Is this normal for nighttime/naptime waking? (toddler)

[konayossie]

I only have one child, and none of my friends/family seem to still have problems with their children's sleeping at this age, so I'm just wanting some feedback on whether DS's wakeups are normal.

Here's our situation: DS is 26 mos. DH, DS, and I sleep together in our king size bed, though we would like to transition DS into his own bed as we're expecting #2 in a few months, and I don't think I can handle 2 LOs in bed at once. DS is still nursing, but since I've become pregnant, he's pretty much nightweaned. He nurses to sleep and to nap, but not during the night. He still wakes quite a few times during the night. 3 times is pretty normal on a good night. A banner night would be only 2 wakeups. The last few nights he's been awake every 50 mins or so till he hits a decent 3 hour-stretch around 3 a.m. Now that we're not nursing during the night, I will pat him back to sleep or offer him a drink or a cracker. Sometimes when he wants food, he'll eat around a whole serving of animal crackers and other times he won't even eat one, though he will say he wants it. Every time he wakes, he cries. To me it sounds like a pained cry, but he generally doesn''t keep going with it once I wake up and soothe him (in one form or another). He generally repositions and goes back to sleep. We do have the occasional night terror where he can't be soothed, but I understand what's going on there...

Anyway, so my questions are 1: Is this # of wakeups normal for his age?

2. Could the cosleeping be contributing to his wakeups?

3. Do all kids wake up and cry? When he wakes up from naps, it's the worst b/c I leave him alone in the room and he becomes very distressed upon wakeup and it takes longer to soothe him. At night, he always wakes up crying, but is quickly soothed b/c I'm right there.

4. Is there any reason to believe his crying might be pain-related? He suffered from terrible reflux when he was younger and still occasionally spits up, but we took him off his reflux meds around 18 mos since it seemed mostly to have resolved.

Other notes: DS is super-tiny--less than the 1% on the growth charts (hunger-related waking?); he is EXTREMELY active during the day. Since I've been home for the summer, I've been taking him to the park or someplace where he can do some serious running and playing outdoors every day. He generally goes to sleep sometime between 8:30-9:30 and is usually not hard to put down. He wakes for the day anywhere from 6:30-8:00 a.m. (we usually get up around 7:00ish). His nap generally starts between 12:30-1:30 and is really variable in length--45 mins to 3 hours, though an hour is usually more like it.

Thanks for any feedback!

[JanineRivera]

I just wanted to chime in and let you know I remember my dd going through this kind of waking up screaming thing.  I remember it being a horrible cry that had me worried but it did pass.  Also, she was sleeping on her own mattress right next to our bed and still waking a lot.   Once we moved her to her own room it seemed to get better.  She still does wake up at times at night (especially lately) but usually would sleep until the early morning then come into bed with us.  This sounds like a phase.  Gosh, I feel like I have been saying that a lot to myself and others lately!

[To-Fu]

Anyway, so my questions are 1: Is this # of wakeups normal for his age?

2. Could the cosleeping be contributing to his wakeups?

3. Do all kids wake up and cry? When he wakes up from naps, it's the worst b/c I leave him alone in the room and he becomes very distressed upon wakeup and it takes longer to soothe him. At night, he always wakes up crying, but is quickly soothed b/c I'm right there.

4. Is there any reason to believe his crying might be pain-related? He suffered from terrible reflux when he was younger and still occasionally spits up, but we took him off his reflux meds around 18 mos since it seemed mostly to have resolved.

This sounds really normal to me!  If anything, I think co-sleeping is probably minimizing his wake-ups, but only you will know for sure. 

I don't know if all kids wake up and cry, but our 3.5yo definitely does.  I think maybe it's dreams, but I don't know.  He's always slept hard, but woken up a lot and had a hard time with falling asleep and waking up.  He almost always is yelling or wailing. 

I suppose it's possible that he might be in pain--are you able to ask him?  My theory about our DS is that he's just having bad dreams, and sleeping is a confusing, scary time for him.  That in-between time in sleep cycles where he kind of wakes up and needs help going back to sleep is really fragile for him.  Maybe your guy is similar.

[maptome]

That sounds exactly like my dd (23 months).  We recently tried nightweaning, only to experience hours of night time wakefulness and to give up after a couple of weeks.  We've been really pushing a bedtime snack which seems to help for the first stretch of the night, but she doesn't eat much and still wakes up hungry.  I've seen positive results. may be something to try.

[konayossie]

Thanks for the responses, all. I'm glad to know it all sounds normal.

To-fu, DS is not what I'd call a heavy sleeper--he wakes up at the slightest noise/movement, whatever, if he's at that light stage of sleep. It's frustrating b/c I pretty much wake him up every time I get out of bed to use the bathroom (I'm 26 weeks pregnant). But yeah, I think that in-between sleep-wake stage is really hard for him. He just almost never wakes up happy, which bothers me b/c he's really a cheerful little guy otherwise. Although, I have noticed that he doesn't need nearly as long as some kids to "wake up"--once he's out of his few minutes of crying, he's fine and is ready to go, unlike my niece who seems to take at least 30 minutes to feel like herself...

Maptome, yes, we push for a last meal/snack right before he goes to bed. He's just such a hit or miss eater it's hard to get anything in him! Food definitely does seem to help him sleep better, though--hence the middle-of-the-night snacks I've started offering. Hope nightweaning works for you soon. It's really been nice for me not to have to deal with nursing during the night since I was never able to sleep through it.