ACK! What's going on here?

[Marisa6826]

For the past several nights, Sophie's been waking up at sometimes 2:30 and then again at 4:30-5am! She normally goes 8:30-8:30 (I know, I know, shouldn't be complaining...).

Jonathan goes in, sometimes give her Motrin if she says her teeth hurt (2y molars) and changes her dipe. She goes right back down.

Is this a toddler thing? Attention wanted from Mommy and Daddy (I don't even get out of bed, because if she sees me she won't go back down)?

In addition to this, she hasn't really been eating well, and has started waking up in the middle of the night (2:30am) wanting milk. I told Jonathan that the Ped advised against giving it to her (she gets a bot at 8:30pm when we put her down) in the middle of the night, since we would get into a bad habit just before Amelia gets here and then we'd have TWO up for feedings. We offer her food all day long. Three meals, plus two snacks and then milk at bed. Sometimes she will positively chow, others I can't even get her to eat a quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich.

I know Jonathan gave her milk at 2:30 this morning though. She drank it all and went back to sleep till the 5am wakeup for the dipe change.

Suggestions?

-m

[votre_ami03]

I hope this isn't a trend! Nolan went to bed at 8pm, had about 1/2 the milk he normally does & was up at 3:30 this am. :( I get up at 5am, that's just not cool! He did manage to sleep until I got him out of the car (6am).

I think in our case it's because he is hungry. Curious to read other responses.


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030722/1/7/2/-7/.png

[C99]

Could be the attention thing. Burton White talks about this -- he cites a case in which the toddler gets up in the middle of the night and wants to get in bed w/ mom and dad. This happens for a couple of weeks and then the toddler ups the ante -- she wants juice. This happens again for a couple of weeks and the toddler ups the ante again -- ONLY apple juice.

[Marisa6826]

C-

We don't bring her in our room. She's never liked co-sleeping (and we already have a dog and a fort of pillows in there anyway! ;) ).

I have the BW books on my nightstand, just haven't cracked them yet.

-m

[bluej]

I'm guessing it's probably a combination of teething and being hungry if she isn't eating well during the day. Can you up the calories of her bedtime bottle by using drinkable yogurt (assuming that has more calories, I don't know if it does or not)? That might help some if it's a hunger thing. I hope it's just a phase and passes very soon!

[JElaineB]

Occassionally Jacob will wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, but usually not more than 2 nights close together. I say you're lucky that she goes right back to sleep, if your husband goes in at any rate. It seems like when DS wakes up he is AWAKE and won't fall back to sleep. The night before last (Sunday) he woke up at 3 am and would not go back to sleep. I had stayed up until midnight working and had a 12 hour day ahead of me on Monday, so I did not want to deal with him! DH took care of him and eventually (like an hour or so) got him back to sleep. We do offer him water usually and change his diaper. Once a couple months ago he was awake for like 2 hours and I finally brought him downstairs and I gave him a snack and milk and he went back to sleep after that. If she isn't eating well during the day she could be hungry in the middle of the night, I get hungry in the middle of the night on rare occassions so I figure toddlers can too. I don't really have any advice on what to do if it continues and is not just an occassional thing. I try to just let DS get him back to sleep himself but sometimes (many times) it just doesn't work, so we do what we need to do to get him to sleep. Hopefully she will stop soon on her own because I would agree getting up for 2 kids in the middle of the night would not be fun!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[momathome]

Sorry, girlie, I think this is a pretty common toddler thing! Both Liza and Kasey went through this right around the time they turned 2 and it was not fun, although I am pretty sure with them it was fear-based-over-active-imaginations. This is when monsters and shadows were lurking behind every corner. Things got better but it took a few months. Since you know she is cutting teeth, maybe try giving her motrin before she goes to bed to try and head off a potential problem? Just a thought! Good luck and happy sleeping!

[Marisa6826]

L-

We normally do dose her up, but lately she won't take it unless she wants it. Which is strange, because she usually sees it coming and can't wait for it!

Dunno. Toddler power trips, huh?

-m

[momathome]

Joyful, joyful! The only thing better is a 6 year-old drama queen - I swear she is trying to garner an Academy Award nomination for some of her performances! ;) Take care and good luck - it only gets "better"!