3 yo waking up screaming at night

[medmom7]

Our 3 yo daughter, who co-slept since birth but now starts the night in her big girl bed, usually gets up and comes into our bed around 1 or 2 AM. This would be fine except that every night like clock works she cries, kicks, and thrashes around for anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. I don't think she is having bad dreams just seems like she can't get comfortable. Did any one else's toddler do this? I'm thinking that one reason might be that her diaper is wet. She is potty trained during the day but still wears (cloth) diapers at night and I think the wetness might be waking her. Maybe one solution would be to buy disposable night time diapers which would keep her feeling drier. Or maybe there is another reason she is waking up? I don't mind her in our bed, but with our next baby due in 2 months it would be nice to not have her kicking and screaming at night before the newborn arrives. Thanks for advice!

 

[sunnygir1]

Have you tried changing her, or maybe even taking her to the toilet when she starts squirming and making noise?  You certainly could try disposables -- it would be great if the solution were that easy ; )

If she's actuallly screaming, I would expect that is dreams, or something more than just being uncomfortable from a wet diaper.

[apple o' my eye]

I am trying to figure out the nighttime upsets with my 2 3/4 year old. It does seem to be wetness related for us.

The disposable work sometimes, but she'll still wake up sometimes with a disposable on and want a dry one. I use cloth most of the time but use a disposable sometimes if I want to try for a better night sleep.

do you think she takes so long to settle because of the transition to your bed and that change? We are just going to move DD to her own bed and I am wondering how the night waking will work.

keep us posted :-)

[mrskatiekuj]

my son is three, and also starts out the night in his bed, until around 11-12, when he wakes up crying and kicking, and I bring him into bed with us. I had never really thought about the wetnes factor (he too is potty trained during the day, but wears a disposie at night), so maybe that could be it? As soon as I bring him into my bed he falls asleep.

[Thing1Thing2]

DS is 3 as well and is night time potty trained and does the same thing.

We co-sleep and he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. He doesn't want to be touched or held. Sometimes he cries for a half hour.

I'm thinking it's related to a couple of things :

- having the urge to pee

- eating chocolate or anything containing caffiene

- food allergies

- overstimulation from videos

It seems that each time he's had these night wakings, all of these things have come into play. Now i just have to figure out which one it is!