My 22 Month Old Toddler Won't Stay Asleep

Hi Danielle,my name is Mary Ann and I'm going through the same thing with my 20 month old,he really did sleep better as a newborn.I wish I had some advise for you but i'm in the same boat.I keep hoping he will grow out of it soon.I work early in the morning and it's hard to get up and get him ready because he just want's to sleep and is tired.Good Luck

Danielle,
I posted one or two days ago with sort of the same situation with my 2.5 yr old son who refuses to got to bed and gets violent when left to sleep. I got 50 responses so far! I'm sorting through all of them, but you might want to look for my post and read through some of the responses, they may help. I'm still working on it myself.

Good luck!

A.

Hi Danielle H: I have/had the same exact problem - same age, too! I suffered for many nights, until a few nights ago. I don't know if it is the reason, but until I discover otherwise, I am continuing. I feed her dinner later. She is totally on solids, and we would always have dinner between 6-6:30pm. She would eat without any issue, but it was that 12-2am witching hour that I dreaded. I began feeding her after 7pm, but before 8pm. we are going on night 5 that she sleeps through the night. She would never want to eat (that I know of) when she was waking up, not even water - even though she would drink if I gave her. Again, don't know if that is the solution, but I am going to keep on until I discover otherwise. Good luck, it's such a pain.. I know, but it'll pass - eventually :)

Hi Danielle,

You may thik I am a horrible mother with my answer but here goes... we had a very similar issue with our boy who was 25 months at the time. My husband and I spent the first few nights taking turns in the hallway as he kept climbing out of bed, screaming and crying as we put him back. After the third night we decided we couldn't take it anymore. We put a lock on his bedroom door facing the hallway. We put him down for the night and told him he needed to stay in his room till morning, kissed him goodnight and locked the door. That first night was hell. He was screaming for us under the door jam. We forced ourselves to stay in bed (torture!). He fell asleep on the floor in front of the door. We felt horrible but the next night he went to bed, got up once, yelled for us and when we didn't come he got back in bed and went to sleep.

After that rough 5 days we never had another problem. He knew he had to go to bed, that was the only option. He was much happier in the long run. He is now four years old and is a great sleeper. Good Luck!

Check her ph. She might overacidic. Eliminate sugar, chocolate, sodas. Use the 80% fruits and vegetables and only 20% acid foods (everything else: cheese, bread, pasta, meat, potatoes, candy) alkaline diet.

Drinking water is a must. Should be alkaline water.

Have a 'master' Feng Shui consultant check the placement, colors, furnishings in her room. The energy flow may not be appropriate for her.

I wish I had advice for you as well; but I have a 3 year old with the same issue. She is a sleep walker and talks in her sleep. I would not be bothered it by it so much but I have a 4 month old that I co sleep with as well! So it makes life interesting. I am a stay at home mom so I guess it is easier for me to survive on little or no sleep! LOL

I have suggested to my husband a king size bed; because I am at that stage that they are only this little once and I will miss this cuddling time with her when she is a trying teenager!

I really have not advice for you as I'm still working on that with my almost 5 year old. My problem is he'll come in and I'm in such a deep sleep I won't know it until I wake up in the morning and he's in bed with me.

I really just wanted to let you know you're not alone. I do like Tiffany's advice and I've thought about it but I can't deal with the crying. Tiffany - you must be one strong woman.

WOW, this is tough. My grandson did the same thing and it took a while for him to get over it.

The real danger is the child wandering in the middle of the night.

Can you put her bed in your room for a while? Is there an activity that you can do before she goes to bed that will tire her out more? Less of a nap? My daughter did all these things with some success. Also ask you DR about it.

My daughter was the same way at that age. She is now 18.
She still has a "clock all her own." When she came into our room during the night, we also returned her to her bed after she fell back to sleep. Sometimes 2 and 3 times! Then, we kept her busy during the afternoon nap time and made sure she had lots of activity before 4:00, (such as swimming, dancing, park time, outdoor play, etc.) By 8:00 she was really ready for bed. If she did come into bed with us during the night, it wasn't nearly as often nor more than one time. We also kept books in her bed so she could read when she woke up. This may sound funny, but it worked for her. She was reading by 4 years old. She still likes a night light, too. I always have to remind myself of something and I recite it often... "This too shall pass." Helps me see the light at the end of the tunnell.

For some reason, children tend to cling to one of their former feeding times and find the last one hard to give up. Sounds like what your girl is doing. The more attention she gets during this time, the longer it will take her to give it up. I would start by not letting her stay at all in your bed (you can let her cuddle up with you in the future, but for now; you have to be tough). Pick her up immediately and put her back in bed. P. her for a bit, and let her go back to sleep. If she gets back up, repeat as necessary. If she is not getting better, a baby gate is in order. Tell her you are putting it up so you know she will be safe, and do not pick her up when she cries to get out. You should talk to her so she knows you are there, and tell her to go back to bed. Not that you will get any sleep for a few days, but after a short while, she will be fine. She may fall asleep at the gate-that's ok. Cover her up if you need to but don't put her back in bed unless you know she wont wake back up as you move her.
If its any consolation, most of us have had to go through this with at least one child. Hang in there!!

i think this is a phase i've been reading a lot of moms complaining about it and calling it FOMO.."Fear Of Missing Out"
have you tried just talking to her and explaining? i still have my 2 year old in his crib..he climbed out 3 times and never did again after i place stuffed animals all around the bottom of the crib.

So tell her big girls stay in bed if they wake up, tell her you wake up, but you don't get up unless it is to use the bathroom. Then ask her if she wants to go back to using her baby bed, if she is acting like a baby, then maybe she needs to be treated like one and use a baby bed...
Best, E. H

Hey Danielle,

I have a 2 1/2 year old son who also slept better as an infant than he does now. His sleep started changing around the 2 year old mark, and since then he goes through spurts of sleeping through the night and waking several times a night. From talking with other moms of slightly older kids, they've experienced the same thing. My gathering is that this is totally normal for this stage in their lives. For me, at this point, it's often due to my son having dreams that wake him up. As their minds grow, so do their imaginations. What I'm trying to say is that for now it's possible that sleep habits are going to be changing regularly and you really just have to switch it up and find something new that works... maybe even on a nightly basis. Here are a couple of ideas that we have done to transition to this new phase:

Let him fall asleep in our bed, then transfer him to his bed.

Sit on the floor in his room with my back to him so he'd see I was still close.

Bought a HoMedics sound machine / projecting night light at Linens N Things (this has really been great).

Walk him back to his room at night (even if he opposes this idea) and if need be, sleep in his bed so he knows this is where he is supposed to sleep.

I hope some of these ideas help you. Sleep and I are best friends, so I understand your frustration!
Take care,
M.

My son is almost 3 years old and I have been dealing with him not sleeping since the day he was born. I am not sure how to help you bc my son I just make him stay in his bed even if he is awake. and now he lays there whenever he wakes up. he eventually goes back to sleep. I do however began letting him have a sippy cup in his bed and a couple of books. If he wakes up he plays with them for a little while and goes back to bed.

Hi Danielle,
I continue to struggle with this dilemma myself. Since my husband travels a lot I'm left home with our 2 daughters ( a 4 yr old who sleeps through the night and my 19 month old who seems to wake up multiple times during the night). For my own sanity I take the easy way out and allow her to climb into bed with me (or me and my husband when he's home) and once she falls asleep I move her to her toddler bed. Normally, this will do the trick and she'll stay in her bed the rest of the night. Sometimes I fall asleep right alongside her so I'm sure she fells that this will be a nightly occurrence. I know I'm going to pay for it later when she gets old enough to understand that she can't come to mama and papa's bed but I feel as though I'll jump that hurdle when I get to it. It's true what they say about not sleeping enough once you have kids but I love them and wouldn't trade it for the world. Good luck to you.

WELCOME TO MY LIFE!!!!!! Just wait it out... my daughter did the same thing... and now is getting better.. she started waking up 3 times a night.. and now it's down to one

I can relate to your situation as my daughter learned to climb out of her crib about that age and also was not sleeping through the night. She was in a toddler bed a week before turning 2 and started sleeping through the night about 2 months after that. I was afraid that she would quickly realize with this new bed that she could come into our room at will (but now my infant was cosleeping so there was no mre room!)so we were just sure not to allow her to get into the bed with us and dh and I would take turns to get her back to her bed. During this time we also were trying to help her learn how to fall asleep on her own at night. Maybe two weeks after the new toddler bed we got a pressure gate to go in the doorjam of her room. She would come out of her room sometimes after we left her to go to sleep (not crying, but curious what else was still going on) so if we'd already taken her back twice we told her the third time we'd have to close the gate. She also understood that we could hear her on the monitor so if she truly needed us (like go pee-pee on the toilet) she could call for us and not come out of her room. I liked the idea of the gate better than locking the door because I think she wouldn't feel trapped but at the same time she didn't want the gate to be closed so she would cooperate. I believe we only closed the gate twice when she did not cooperate and we'd still go in if she was obviously at the gate crying to help her back to bed. There have been a handful of times in the past 4 months (she is now 2 1/2) where she has woken in the middle of the night and needed us, either feeling ill or cold or something, so I am glad that she has the option to come to our room when in need. Hopefully with a variety of responses you'll find the mix that works for you and your family! Good luck.

Hey Danielle,
My son is 23 months and recently started doing the same thing. The only difference is: we have a babygate at his doorway so that he cannot escape in the middle of the night. He has not mastered the skill of climbing over it yet. My 3yr old did the same thing at that age. We would go in and check on him and see if there was anything wrong (ex: could not find his lovies) and if everything seemed OK..we could remind him it was time for sleeping. He usually cried when we left the room. We would let him cry for 5 minutes, then go back and tell him it was time for sleeping. Then we would go back and check 10min.later if he was still crying and bump it up 5 minutes every time after that until he eventually fell asleep. It would usually take a couple of nights of doing this but it worked. Hope this helps a bit.

I went thru the same thing. 1st watch her diet.....no juice candy sugar of any kind after 3pm. GET A BABY GATE. It's hard to do this but this is what worked for us.
Do her routine as usual maybe even make the routine a little longer. Do a massage, read more books. Then put her in her bed as usual and close the gate. Not the door just the gate.
No the hard part begins. tTell her it's time to go to bed. And go downstairs. Let her cry. Go back up in 20min and put her back in bed and tell her it's time to sleep. then wait 30 min.....(screaming) go back up put her in be d tell her it's time to sleep, i love you and leave again. Continue this until she is asleep. Adding 10 min each time. It is a horrible experience and I had to go sit outside to deal with the crying. I did this for 3 nights!! It worked and she has been in her bed every night since asleep by 830pm. Amen.
Try it, but the babygate was key and it's still on her room 2yrs later and uses it to keep her twin brother and sister out of her room. Good luck! I cried but I now sleep everynight!!