in the allergies forum? There are super smart mamas over there who have had LOs who weren't sleeping due to a food issue. 

Good luck :)

[lifeguard]

Thanks - I might give that a try.

Tonight he was EXHAUSTED. No nap during the day & I made him wait until an appropriate time for bed. He was asleep in minutes & slept soundly for 2 hours. Now we are wide awake even though we responded as soon as he woke, kept the lights off & tried to stay quiet.

Dh thinks he will just work himself out of it naturally but I'm worried about how long that will take. I'm SOOOOO tired.

[lifeguard]

Although I didn't really get any advice here I wanted to update in case someone else has the same problem.

We figure it all started because we had a couple of disrupted nights (fire alarm, dogs barking, etc.). But he also has been having a real language explosion & I think that impacted his sleep.

Anyway, it all seems to have resolved now because he's been sick the past few days & that seems to have broken the cycle.

[jocelyndale]

Glad to know the situation has resolved itself.

I wanted to offer one idea--have you been introducing the potty at all?  Some of our nighttime wakings are due to the urge to urinate.  I've been sitting my (older) DS on his potty when he rouses at night.  Bingo!

My son did have some nighttime wakings at 2y.  It was just developmental growth spurtiness.  His brain was racing.  We'd get up and let him play quietly in another room.  After 20-30min, he was usually ready to nurse back to sleep.  Hard as heck to remain calm and gentle ourselves, but it was just a phase.  Glad you're back to stability.  :)

[lifeguard]

Thanks. He's been pottying reliably (including dry through the night) for over 3 months now. Interesting to know others have had similar experiences.

[Angelorum]

I've been having this problem since September.  Pulling my hair out over here.  Wish me luck that it will end soon, I can't take much more!

[Anna GS]

My son is 2 1/2 and he is doing this regularly, and he is waking almost every hour to nurse. The night nursing has been really hard on me (all of my night weaning efforts have been disastrous) and now the extended night waking for nights on end has really affected my ability to function. For a while I thought it was happening because he was getting his 2 year molars, but they are mostly in now so I don't know or understand what is going on with him now.

I tried putting epson salt in his bath at night but didn't notice much change if any (hoped it would soothe him). Yesterday I tried adding a calcium-mag supplement in case he isn't getting enough, and we had one of the worst nights ever. He falls asleep ok most of the time but doesn't stay asleep. We aren't aware of any food allergies but our household is already egg and dairy free. He doesn't seem to have any other indicators of food allergies so I don't know if it's worth going down that road.

I just feel terrible physically, mentally, and my parenting is really being challenged by the sleep deprivation.