Children wake nightly, parents try strategies

“I need some suggestions or guidance. For a month my one year old would sleep pretty well from bedtime (7:30/8:30PM) until 2 or 3AM. The he would just wake up and scream and throw himself back and be inconsolable almost. He won’t go back to sleep in his crib and even when I hold him to calm it down it takes forever and he is super restless. I then have to hold him the rest of the night because he won’t go back down in his crib. We then went through a week period of him only wake once a night, but”

“All day, I was asking what's going on. (Eye roll..."nothing... god mom..." Are you hungry? "Nooooooo mooooommmm... Leave me ALONE." 2am I hear him breathing. He's just standing over my bed (he's 6'3" at 14 if that matters). 'Mommmmm.... I need to talk to you and I'm hungry' So, anyway, we sat on the couch and listened to music and talked for two hours eating popcorn. He has a lot going on. Then he just gets up and goes to bed. And I'm sitt”

“My daughter just woke up screaming and crying about 30 minutes after she went to bed. Shes 6, and has had night terrors off and on since she was 2. I went to her room and the light was on and she was standing up, bent over with her arms hanging down and screaming. I get her up in to her bed and she sat up and stared at the wall for 2 minutes, silent until I got her to lay down. Then she layed down and stared at the ceiling and just started laughing…… I got her to close her eyes and go back to sl”

“I’m wondering what I can do to help. 2.5 year old boy, albeit overall being a pretty awesome sleeper, will go through phases of night wakes. When he wakes, he wants mom. I have tried, and my presence only makes him more upset. On those nights when I try, it always spirals into long-winded upsets that leaves everyone feeling like shit the next day. Wife has been very much against co-sleeping. So when she goes in, her goal is to get him to sleep, then leave and come back to our bed. 99% chance he”

“Im not even sure why i am posting it but i want to scream and have someone listen to me as i have reached the lowest point of my life with a baby that simply wont sleep. He is 5.5 month old and i think there was only about 2-3 weeks when he was 2 month old that he gave me 5 hour streches. Night time is a disaster. He will sleep great during the day and simply will be a nightmare during the night. I watch closely wake windows, I have tried early bed time, late night time, i follow a rutine, white”

“I don't know what to do anymore. It's was getting better around 6 month but now, for the last 2 months, she have been regularly waking up every 2-3 hours a night. She normally doesn't display sign of tiredness, she is not tired during the day. We put her down to sleep at 7.30pm. she normally fall asleep while still awake without problems. She will cry for milk (breast milk) around 10, then around 1am, then 4 and often at 6 and wake up for the day at 8. During the day. At the day care”

“After months of being a great sleeper, my little guy is suddenly protesting all naps and bedtime - the last couple nights he's had complete meltdowns at bedtime, stiffening up and crying inconsolably until I put a pause on the bedtime routine. He's learned how to sit up and stand in his crib, which he's doing every time he goes down for either a nap or bedtime. He'll scream and cry bloody murder, and with the standing, I worry he doesn't know how to get himself lying back dow”

“I apologize if this has been posted before, but I couldn’t find anything useful elsewhere. My wife and I are at a loss. Our girls, 5 and 3, cannot sleep in their own beds throughout the night. Our 3 year old hardly makes it two hours before waking up in hysterics. Putting her back down in their room works for about another hour, and after two or three times, we have to just give up and either sleep in her floor next to her or let her in our bed. Our 5 year old tends to make it most of the way th”

“Our 9 month old is honestly great. He's definitely been an "easy" baby & since he's our first, we feel very lucky. However, he is always waking up before 5am (usually around 4:40) & we just can't seem to break this cycle. It's making his first wake window long & he won't fall back asleep. We've checked the cat isn't waking him up, no-one on our street is going to work at that time, the heating isn't coming on & waking him up & his roo”

“My generally smart and sweet four year old is seriously testing us lately. For one thing, she won’t stay in her room at night. She comes into our room and says she’s scared (she’s just lonely, which we understand) and makes us come lay with her til she falls back asleep. Then she does it again, and again, and again, and ends up screaming at us until we either cave or have a big fight. And then during the daytime she is either complaining about everything, ignoring us, or antagonizing her brother”

“we cosleep so she is right next to me all night. recently, she’s been waking up with no warning just screaming her head off and sometimes she just goes back to sleep, other times it’s an hour to get her back down. and it’s rocking, shushing, singing, i can’t sit down or she screams, and i just thought at 11 months old, she should have grown out of this. she wakes up 3-8x a night. is there a regression or something that i don’t know about? she’s already been walking as far as new skills go. have”

“Kid one is almost 3 and can get out of bed even when he's half asleep now. He's had some rough patches with sleeping, and we've needed to do "cry it out" style sleep training three times to help him get back to a normal bedtime routine. But he's always been contained in his room. Now that he can open the door and just find us, how do I get him to sleep train again? Or other tips. submitted by /u/Plinian [link] [comments]”

“Hey Daddit Gang! Long time listener, first time caller. We have two kids, 4F and 3M. Our daughter sleeps great through the night. 10.5-12 hrs straight 99/100 nights. Our son is another story entirely. For the last 4 months he shows up in our room like clockwork between midnight and 5AM. Climbs in our bed and typically goes back to sleep within 10-15m. We’ve tried explaining to him he needs to stay in his bed if he wakes up, but that he can call for mom/dad and we will hear him on the monitor. We”

“Hi everyone - I have an 11 month old. He has persistently been a baby that "wakes up early" - like, around 7-8 months he was waking up for a feed at 4AM and having trouble going back to sleep ("split nights" I guess) but we've somewhat improved there. Yes, I know, I've done everything - capped naps, not capped naps, increased wake windows, shortened wake windows, pushed bed time, brought bed time back 30 minutes. Trust me when I say I've tried it all, it has becom”

“It's currently the middle of the night. For the past several days, my little guy (he will be 7 months on Saturday) has been waking up multiple times at night screaming. Nothing seems to help. Gas drops, eating, rocking, Tylenol. Sometimes they seem to help for just a little bit, but then he will start crying and yelling again. It's been absolutely exhausting. Both Mom and myself are having a hard time with this. Has anyone home through this? What else can we do? Is it just something we h”

“My youngest is testing every single ounce of patience I have and I’m at my breaking point. I need help and I have no idea what’s going on. He used to be a good sleeper, but after 4 months it got worse and has continued that way. He is up 5-6 times every night. Until recently, he was easy to put back down just up often. Lately, he’s been arching his back and turning his head like he’s about to roll over while sleeping. If he wakes and cries sometimes I will feed him or rock him, but when I put hi”

“My 23 month old has always been a horrific sleeper, up until 17 months when she finally started sleeping with max 2 wake ups. The last 2 months, she’s been up almost every hour and from 4am refuses to go back to sleep in her cot and only wants to sleep on me. Her dad can sometimes put her back to sleep but she screams and screams, mainly shouting for mummy. From 4am, she will not have dad resettle her and even if I get her back to sleep as soon as she’s in her cot she’s straight up screaming for”

“I have 2 kids under 3 and both have never slept through the night. We often wake every 1.5-2 hours, and have ruled out every medical condition or reason under the sun! I do lean more responsive in the way I parent, so have never let my children cry for long periods. All of my friends (every single one) as well as family have children that have effortlessly slept through the night. All but one haven’t even needed sleep training. They just sleep the solid 8 hours. I can’t help but feel like I’m do”

“My (39F) kids are 8 and 6. They have been sleeping through the night in their own beds since they were like… idk - 12 weeks old or something? Lately though either one or both of these kids wakes me up every single night. I haven’t had an uninterrupted 8 hour stretch in who knows how long. It’s always “I had a bad dream”, “I can’t sleep”, or sometimes they don’t even say anything just wake me up by climbing into my bed. Now, if I could fall back asleep this wouldn’t be a problem. However, I am in”

“I’m fuming right now, so this is half vent half searching for advice. We have 2 kids. 4 year old boy and 2 year old girl. Son has always been an amazing sleeper. Even when he used to get restless he would still hang in his crib. When our 2 year old was born I put him down nearly every night for a year. We have a very structured routine. He’s the angel child. Generally listens, is very thoughtful and calm. Still will take 2 hour naps when he’s home from school, like clockwork. Sleeps from 8-8. Qu”

“My child historically was the worst sleeper until around 12 months old when we loosely sleep trained. She took it upon herself at that time as well to switch to 1 nap. She wakes up between 6am-7am, and takes just 1 nap around 11:30-12 and everyday the nap is 1 hr 15 min exactly. SELDOM I can get her to go down in the afternoon for 30-45 min. She goes to bed around 7-7:30pm. So most days she has 7 consecutive hours awake from her nap wake up time to sleep time. Any other parent in this same boat?”

“wake up super early on non school days or non event days and then on school / event day - they don't seem to want to get up? 😂 i come home from dropping my older son at school, when i come home my 4 year old son is waiting for me by the door (🥺😭) today, i didn't have to drop my older son off at school - i do my morning routine and my 4 year old has still yet to wake up on his own. we have a painting pumpkins park playdate in an hour lol submitted by /u/marzbarz2000 [link]”

“Evening fellow dads and lurking moms. I need some advice on how to handle a particularly willful 4yo boy and bedtime: dude has some attention/hyperactivity issues greater than a neurotypical toddler (which is to be expected as both mom and I are diagnosed ADD/ADHD). However when it comes time for us to say goodnight and leave the room, all hell breaks loose. I’m talking screaming like he’s being stabbed, clinging with a grip that’d put King Kong to shame, and then beating on the door mercilessly”

“We’re struggling with our newly 4 year old at the moment and looking for any advice from people who have been through similar. It’s quite obvious he is underslept - he is waking up anywhere from 4.30-6am and immediately grumpy. This usually results in him picking something to be annoyed about, hitting me, shouting at me, throwing stuff around for 30mins before eventually coming around and getting on with his day. Bedtime and routine hasn’t changed, we do dinner, bath, bedroom and stories. He sha”

“Last week I thought I was a parenting genius. My four-year-old has been fighting bedtime clean-up with the fury of a wild badger. Stepping on wooden railway tracks and stray plastic dinos at 9 PM was breaking my spirit. So on Tuesday, instead of nagging him for the twentieth time, I sat on the floor, made a loud 'BEEP... BEEP... BEEP' reverse sound, and announced that the Construction Crane was open for salvage deliveries. He lit up, ran around the rug, and loaded every single piece into”

“My 4 year old and 2 year old share a bedroom and I never had a night light or lamp in their room because I didn’t want the light to disturb their sleep. They like other toddlers wake up in the middle of the night and come to my husband and I room. This happens almost daily. Usually one of the wakes up sometimes crying other times not, they somehow wake each other up and come to our room. The problem is I’m pregnant and we won’t have space in our bed pretty soon. My 4 year old also doesn’t wear p”

“My son is 3. We love having a son so much. He’s our only child. His infant years were tough. Would not sleep the first 18 months of his life. We didn’t want to sleep train. He slept great for about another 18 months, and now lately he’s showing up in our bed every night due to bad dreams. Since he was born, my wife was adamant that we are not having another kid. If it were “up to me” I probably would have wanted one. After discussion, I had a consult for a vasectomy, though the appointment isn’t”

“My 22-month-old sleeps in her own room in a cot, and I’m curious what other parents do when their toddler wakes up in the morning. I can see her on the monitor and she usually wakes up perfectly calm and just sits there for a while. If I leave her, she’ll sometimes turn on her light herself and start flicking through her books. If she’s sick, needy or actually wants us, she’ll cry and obviously we go in. I’ve never really felt the need to rush in the second her eyes open if she seems perfectly c”

“Our 4 year old son wears a nappy for bed. For the last 3 or 4 weeks he's been waking up at 5.30am to do a poo. We cannot seem to break the cycle. He used to sleep until about 7.30am. He's not getting enough sleep at night so he's completely knackered at school. He often does a poo just before bed but still does one at 5.30am. We haven't changed anything to do with his diet. When we're cleaning him up, we limit any talking, keep lights dim, and put him back to bed. He lasts ab”

“My 4 yr old son since July has woken up every night. Most nights he’s walking up throwing a tantrum after putting in back in bed the second time. The issue is he’s doing it every night at 130am. He refuses to go back to his room and will scream and cry. We’ve done it all with him. We now tell him once it’s bed time and are completely deadpan with him now. This has been going on since July and hasn’t gotten better and the child is exhausted. It’s very obvious he hasn’t had a full night sleep sinc”