Toddler cries/whines all during the night while sleeping?

[youremyheartkid]

My daughter is 22 months old and has always been a noisy sleeper but I've recently noticed that she will wake up quite a few times during the night and cry for like 10 seconds and then go back to sleep, or sometimes she'll just make sad little whining sounds and go back to sleep.

Is this normal? Anyone have this happen or know what is causing it/what I can do to help? She sleeps in her own crib in her own room next to mine (I'm a single mom) and we have several night lights on throughout the house, but is it possible she gets scared somehow? Could it possibly be night tremors?

Any responses are appreciated, thanks! :)

[Bokonon]

I don't have an answer for this, as my just turned 2 year old does this and it drives me nuts!  I've been sleeping in her room lately just to shush her back to sleep when she starts crying "Mama!  MAMA!" which happens about once a night, and random brief crying another 1-3 times.  She goes right back to sleep then, but if I let her fuss for the time it takes for me to get to her room from mine, she ends up waking up and needs me to get her back to sleep.

I look forward to seeing what answers you get!  For us, I don't think it's night terrors because her crying is fleeting and she sleeps well otherwise, but anything's possible.

[youremyheartkid]

Hmm, the lack of response is making me worry a little more. Should I call the dr?

[marinak1977]

I don't know if you need to worry mama, but DS does that too (he is 16 months). We co-sleep, a few times he wakes up or fusses without waking up, - I usually take it as a cue to cuddle him, or give him the boob, and he usually settles and goes back to sleep. Sometimes he does that because he kicked off the covers and is now cold, sometimes I don't know - maybe he just needs mama's comfort.
For DS this waking seems totally natural. Not sure what you'd do if you're not cosleeping though.

[Thing1Thing2]

Same here. Except my DS is almost three and has been doing this since he was born!

I used to be able to give him the breast and he would fall back asleep, I may have created a bad habit of him waking up and crying for comfort at night. I had to wean him about 4 months ago when I found out I was pregnant with number 2.

Not sure if this is any help to you, since Im in the same boat, but have you looked into food allergies? Also, some parents have had success with keeping the room cooler at night and leaving the LO naked from the waist down.

Hope you can get to the bottom of this. Sleep deprivation is no fun!

[springmum]

The only thing that made my son whimper, cry out and squirm in the night was either teething or reactions to foods. Between both of those things, I lost a lot of sleep for about 2 years. 

He's 3 now, has all his teeth, food issue under control and sleeps through the night peacefully on his own bed in our room. He has woken up the odd time with a bad dream (I can hear him talking in his sleep, then he wakes up crying), but that is very rare.

Hope you can get some sleep soon :)

[apple o' my eye]

We've gone thru stages where this was worse and now seems to be better. DD is 2.5 & slept side car until a few nights ago.

DD would cry out or even scream bloody murder in her sleep. I would comfort her (binky) and she'd go right back to sleep, or wake up a bit and I'd tell her it is just a dream, a story in her head and she can change the story to make it fun and happy. Sometimes I would tell her a quick silly storey to change her thinking and she'd go back to sleep.

One day in the day she screamed the terrified scream in pure delight, like it was a fun new sound to make. I realized I may have been misinterpreting her "dreams" so I let her fuss a bit (briefly to see if she'd self comfort or really needed me) at night and she most of the time self comforted.

Now if she really wakes up at night she either needs a diaper change or had a dream. Last night I asked her what her dream was about and she said an octopus, tickling her. The other night she was talking in her sleep, "I want a sausage!!" In the past the dreams have been "Mine, Mine, Mine"

I think this is normal for her and she just is processing her day or something?