3 Year Old Waking at Night

I agree with Deborah below. Pray with your son before he goes to bed, make it part of your night routine. Is he going to bed at the same time? That is important also! Read him a short book, let him pick it out.
Pray with him and tuck him into bed. I have an almost 13 yr old who still loves for me to tuck him into bed! He loves for me to pray with him, cuddle him, kiss him and cover him up. Besure and tell him you love him just before you turn off the light! Prayer is vital.

we are currently going through this with our 2 1/2 year old girl (will be 3 in june). although she's not usually waking in a panic, she does wake crying sometimes and won't go back to sleep for 2-3 hours. we have taken out tv (except for maybe 1 30 minute show every 3 or 4 days...sometimes not even that often). i try to give her a short nap mid morning/lunchtime-ish most days, but not all. we keep a pretty consistent bedtime routine. i think part of her issue is we have a 4 1/2 month old and she's still adjusting to that and not getting the attention she used to. we also watch what she eats. no artificial anything and minimal to no sugar. it seems to help. if she gets overtired or overstimulated we usually have a rough night.
hope that helps. remember it won't last long and pray. that's what gets us through it.
blessings,
A.

I agree about praying. One of my kids would have terrible dreams and wake me up over and over. This is tough on me b/c I also wake up to feed the nursing baby so I would pray BEFORE he went to sleep for peaceful sleep and GOOD dreams that they would hear God singing over them (Zephaniah 3:17). Then one of my other sons started saying that the angels were playing w/him when he was asleep so I started asking him the next day what he did w/his angels. One of his brothers (I have 4 boys) would get jealous of him and say, "I wish I got to play w/ the angels too!"

Also, monitor what they are watching. What seems fine for you may scare the daylights out of your kids! i sometimes tell them that they can't watch it b/c it will give them bad dreams. Just don't get mad at him and scold him. Teach him that he can pray when he is scared and that God will listen to him. That also helped my kids too. It WILL get better. Hang in there!

Blessings,
M.
Mom to 5 Wonderful Kids
www.4MyChildrenSake.com
Moms Helping Moms work from Home
Attitudes are contagious; is yours worth catching?

Our son is about the age of your son, maybe slightly older (he'll be 4 in July), and we went through the same thing right after he turned 3. We couldn't find out a reason, but some things that helped were leaving on a night light, and sticking to a very stringent bedtime and bedtime routine. There should be some time before he goes to bed that he has to relax... a warm bath, reading books quietly, saying a prayer, whatever it is that you establish in your routine.

Both of our kids went through this stage, and all we could do was make sure that their bedtime was as consistent as we could make it. I know it's tough, but stick it out, you'll get through it!

My son, who is also 3, had night tremors for a long time. We were told that after he had been asleep for about an hour or two to gently nudge him. This would pull him from his deepest sleep and essentially bypass the tremors. I don't know if this was "medically proven" but it did work for us. We do this everynight and he has not had a night tremor in 6 months. He also sleeps well and usually for about 12 hours if we don't wake him. The one night my husband and I had a miscommunication about who was going to "nudge" him, he had one. We haven't forgotten since!

Prayer works!!! My daughter is 2 1/2 and she hates going to bed. Every shadow scares her and she will wake up during the night screaming her little head off (she shares a room with her 18 mo old brother- so I run to her rescue so she doesn't wake him). When she wakes up we pray that Jesus will keep her safe, and she is comforted by that and goes back to sleep. I think its a comfort thing. We don't know what goes on in their little heads. Its probably alot more than you think. Just speaking Jesus' name in the room will quiet his spirit. Try it, it really does work.

Have a great day!

D. Mattern-Muck
The MOM Team
Raise your income and your rugrats at the same time.
www.formyrugrats.com
"The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6