How can i get my 2 year old to sleep thro the night??? I am all out of tricks

Jessi - posted on 03/09/2010

i think that this is just a phase that he has to go through. my son is 21 months old and he has night terrors and he will eventually go to sleep. i dont try to wake/comfort him. he jsut has to cry it out. i usually sit in his room til he goes back to sleep jsut to make sure he doesnt hurt himself. if he stays up all night i try to keep him awake all the next day to make sure he sleeps the next night. at 2 months old he was sleeping through the night but has phases where he wakes up at night if he is teething. the best thing you could do is to let him cry himself to sleep. it might take 3 hours the first few night but he will eventually get the idea that you mean business and learn to comfort himself and soon you will be sleeping through the night

Charlotte - posted on 03/08/2010

Once your son falls asleep go back into his room and watch him sleep... I did this with my daughter when she was in her own room.. We live in a 4 bedroom and she had the biggest room other then the master room.. But I decorated her room with girly flowers cute stuffed animals flower cut outs on the celing.. It looked real cute and she loved playing in there.. even though I never kept her toys in her room.. but she did have books. She had her own toddler bed and a cd player with a night light. She slept really well in there when we 1st moved here.. but about a month later she would scream and scream and scream... kick the walls.. the door.. stomp.. thrash her blankets.. throw her books every night no matter how much time I spent in her room reading to her.. snuggling with her.. she would even be asleep sometimes and I would walk out the room and she would wake right up and start screaming. I was told to leave her in her room and she would eventually go to sleep. So I tried that and she would not stop. One night it lasted until 4am and when I finally gave in I went to her room and she was all sweaty and almost in a state of shock! Never did I try that again!!! So what worked was I stayed in her room after she fell asleep and watched her to see what was going on and how she was waking up. I found out that the air vent was whistling when it kicked on.. and as soon as it came on my daughter woke up in a fright. I let her know I was there and asked what was wrong and she pointed at the celing where the air vent was and started crying. When we fixed that problem it took about a week for her to feel better about being in her room alone and she slept all night after that.

She 2 also has night terrors and I can tell the difference.. you cant really do anything about the night terrors except to let them finish and My daughter would never wake up during one so I just would go in her room when it was happening and watch her to make sure she is okay and then when she stops I pick her up and tell her that I love her and hold her for a few minutes and then put her back in bed,. she never knows she just had a night terror either. If you wake them up during one they will have another one that same night or next night so i suggest that you let your baby finish it up and then comfort him.

Ilene - posted on 03/05/2010

My daughter did the same thing. She was a terrible sleeper from day one. At age two I was done!! We set up a bed time routine like the other ladies suggested and it really did help. I also spent some time watching her sleep to figure out what was waking her up. Turns out my daughter is a wild sleeper and kept banging her head, arms, and legs into the sides of the toddler bed which was causing her to wake up. She now sleeps in a queen size bed with rails and sleeps soundly.

As for the night terrors, she did that too. It was just like you explained..NOTHING would comfort her. We would just talk calmly to her and tell her that there was nothing that could hurt her in her room. She eventually "grew out" of them. Hang in there....trust me, I NEVER thought my girl would let me get any sleep!! Good luck.

Marci - posted on 03/04/2010

I agree with Gillian, with the whole bring him back to his room as soon as he gets in your room, my son did that a lot but it seemed to work when I stopped letting him just sleep with me and my hubby. Also the night terrors I found out don't touch him, don't talk to him. Just turn on the lights put some calming music on and wait. I found that if you touch and talk to him you become part of the night terror. I hope I helped and good luck.

Lady - posted on 03/04/2010

Have you tried a very quite and sleepy bed time routine - bath followed by milky drink and a lovely story while you're both cuddled up in his bed. all the time keeping the lights low and the noise levels down. And if he wakes in the night the same thing low lights calming voice, soothing tone sitting with him repeating 'you're okay, go back to sleep, mummy's here!'. If he comes to your room the only trick I know is to take them back to their bed and keep doing it until he gets the message tha's there's no point coming to your room because your just going to take him back to his. It may take a while and you will be exahsted but in the end it would be worth it - a couple of weeks hard work for the rest of your lives worth of undisturbed nights. good luck!