Anybody ran into this? I mean, man alive, she's 23 months, she should be sleeping through the night! And she does part of the time...but the part that she doesn't, yikes.

She will wake up in the middle of the night crying, and I will check her to make sure everything is okay. I will change her diaper if needed, offer a drink, give her a hug, whatever. But she keeps crying! And it goes on for hours!! She woke at 3:30 this morning and didn't go back to sleep until 5:30. I nursed her since it was morning time, and she fell back to sleep shortly after that, don't know how long it would have taken her to fall asleep otherwise.

We even tried pulling her into bed with us, she kept on crying and rolling around until we finally took her back to her own bed, where she then screamed at the top of her lungs and threw a sippy cup when offered to her.

I'm pregnant and tired and this is really wearing on me.

Am I missing something that she needs during the night? Why does she keep on screaming after basic needs have been met? Why does she go right back to sleep some nights and other nights will scream for 1-2 hours?

The other night, she even said, "Hungry, hungry," so we gave her a snack in the middle of the night.

UGH.

Alot of people may disagree with me but here's what we did. DS was waking, too and I knew it was because I was going to him and of course he wanted to be with me instead of sleep. So one night we decided that we weren't going to go in his room no matter what. It was really hard (the hardest thing to date) and it took two long nights of him crying. The first night he cried for over 90 minutes straight and the second night he cried for almost two hours. The third night...nothing!!! Now he sleeps for 12-13 hours without a peep. He hasn't woken up in months and he is definitly a happy, well rested, little guy. We have a video monitor so I could see that he was ok, just wanting his mommy. I did feel mean while this was happening but I knew that it was best for him to learn how to fall asleep on his own, soothe himself to sleep if he woke up in the night and to stay asleep for a long period of time. Anyway, that is what we did and it worked for us:) HTH!
BTW, it is much easier having a baby when I don't have to worry that the toddler will be up at night...good luck!

We probably have a much more relaxed sleeping philosophy than most other people.....we don't really agree with the cry it out method number one because we have always lived in an apartment or townhome and have neighbors in close proximity, but also because I want my children to want to go to bed and I think that a cry it out technique can be very traumatizing for a little one....of course, several people use that method and it works great and the kids are fine for it....it just wasn't for our family.....

Ethan has a lot of sleeping issues....he is up a lot at night....my husband and I have decided that we will take him back to bed one time a night.....and after that we will just ignore him......When we take him back to bed, we will make sure he doesn't have any personal needs (i.e., hungry, thirsty, wet, etc.) and that is pretty much it....we did have to make sure that the area is pretty well childproofed....his room and our room are the only rooms upstairs and we close the bathroom and closet doors and have a gate at the top of the stairs.....We also put a pillow corner with a few toys and books on the floor in our room for him.....

It was really rough at first because he would really try to get our attention, getting into our bed and jumping on us, etc.....now when he gets up, he either gets up in our bed and falls back to sleep or goes and lays down in his pillow corner and reads until he falls asleep again......when I get up with the little one (he is up 2-4 times a night to feed still) I will carry the sleeping Ethan back to bed.....it was hard to make the decision to ignore him....and my husband still sometimes struggles with the follow through, but it has really worked well for us....

I will be praying that you will find the perfect piece of advice to help your family deal with your little one's nighttime wakings.....

Katherine was still waking up in the night when nathaniel arrived. I was getting worn out! A new baby and a toddler waking up! I was up like 5-6 times a night! i got no sleep. Anyway I think one night I was SO tired I just did not wake up when she cried LOL. And she's slept through the night since. :D

Anybody ran into this?

The other night, she even said, "Hungry, hungry," so we gave her a snack in the middle of the night.

UGH.

Hunger. This was my first thought as I began to read your post. I was remembering DD#4. She went through this. She WAS hungry. DH often got up & made her 2 fried eggs/scrambled eggs. she ate them & went back to sleep. She is still an early riser & needs food right away.

Just a thought,:)

Every once in a while, one of the older ones wakes up, but it's pretty rare. Thankfully! However, just wanted to throw sleep terrors out there. J had them and they are miserable. It's like they don't know who you are and they throw a fit and you can't do anything about them. I don't know if this describes your situation or not, but if it's that, I found that putting their feet in cold water would jar them out of it and then they would be back asleep right away. It's like they are caught in a nightmare and can't wake up, putting their feet in cold water is like pinching yourself to wake up!

By any chance is she cutting her 2 yr molars yet??? My dd started waking like that for a period of time when her molars began coming in - she would get really cranky. I kept checking but it was hard to tell with her if there was any action back there until one finally broke through the gums.

Not lots of advice to share, but sending ((hugs)). A waking toddler and that early pregnancy fatigue are both really draining!!! I can only imagine how hard that would be!

We've gone back and forth with the CIO method. Dh is a firm believer, I am not. It does seem to work, I just don't have a high tolerance for it myself and usually cave.

I remember you posting a while back about the sippy cup at night issue. Is this related?

My two thoughts were already mentioned- hungry or night terrors.

Hungry- ours have all gone through a stage where they seemed to need MORE before bed to stop night waking. We often did oatmeal (sometimes with fruit) about an hour before bed- filling but not too sweet.

Night terrors- keep in mind these ARE different than bad dreams or nightmares. Most significantly, a child having night terrors often appears to be awake, but they really are not.

Hope something will work out for you girls soon!!

[loveyou]