Toddler up all night

CarMe

My two and a half year old, who has always been a good sleeper, has just completely stopped sleeping through the night. She doesn't have a nap in the day and she's very active, has a set bedtime routine and is in bed between 7.30pm and 8pm and falls asleep almost instantly. In the past week she's started to wake almost every hour with a list of requests of wanting a kiss, a drink, to see her dad, to find a particular toy etc.
I'm at my wits end I had about two hours sleep a night for the past week and I'm mid another battle now tonight, we're both wrecked and run down from it.
Anyone any suggestions? Thanks!

Duckjob

Could she be over-tired when she goes to bed?

We've found with our little one (19 mths) that she actually sleeps much better at night if she's had a nap or two during the day.

Chip Whitley

Something vaguely similar with our two and a half year old recently. He naps for about an hour during the day and is in bed (and usually asleep) by 8pm, but every night for over a week he would sit up in his bed playing with his toys and would still be awake at 10.30pm or later, and at that stage he would get very cross when we told him to go asleep. He would cry and cry and ask one of us to lie down with him or play with his toys.

What we did in the end was gradually wean the toys from him, so every night when I dressed him for bed I'd play with him for 10-15 mins on his bedroom floor, then tell him it was bedtime, and ask him which toys he wanted to bring to bed with him. He would try and bring 6 or 7 at the start, and every night I would remove a toy or two and make an event of putting them back in his toy box (which he got excited about) and now he goes to bed with just 1 toy and when he's all tucked up and realises he can't get much craic out of one toy by itself he just drifts off with it in his hand.

Was your little one's routine thrown off at Christmas? Perhaps she's struggling with trying to get back in to it?

hedgehog2

Give the child some magnesium 1.5 hrs before bed,you can get them in small pills or liquid formula.
Make sure its a decent dose and guaranteed she will sleep right through as its a natural sleep aid.
My friend went through the same thing as you with a 3yr old and he was wrecked in work.
Obviously research this yourself and hope it helps.

lazygal

hedgehog2 wrote: »

Give the child some magnesium 1.5 hrs before bed,you can get them in small pills or liquid formula.
Make sure its a decent dose and guaranteed she will sleep right through as its a natural sleep aid.
My friend went through the same thing as you with a 3yr old and he was wrecked in work.
Obviously research this yourself and hope it helps.

Terrible advice, don't drug a child to sleep.



I think naps during the day mean better sleep at night. I'd try even a short nap.

December2012

Any changes going on in the child's life? Change in playschool/ toilet training / new bed / parent working away?

hedgehog2

lazygal wrote: »

Terrible advice, don't drug a child to sleep.



I think naps during the day mean better sleep at night. I'd try even a short nap.

Talk about an over reaction,you do know we need magnesium for a healthy body.
Most people including toddlers who have sleep problems lack magnesium in their diet so supplement,hence my advice.

lazygal

hedgehog2 wrote: »

Talk about an over reaction,you do know we need magnesium for a healthy body.
Most people including toddlers who have sleep problems lack magnesium in their diet so supplement,hence my advice.

A balanced diet is what a child needs not supplements. A child should only be given things like that if a medical professional recommends it.

How Strange

Her bedtime seems quite late especially if she doesn't nap during the day. Perhaps she's getting over tired. I know that our son had big problems sleeping at night when the crèche cut his naps from two to one and he wasn't ready for it.

Maybe try putting her down by 7pm.

staticdoor71

I too would say try bed a bit earlier.
My daughter is 21 months and doesnt nap. She needs to be in bed between 7 and half past or else it could be ten before she goes down.
Tonight for instance she took her trousers off at half six handed them to me and asked for her jammies and gloworm (that light up musical battery eater she brings to bed )
She was out cold by ten to seven.
Myself and her da didnt know what to do with ourselves.
It does just sound like maybe shes overtired.. or maybe xmas knocked her off kilter.
Hope you get her back on track. Nothing worse x

wallycharlo

Have a similar situation here OP, was once sleeping well through the night (or waking maybe just once or so) but recently is waking a lot more, and for no apparant reason, and from what I hear it's not all that unusual to have such a phase.

Might just be taking after myself in genreal though, can't remember the last time that I did not wake 4-5 times during the night (-:

wallycharlo

hedgehog2 wrote: »

Give the child some magnesium 1.5 hrs before bed,you can get them in small pills or liquid formula....

... guess you may have encoutered less flak if you had written 'give them a banana'

CarMe

God I was so sleep deprived that I actually forgot I'd even written this!!
Well yesterday I got her up early and had her out walking all day long (much as I wanted to curl up for the day myself!), long bath before bed, nice full belly etc, heating timer to go on more during the night and success she slept from half 7 to 9am!!! I didn't get asleep till after 3 though my poor shattered body was just waiting for her screech!

Interesting you say her bedtime is too late, I never would have thought that but it makes sense. Will start getting her up for 7 and see how that goes!

Also yeah there was an incident with her dad not turning up to see her last week (I couldn't distract her from it as she was all ready, coat on waiting etc) and it's had an awful affect on her. She is very anxious around the subject now and that's the one thing she'll say when she wakes up at night, calling for him, wondering when she'll see him next etc.
It doesn't seem such a big deal to mess her sleep up so badly but I don't know, I can't think of anything else.

Another very busy day today so hopefully we're on a roll!!

pwurple

I think they have amini sleep regression around 2 1/2. Mine did the exact same thing. Hung in there refusing the requests and kept putting her back to bed for the week and it was better.

We had a bit of change in the house at the time as well. My sil moved in, and started letting her watch telly in the evenings before bedtime (we used to out on music and do dancing). We also got a patch of bad weather, so didn't get out as much during the day. We sorted both those thigs as well, and sleep got better, but I don't know did she just grow out of it, or did she need more exercise or whatever.

That bedtime is the same for us here btw, doesn't seem late to me.

Sligo1

I know this is OT but I'm really surprised some posters think 7.30-8pm is late for bedtime. My 1 yo goes down at this time and sleeps for 12 hours (touch wood). I'd really be interested to hear what is the norm bedtime?.... If there is one?...

I'd say it's more of a question of what suits the parents etc... But I'd still be interested to know what time most parents are putting the LOs down. I'd love more time to ourselves in the eve... But at the same time reeeeally don't want to impact his now great nightly sleeping routine.

Tis prob a better question for a new thread.....

lazygal

Bedtime is 7pm for us, sometimes 730pm. We naturally fell into that time and she's sleeping 12 hours. Any later and she's very out of sorts.

My 2.5 year old goes to bed between 8-8.30pm. That time suits all of us. He's up between 7-7.30am and usually naps for 1-2 hours at lunchtime.

liliq

[Deleted User] wrote: »

My 2.5 year old goes to bed between 8-8.30pm. That time suits all of us. He's up between 7-7.30am and usually naps for 1-2 hours at lunchtime.

Bedtime here for my almost 2.5 year old is usually 9pm, but any time between 8-10 is normal. He wakes usually twice a night, is awake at 8 in the morning, and doesn't typically nap during the day.

There must be a huge range of normal bedtimes, wakings etc.
my view is that of its working for you, it's working