That posting I made a couple weeks ago about Paige sleeping through the night backfired on me. We have had such a rough week with her sleeping, I need medication (or a LOT of Starbucks). She is now getting up for about an hour and a half to two hours every night for the last four nights or so in the MIDDLE of the NIGHT. Usually I can expect her antics around 1am or 2 am in the morning. So she’s getting about 5-6 hours of great sleep, up for about 2 hours, then back to sleep for an additional 2-3 hours. She is killing me. So our new thing has evolved from our old thing.
Our old thing: Wake up crying/screaming/usually saying “Mommy come back”. Stand in front of Drew’s room or in the doorway to her own room until I go get her.
Our new thing: (probably after me grilling her during her old phase to tell me what’s wrong) Wake up crying/ moaning/usually saying either “Mommy come back” or “Mommy need to go pee pee in potty”. Well this seems pretty straightforward, right? Take her to the potty, let her stay dry, then go back to bed. I take her to the potty, she normally goes! I go back to bed only to have her start the whole process about five more times. Do I tell her, “no Paige, even though you’re telling me you have to pee, you’ve already gone about five times in the last hour and this is just a game that only you are playing and it’s not fun for Mommy?”. She can’t take herself to the potty yet, normally we help her on and off the potty and to pull down her clothes and pull them back up. Though on occasion, she will strip down and take herself. In the middle of the night in the dark without her glasses I just feel more comfortable helping her to the potty, but not if she’s going to ABUSE me. I keep wondering if she’s getting too much sleep because I know lots of parents who stop naps around 2 or 2 1/2. I know other parents who let their kids sleep until they are 4 or so, I guess it just depends on the kid. But in my mind if she’s sleeping one or two hours during the day and up for one or two hours in the middle of the night…maybe it’s time to drop the nap?? I don’t know. I hate having these constant sleeping issues with Paige. The boys just go to sleep and you don’t hear a peep out of them until morning (except if they are sick or if Cole has a bellyache, but that’s pretty rare.). I love that. In my mind that’s how it should be…tuck them in, see you in the morning when we’re all rested. I also think what about people who live in split floor plans? Do they just go to bed not worrying whether or not they’re kids are up crying on the other side of the house? Am I making myself too available to Paige? Should I start closing my door? Would that mess her up even more?
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My son went through this when he was younger. It didn’t last as long but my doctor told me they were night terrors. I would let him cry as long as I could stand it. It was simply a phase and he out grew it. Is this every night? or is it nights when she has had a long or short nap? She may be getting too much sleep or not enough. Just some thoughts. Hoping you get a restful nights sleep soon
I think cutting the nap down to 1 hour, then 45 minutes, then half an hour…. Its what I had to do with my boy, or he’d stay up till 2am. Good luck. My almost 2 year old gets up 2-3 times a night on GOOD nights. On bad nights, its once an hour.
I’m really sorry to hear about the “setback”. Does she get stressed out at bedtime, like she’s antsy and on some level fears or expects she’ll have a mid-sleep episode? If she does, I still have nothing to offer for help, I’m only curious. I have my own sleeping issues to deal with! Related to an earlier post by Eric, how much time do you all think Moxie has left?
Nooooooooooo. It’s not the nap. Mine still nap and they are almost five. In fact, they are napping right now. At 2 1/2, they slept 12.5 hours at night, 7:30-8am, and took a 2-2.5 hour nap. So they got 14.5 hours of sleep total per day. Now at almost five, they get about 11-12 total per day.
She’s not getting enough sleep. No way. Something else is wrong. I don’t know what, but I wouldn’t cut the nap. She needs it.
Val - I think you actually worry about the dog more than the kids.
Ahh, the familiar ‘one step forward, two steps back’….by the way, an unnecessary nap would explain a late bedtime but not waking up often at nigh. Is it possible she fears wetting the bed? Did you put a waterproof pad under her sheets and told her about it?
Have you tried putting a potty chair in her room so you don’t have to take her?
If she really had the sensation that she needs to pee over and over, maybe it is a urinary tract infection. It is worth checking out at least. We have mostly dropped naps and my son is 2.5. He also wakes very frequently at night screaming, but days that he doesn’t have a nap he tends to sleep more soundly at night.
I thought it might be a UTI at first as well, but UTI’s are pretty rare and she doesn’t have any of the symptons. Combined that with the fact she only does this at night and is perfectly fine during the day when it comes to peeing, it’s just another manipulation tactic she’s trying to pull because she knows we come running if she says she has to pee. Man she is good.
Kids of just about all ages will try to exert some control over their lives. Face it, they really don’t have a lot of things they can control. I’d make the interactions as brief and non-communicative as possible. Let her know that she and you both need your sleep to be happy and healthy (discuss this in the day time.) You may find as you discuss her waking up at night in the daylight hours that she has no memory of waking. Without being too harsh, let her know that sleeping through the night is a good thing, praise the boys in front of her if necessary. Hopefully she’ll be back to a full night sleep soon. As far as being related to the nap, try to keep a simple log, how long naps are (notate on a handy calendar to make it easy), then the next morning note whether she woke that night and for how long. See if there is a correlation. If your interaction during the wee hours is brief and non-rewarding to her, hopefully she’ll come to realize sleeping through is much better.
I have room in my heart for all of you, there’s no need to prioritse (that’s how they spell that here, I’m trying to get used to it)…sooooo what’s the answer about Mox?
Val - sorry, I think you do prioritse things, first comes dogs, then the kids. Just agree with me and I’ll tell you about Moxie.