Hey! 4 hour long party with my two year at 3am, and you're invited!!! a.k.a. Help!

[natalieadw]

I came on here to post about my crazy two year old night waking, thinking NOBODY had a two year old being awake for 3-4 hours at a time in the middle of the night.  Only to see a few others share a similar problem!!  Crazy!    Misery loves company right?

Forgive me if my sentences are coherent or if I don't make sense, I'm a sleeeeepy mama (just like the rest of you I'm sure).

Up until three months ago my son was a fantastic sleeper.  Night weaned, and only waking once or twice for cuddles and not even fully waking even then.  Napping three hours a day.  Then he started night waking a bit, I attribute this night waking to two year molars.  So I started night nursing again every two hours and he would go back to sleep ok within ten minutes.

Then about three weeks ago, he exchanged his 3 hour nap to a 20-45 minuted nap.  Its like he can't resettle himself anymore after that first light sleep period.  No amount of nursing, cuddling, or soothing will get that child back to sleep.

Now let me take to you to four nights ago (goodness sakes it seems like months!!), when the sandman obviously forgot our house on his nightly rounds.  My son goes to sleep easily around 7:30p, usually wakes up for the first time anywhere between 12:30am and 3am (we cosleep).  When I hear him, I promptly nurse him and soothe him.  Used to work like a charm, however now he is up for about 4-5 hours!!! For example, lastnight he woke at 12:30am and finally fell back asleep around 4:30, then woke up at 8am for the day. I nurse him as long as he wishes, I hold him, cuddle him, soothe him quietly, sometimes I even play dead!  None it works!  I am not making any of it fun, I make it borning.  Its pitch dark in our room, and I really only talk in a whisper if I have to. 

So between the lack of good naps and horrible nighttime sleep, we are NOT a happy household!  He's cranky, I'm cranky, and my poor four year is certainly not going to give me a "Mother of the Year" award!! 

Anyways, after foggy brainstorming with my dh we've come up with a bit of a list, what do you think?:

-he's hungry, so tonight we are giving him a snack right before bed

-growth spurt intellectually, the clarity of his speech and sentence length has increased recently

-teething?  ugh, don't even want to put that in because I really don't think this is teeth, his two year molars are all the way through and almost in line with the other molars.

Any advice, suggestions, or ideas would greatly be appreciated!! 

[lifeguard]

We just went through a very similar thing. I posted here & didn't really get any responses which I must admit was disappointing 'cause everyone irl was perplexed as well. It went on for about 2.5 weeks.

We tried waking him earlier in the morning, putting him to bed earlier, putting him to bed later, eliminating naps, feeding him before bed - nothing.

As for the wakings I tried staying in bed ignoring or letting him nurse the whole time, or just sitting & reading with the lights low, or coming downstairs & just being up (tv on, lights one, etc.) - nothing seemed to affect the length of the wake-up it was always 3-5 hours.

I was just at the point of bringing him to the doctor to rule out anything actually being wrong with him when it stopped as suddenly as it began.

Our best guess was it was related to the HUGE jump in language skills that coincided with the poor sleep.

He still does not have his 2 year old molars so I'm confident it wasn't that.

Good luck mama - hope it passes quickly for you.

[natalieadw]

Originally Posted by lifeguard 

We just went through a very similar thing. I posted here & didn't really get any responses which I must admit was disappointing 'cause everyone irl was perplexed as well. It went on for about 2.5 weeks.

We tried waking him earlier in the morning, putting him to bed earlier, putting him to bed later, eliminating naps, feeding him before bed - nothing.

As for the wakings I tried staying in bed ignoring or letting him nurse the whole time, or just sitting & reading with the lights low, or coming downstairs & just being up (tv on, lights one, etc.) - nothing seemed to affect the length of the wake-up it was always 3-5 hours.

I was just at the point of bringing him to the doctor to rule out anything actually being wrong with him when it stopped as suddenly as it began.

Our best guess was it was related to the HUGE jump in language skills that coincided with the poor sleep.

He still does not have his 2 year old molars so I'm confident it wasn't that.

Good luck mama - hope it passes quickly for you.

Thanks mama!  Its good to know there is an end in sight!  His speech has made a HUGE jump here too, so crossing fingers that that is all it is.  Hugs!