Toddler not sleeping through the night- am I the only one?

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Parenting our children -> Toddlers

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother

Ecru

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 10:42 pm

What is the latest age your baby started sleeping through the night? Most of my kids don't sleep through until 18-24 months and I wonder if I am the only one. I have learned to accept that this is normal for my kids.

Anyone else have a baby who wakes up every few hours till toddlerhood?

(And just for the record sleep training didn't help. I am not looking for sleeping advice. We are managing just fine. Just looking for others in the same situation because I feel like the only one)

lucky14

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 10:45 pm

What do they do when they wake up? Do they go back to sleep quickly once you go in to comfort them? Are they waking to eat? To be held, rocked, have their pacifier replaced, etc?

Stars

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 10:48 pm

You're not the only one. My baby woke up during the night for feedings till about a year, and it took almost another entire year for him to settle into a sort of normal schedule. He's now over two and still wakes up more than twice a week to get his pacifier replaced.

amother

Goldenrod

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 10:51 pm

My 2 year old wakes up, talks to herself or her dolls for a little while, and then falls back asleep. I don't have to go in.

If I'm up late working or cooking or whatever and she hears me moving around then she'll call out for me. I just go shhh shhh outside her door and she usually settles down.

amother

Ecru

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 10:53 pm

They would wake to nurse for a feeding or to drink water from a sippycup or both.

mommy3b2c

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 11:01 pm

My 19 month old still wakes up to nurse every 2-3 hours.

amother

Ruby

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 1:06 am

My kids wake up as long as they nurse. One child I nursed until 23 months and he was waking up until then every 1.5-3 hours. Once the shmorgasboard closed down, he started waking less and less until it became a random thing.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 7:19 am

When DD was in that age range, she woke up every morning at 2:10am, with a nightmare. Sometimes 2:09, sometimes 2:11, but never outside of that range. Talk about predictable REM cycles!

These were not night terrors, just scary dreams that she didn't understand. I kept telling her that her brain was bored, and telling her stories. I told her that she could be the boss of her brain, and say "I don't like that story. Tell me nice stories!" She was eventually able to understand what I was saying, and that helped a lot.

I would rock her and soothe her, and she'd go back down within a few minutes. She outgrew it by the time she was 2 and a half.

She's 13 now, and still wakes a couple of times a night. Her body just seems to work that way. It was actually a blessing, because it made it super easy to night train her. She would wake up when she felt the need to use the toilet, and fuss in her bed until I took her to the bathroom. She'd be back to sleep before I put her down.

ectomorph

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 11:24 am

My first was an amazing sleeper and everything about sleeping went easily. I thought I was a master.
My second is a horror in regards to sleeping. I love him dearly but he went to sleep at 1145.

allthingsblue

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 12:21 pm

Me me me! My son just recently started. He's almost three...

cnc

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 1:35 pm

Three and a half. NOT nursing.

amother

Ecru

Mon, Apr 10 2017, 2:21 pm

I'm feeling so much better. Very Happy

Thank you!
It feels good to know I'm not alone. I know that this is my normal but when I hear about little babies who sleep through the night already and my toddler is still waking every few hours I started to question myself.

Volunteer

Wed, Apr 12 2017, 11:17 pm

Our sleep expectations for toddlers are far removed from the biological reality of the young child's brain. "Everybody" likes to brag that their little angels sleep peacefully though the night from infancy. If yours don't, you are a bad mom/ bad sleep trainer/ bad robot programmer. And your waking toddler is spoiled/ sleep disabled for life/ possessed by the devil.

According to cross cultural studies I have read about, this is mostly a lie.
The dirty secret is that the majority of children 2 and under usually wake up their parents at least once per night. (And they awaken and fall back asleep on their own many more times than you know about.) A sizeable minority of children will continue to awaken at night through age 5.
Sorry.

This is how the brain is wired in early childhood. Those who awaken at night can't control it. (Can you control if you wake up in the middle of the night? By the way, people over 60 often experience interrupted sleep, too.) Very young children have little conscious control over their mental states.

Practicing good sleep hygiene can help, but it may not eliminate the interrupted sleep.

Mine is 2 and he still wakes up very early in the morning, before going back to sleep, and waking up at a normal time.

Page 1 of 1