2 year old stopped going to (and staying) sleep.

Miranda-Jayne - posted on 10/14/2011

Jake is the very same, I usually just put his toys in the crib with him and ignore the crying until he stops. Don't give in or she will get too attatched and expect you to do this every night.

Terrie - posted on 10/14/2011

good point Tracy! And it makes sense- if the ear is infected laying down might be uncomfortable too. We'll keep an eye on this and see if we need to consult our ped.

Tracy - posted on 10/14/2011

I posted above about having the same problem. Finally, after three weeks of this, I took my twins to the pediatricians office for some advice. Much to my surprise, one of them had an ear infection. I had no idea as she never ran a fever and never showed any signs of ear pain. As soon as I started giving her Tylenol and her antibiotic the screaming stopped and we've now had 4 really great nights with no screaming. Just a thought, but you may want to check with your pediatrician to make sure nothing else is wrong.

Terrie - posted on 10/14/2011

It could be molars coming in. My daughter will be 2 at the end of November, and recently her sleep schedule has been odd. She refused to go to bed, which is not normal because she usually goes right down. Tylenol helped and warm milk, but even putting her down she did fuss for about 5 minutes or so. And like your daughter she seemed to not want me to leave her in the room alone.

Sam - posted on 10/13/2011

i put a night light in the hallway just by my daughters door and she has not woken up the last 2 nights! fingers crossed that she keeps it up! although i woke up both nights at 3am and tossed and turned lol

Candace - posted on 10/13/2011

I heard that it could be nightmares as well, as 2 is generally when their imaginations really start taking off. It may explain why our little ones are needing mommy or daddy in the room in order to go to sleep... maybe they're afraid? I do have a nightlight, but it doesn't seem to have helped Ryleigh at all.

Allyson - posted on 10/12/2011

We are going though exactly the same thing with my 23 month old. He is teething (has been for about 2 months now), but now won't go to sleep unless we are sitting in his room with his door open. Since he was 2 months old, he's been fine going to sleep on his own after our bedtime routine (bath, stories, bed). A month ago, that changed. Around 3:30 or 4am every night, he wakes up screaming and comes running into our room He is tired, but aware, so it doesn't seem like a night terror. We have to go in his room, rub his back and then he's back up 30 minutes later. We are exhausted. He naps in the afternoon, but only for 90 minutes. I may try a night light to see if that helps. I will watch the replies for suggestions. This never happened with my 3 year old, so we are stumped. The doctor said it could be nightmares and this is the age where those start.

Sam - posted on 10/12/2011

with what you said about screaming every time she goes in the crib
this is how one of the mums in my groups son was telling her he wanted a big bed, as soon as she got him a 'big boy' bed he went straight to sleep with out an issue. my daughter on the hand decided she wanted a big bed by just jumping in it one night lol now (about 4 0r 5 months later) she gets up at least once a night and comes into our room for us to put her back to bed.shes done it at least once a night for at least a month now.driving us up the wall!

Candace - posted on 10/11/2011

we leave her closet light on... at first we only left the door open a bit, but once she started getting up at night we left it open more... it helped for a night or two, then she was up screaming again...

Rebecca - posted on 10/11/2011

Is there any light in her room. My daughter did something very similar a couple of months ago and we figured out she woke up at night and the room was to dark for her. We got a new cd player that has a remote and a light on it. If she wakes up now she is calmer and we can just activate her music without having to go into the room. Which makes her cry more becasue she wants to cuddle once she sees us.

Danielle - posted on 10/10/2011

I have exactly the same problem my little boy is turning two nov hehad just started sleeping through and all of sudden he wont go in his bed he can now climb out the cot . i have taken his cot down but now he wont even stay in his bed. i thought it could be more teeth but he has got all of them now. iv tried reading stories and singing to him he used to fall asleep with me in the room but now he just screams with me in the room or not. running out of ideas just want to sleep.

Tracy - posted on 10/09/2011

Wow...perfect timing because we are going through the exact same thing with my 23 month old twin daughters. Both have been great sleepers early on, and were fully capable of putting themselves back to sleep overnight. However, lately it's been drama every night. They wake up screaming (to the point where they sound like they may vomit!) almost every night and it can take hours for everyone to go back to sleep. We usually end up breaking down and going in there, which makes it even worse when we try to leave, and we end up with a baby (or two) in bed with us which means I get no sleep.



I don't think our girls are going thrugh night terrors because they seem fully aware of what is going on when we go into their room, which doesn't fit with most of the night terror symptoms I have read. Tylenol doesn't seem to help either so I can't blame it on teething. I think they may be having nightmares and are just having a lot of difficulties putting themselves back to bed. We've added a bright night light, which does seem to help some, but our nights are still terrible.



I'll be anxiously reading these posts for hopefully some suggestions/advice.





Good luck!

Tracy

Antoinette - posted on 10/08/2011

My son is doing the same and i thought it was night terrors, he has his two bottom molars but top ones coming through and are messing him up something chronic. Its really sad to see them in pain but it will be over soon. I can't wait

Ashleigh - posted on 10/08/2011

My little boy is the same age and started doing the same thing. We have always had the same routine, bath, story bed. Always in bed before 7.30pm. He has a 1/2 hr - 1 hr sleep at lunch time. We used to close his door over at night but we have found he is much happier with a night light on. We feel he is upset when he wakens up now and it's pitch dark. My older son went through the same thing at 2 yrs 3 months. Also if you find they are not settling when you first put them down, i leave his door open and potter around upstairs. So that he knows i haven't left him alone. Putting washing away and doing ironing. But i also found with my 1st son that a bad habbit to get into is staying with him in the bedroom. He is generally happy if he knows i'm not too far away, he would be asleep in a couple of minutes now. Hope this helps xx

Brittany - posted on 10/08/2011

I have to stay with my daughter until she goes to sleep.
I have to put her in her bed and say "shhh" until she falls asleep which sometimes can take up to an hour !
Anyone have any advice on that ?

Cathy - posted on 10/07/2011

From what I hear if it is night terrors there isn't much you can do but comfort them - like it's not a matter of them wanting you in the room that the Ferber method or something of the like would fix. It sounds like if she is calm when you are in there and screaming when you aren't it's probably not night terrors though. With night terrors the baby/child doesn't even register you are there even if their eyes are open, it's like they see through you until they finally wake up, which can take a minute or two of talking to them/touching them to wake them up. If it's the teeth, try Baby Motrin/ibuprofen as it is an anti inflammatory and a better pain medicine than Tylenol and may help a little more with the pain. I have been having a similar situation with my daughter, almost 2. She isn't waking up screaming, but she doesn't go to sleep as well as she used to (it takes her much longer to fall asleep, so she just talks and plays in her crib until she falls asleep) and she wakes up more in the night, but she'll just talk herself back to sleep. I have read that shortening their day time nap will help with sleeping better at night. When she gets a shorter afternoon nap, she does tend sleep better at night, but is fussier before bed time. I tend to not shorten her naps because I figure if she's still asleep she needs the sleep, but maybe I shouldn't let her go past 2 or 2.5 hours. We have the same bedtime as you do, so she usually naps from about 1-4 in the afternoon, bedtime 7:30-8 PM and then she wakes up around 7:30-9 AM depending on what time she actually fell asleep. Hope you figure something out soon! I hope my daughter's waking up in the night doesn't turn into screaming. I wouldn't know what to do either.

Candace - posted on 10/06/2011

I was thinking it could be night terrors. I had them really bad as a baby/kid... and she is working her molars out as well right now... so it could be that as well... although, Tylenol hasn't worked

Sarah - posted on 10/05/2011

COuld she be having night terrors? My DD woke last night crying hysterically at 3.40am and I think that was what it was. Also has she got all of her teeth? They get their 2nd set of molars around 2yrs of age and a few other mum in my group have mentioned some shocking nights sleep recently.